Chris, Autumn, Brittany & Braxton Fagan September 5,2010

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Plains Trains & Automobile

Greetings Friends!!! My is it HOT here in southen Arkansas!! Praise the Lord for air conditioning!! We are all doing really good. Enjoying this special time of year where the kids get to be home with us! Brittany gets to sleep in, which she loves, almost as much as her brother loves waking her up ;) Braxton has eased up on the Mario play. It is not constant any more! The kids play in Braxtons room alot. Sometimes we may not see them for a couple hours before they emerge and let me know they are hungry, thirsty etc. We are so blessed to have kids that get along so well!!
     Three weeks ago on a Wednesday morning Chris and I got to talking and decided to head out on a road trip. We left out that same Wednesday! I got the bills payed up, put the mail on hold, took care of some other bussiness and we headed out! Braxton kept asking, "how is it today?" We were all use to well planned out trips. That has nothing to do with my OCD tendicies I'm sure! :) It was really fun to be spontaneous though!! No schedule, no time frame just what ever we wanted to do when we wanted to do it. We have only been on one other trip with just us and our kids, two years ago we got to go to Hershey Pennsylvania.
      We knew that we wanted to go out to Colorado where our aunt & uncle manage a campground. Our first night was spennt in Oaklahoma City, then next was somewhere in the Texas panhandle. Then we headed to Chama, New Mexico. We spend two nights in Chama. Chama is about 35 miles from Aspen Glade Campground that Larry an Betty Harmon manage. New Mexico is beautiful!! The kids and I had never been out west so we got to see some neat things. I knew we were gettting into some beautiful country when the kids put down their DS's and started looking out the window!
    The evening we arrived in Chama, Betty & Larry came to visit us at our hotel. The next day we headed out to their campground for a relaxing day of picnicking!
On the drive to Aspen Glade I took this shot. See the SNOW!
Braxton wanted to play in said snow. He just didn't know why I would
not drive him up to it! :)

Larry & Betty Harmon (Betty is my Mom's sister)
Their campground is on the Conejos River. It is fully supplied by snow melt.
Braxton was ready to go swimming! After stepping into the 54 degrees
water he changed his mind pretty quick! The water was clear, cold & absolutely beautiful.
Betty and Larry have several "pet" chipmunks around their camp. The kids
loved them!! They eat scraps and will let you get pretty close to them.

We found a cabin to stay in closer to Betty & Larrys camp, in Mongote, Colorado, Mongote Meadows RV park. We rented a small cabin for a couple of nights. They had a laundry mat right by our cabin so that was great. We only had four outfits each so I was able to get our clothes washed up. The cabin was small & inexpensive. But it meet our needs just fine. The kids had a bedroom with two twin size beds, Chris had a room with a full size bed and I slept on the couch. We could not sit outside on the cabin porch though. The place was infested with mosquitios! I mean infested!!

The cool tourist thing in this area is the Cumbress Toltec Scenic Railroad. Braxton really wanted to ride the train. But for the four of us to ride would have been $300. Luckily, Larry knows alot about the railroad, so we got a good railroad experience without the hefty price tag. We took a 4X4 adventure with Betty and Larry to see the Osier Station where the trains stop and the passengers get to eat lunch. We loaded up in the Harmon's Nissan 4 wheel drive. Chris & Larry took the front, the kids Betty and I rode in the back. We had a great view of the mountains and the wild life. We got to eat a great lunch at Osier station, it was built in the 1800's. Braxton got an upclose look at the trains.

We snuck into another train crossing where we got to put some pennies to smash on the tracks.

Brittany is displaying our smashed coins


This was taken from the bed of the 4X4

The next day we took a less bumpy trip. We went to see another train crossing, right off the paved road. Our little train enthuist got to see the old steam train fill up with water.

Notice Braxton walking on the tracks, even after he had been told
several times to stay off. He just had to see up close!


The Harmon's then showed us around the camp ground they had managed the previous two years. Trujillio Meadows. It had a beautiful waterfall

We struggled with were to head after Colorado. We really wanted to go up to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.  But that is alot of driving for one person and we only had so much money to spend. So we decided we would head to Branson, Missouri. One of the kids favorite places. We headed back towards New Mexico. We got to stay at a Quailty Inn in New Mexico for free, because the choice hotel group had a special promotion going. Stay 2 nights get a 3rd night free. So that was a perk. It was a cool hotel with a pool, hot tub and playground. Kids loved it!

The next night we made it to Oaklahoma City. We got to stay with our cousins Steve, Crystal & Oakley Caruthers. We all had a great time with them!! We ordered out pizza for dinner and got to have a great visit! 
Then we were off to Branson. My first stop was Branson Tourism Center. They have the best deals that I have found. I booked our hotel, got our Silver Dollar City & show tickets all through them and got a great package deal.
We had show tickets to Hamner Barber. It was pretty funny! Magic and comedy.
The next day we got to go to Silver Dollar City. Braxton LOVED Gyser Gulch, or as he called it the ball pit!
Saturday we shopped at Branson landing then got to watch the final Harry Potter movie that night on the IMAX screen.
Sunday we got to go back to Silver Dollar City. We where there from 9 am till 6 pm. It was GREAT way to end our vacation!!!


We have been home for over a week now and we have been thinking about our next adventure...... what shall it be?!?

God bless You all! Hope you are having a great a summer as we are!!!
Love, The Fagan's

 

2 comments:

  1. Great commentary and wonderful photos ! Can I post a link to your blog on our Blog ?
    Larry & Betty

    ReplyDelete