Who Are Mattie & Maude?

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is a cut above the normal, everyday “excursion train” experience.  An honest-to-goodness full service railroad, it carries mainly passengers from Durango to Silverton and back, and also picks up and delivers hikers, bikers, and others along the way.  They do that because for a good chunk of their right-of-way, there is no way to access those hiking trails, camping sites, etc. that are along the Animas River, except by train.  They even sell passes for those who take advantage of those rides to and from civilization.

The passenger service is all steam-powered, using coal that is mined just a few miles from Durango.  The coal is shoveled by hand into the boiler by an honest-to-goodness fireman, and water stops are done a couple of times each direction, using old-time water tanks that are kept full by the natural mountain streams that are in the area.

During those stops, the engineer checks out the engine and oils and lubes joints, etc.  The conductor walks to the rear of the train and acts as flagman should another train come our way (per railroad rules).  And we passengers all wait a few minutes while the engine tender is refilled with water and then continues on its way.

The railroad does have diesel engines.  They also have freight cars and, I presume, haul freight to some of the wide spots along the line.  They employ about 280 people during the peak tourist summer months, and about 80 year-round.  Being a narrow gauge line, the cars and engines are a little smaller than the “regular” railroad equipment, but function in the same way.  The gauge of a railroad is the distance between the tracks.  The gauge of the D & S is 3 feet.  “Regular gauge is 4 feet, 8 ½ inches.  If you’d like to know more about the D & S railroad, Wiki has a good article on it.

Along the 45 mile trip to Silverton, we passed through the Animas River valley, into steep cuts into the sides of mountains, and through some grassy areas that had a building or two, campsites, or livestock.  The scenery was spectacular, and the trip was well worth it.  After about 3 ½ hours, we chugged into Silverton.  The tracks go right up a street into the main tourist area of town.  We got off and walked the approximate one block to our hotel, the Grand Imperial Hotel in Silverton.

Classy, recently remodeled, yet with the old charm of slightly uneven floors, antique woodwork, antique furniture, and that “elegant” smell, we checked in and were helped by a gracious clerk who carried our bag to our room (29 steps to the second floor…no elevator), and showed us around a bit.  There was a restaurant/saloon attached to the hotel, so we took our evening meal there after we wandered the streets of Silverton awhile.

The next morning, we found a breakfast and lunch eatery…Mattie & Maud’s.  We never saw Mattie or Maud; rather, a somewhat rotund older gentleman in suspenders and ordinary garb met us as we came in and told us to order at the counter…then find a place to sit.  We ordered our breakfast and waited a bit.  He brought out, after a few minutes, a good meal, and we enjoyed our time there.  The guy may be on to something…no wait staff…just cooks, himself, and a dishwasher.  Maybe Mattie and Maud are in the back counting the money…

We toured more of the town and had a sandwich lunch in a restaurant that was, until 1947, a house of prostitution.  The sandwiches were fine…prices were a little high everywhere in Silverton.  And service there and elsewhere was good to excellent.  We tipped well most of the time.

Our train left at 1:30pm.  We made sure we were there in plenty of time, and boarded the train in the same car we rode in to Silverton.

Here We Come, Durango!

Yesterday, I started telling of our trip to Colorado.  I’ll continue on here, by starting at Trinidad.

After we stopped at Kim to use the restroom in the church building, we arrived in Trinidad.  We spent the night there in a motel, then dressed for church on Sunday.  Services were like one would expect in a typical, conservative Church of Christ.  People were friendly and thepreaching and singing were good.

The preacher started talking about patterns in the New Testament, and I was wondering where he would go with that.  He used that as a way to talk about the plan of salvation and the fact that we can easily see commonality in the New Testament when we read about the various conversions.  I hadn’t really thought about it in that way before, but he has a point.

Durango was our next stop.  We had motel reservations there for Sunday night and the train trip would be Monday morning.  Taking somewhat longer than we had thought, we arrived in Durango before the train station closed for the evening.  We picked up our tickets with no problems, and headed for the motel.  I visited with the motel clerk for a few minutes, who told me that we got a good deal on our room rate, as he was renting the remaining few rooms they had that day for $190 a pop.  We didn’t pay nearly that much for ours.  I can’t imagine almost $200 a day for a motel room that was average to good, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Arising the next morning, we made our way to the complimentary breakfast area.  What a pleasant surprise to find a man “manning” the area constantly, and even cooking eggs to order (over easy, scrambled, etc).  The food was tasty, and the bacon strips almost had two sides.

We went to the train station, parked in the railroad lot (eight dollars a day), and walked to the depot.  We were a little early…the train before us was just leaving.  We would have about a 45 minute wait to leave.

I will tell you now that I was impressed all through our experience with the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad with how much they emphasized safety, maintenance, and inspection.  There were maintenance guys on each side of the departing trains watching the undercarriages of each car as they went by.  There were crews on the tracks, and a crew in a motorcar that followed us for a long while.  Our staffer in our car explained that they were there to watch for anomalies in the track and roadbed.

With about 30 minutes to go before departure, we boarded our car.  We bought first class tickets, and rode in the end car.  That meant we were able to use the platform on the rear of the car for observation, and we had a reserved table for us in the car.  The staffer, Chad, was there to see to our needs, provide complimentary water and soft drinks, and answer our questions.  He also told about the various places of interest as we passed by.  He knew the route by heart, because he didn’t have to do much looking out of the window to know where we were.

For the first few minutes, it was just Chad and us.  We talked easily, and Chad welcomed each of the passengers as they came on board.  Finally, it was time to go.  We left on time for our 3-hour (and some) trip to Silverton where we would spend the night in the Grand Hotel.

Next time, I’ll tell you a little about the railroad itself, and get us to Silverton.

How Do You Spell RELIEF?

It has been a pleasant nine days away from work, seeing sights we’ve never seen before and encountering people we’ve never met before.  We took a trip to Western and Northern Colorado last week, an area we’ve never been to before now.  Oh, we’ve been to Colorado.  But we’ve been in the Colorado Springs/Denver area almost exclusively, and had no idea what the west slope looked like.  So we decided to go.

Heading West out of Wichita on Highway 54 on Saturday morning, we traveled to Bucklin, then headed cross-country to meet up with Highway 160 north of Sublette.  We would take this road all the way to our first major destination, Durango.  However, we had a stop for lunch in Ulysses first.

We decided that we would try to eat at places we normally wouldn’t be able to patronize in Wichita.  That meant no McDonalds, Applebees, or other chains.  So in Ulysses, we drove downtown a bit and found a Mexican place on the west side of the street.  Going in, we found most tables empty, and found a comfortable spot.

The wait people were helpful, and the place was clean.  The food was excellent.  In fact, I told the waitress that the food truck that delivered Mexican food to all the restaurants in Wichita did NOT stop in Ulysses for a delivery.  Homemade everything, it appeared, including the refried beans.

The land changed noticeably from about Ulysses on to our intermediate overnight destination of Trinidad.  Drier, more arid, and much less tilled agriculture became the norm.  The distance between towns (or wide spots in the road) became greater as well.

Leaving Walsh, we went on for awhile, but as we went, both of us needed to find some facilities to use.  In that part of the country, there isn’t a Quick Stop around every corner, and even wide spots in the road don’t have more than a few old buildings  and maybe a post office.  We headed into Kim, Colorado, both of us needing to find a place to stop.  We were disappointed that there were only about a dozen buildings in the entire community, and no commercial ventures of any kind.

As we went through (it only took about 30 seconds to go from one end to the other), we noticed a Church of Christ on the East side of the road and a house beside it.  Thinking the house was a parsonage, I had an idea.  Turning around, I parked in front and knocked on the door of the house.  A man answered.

“Excuse me,” I said tentatively, but with some confidence.  “We’re members of the church from Wichita, Kansas, and we are needing to find a restroom.”

The man pointed to the building and said, “The doors are unlocked.  You can go there.  We keep them unlocked so people have a place to go.”

I thanked him and we both found relief in the building, which was older, but adequate.  I then went to the front of the building, found the offering plates under the communion table, and left $10 in the plate.  Going on our way, we found Trinidad and our motel about an hour later.

More on the trip later.  But for now, I want you to remember the tiny church in Kim, Colorado, and their ministry of an open door (literally) to allow people to find physical as well as spiritual relief.  May God bless them.

I'm Better Now

Today has been an emotionally draining day for me.  I won’t go into detail about it, except to say that humanity has pretty well screwed up the planet as well as itself over the generations.  There are so-obvious signs of that everywhere one looks…it’s like looking at a train wreck that never gets cleaned up.

I needed some assurance this afternoon that things weren’t all doom and gloom.  Normally, you might, as a Christian tell me, another Christian, to open my Bible and read some passage from it.  Something out of Job or perhaps the Beatitudes.  Or maybe it would be something that Paul wrote…Romans 8 for example, or Ephesians 1.

I didn’t do that.  Instead, I opened my browser and clicked to YouTube.  I found two videos and watched them.  I came away from that experience with a fresh attitude and an assurance that things aren’t all bad.

What were the videos?

The first one I watched was a performance of the last arias in Handel’s Messiah.  They are performed together and are known as “Worthy/Amen.”  The words to “Worthy” are these:  “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain; and hath redeemed us to God by His blood.  To receive power and wisdom and riches and strength and honor and glory and blessing!  Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him, be unto Him; that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb!  Forever and ever!!”

The words to Amen are just one:  “AMEN.”  The numbers go on for over seven minutes, and are some of the most glorious music I’ve ever heard or sung.

The second video?  That was watching the broadcast of the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon, as recorded by CBS and Walter Cronkite & Wally Schirra.  Why that one?  That one event, almost 50 years ago now, was the single most unifying, stupefying, incredible, and indescribable event of my lifetime.  It portrays all that is good about mankind…resourcefulness, ingenuity, guts, passion, drive, intelligence, and commonality.  The landing was the product of armies of people working together, galvanizing behind a common goal for the common good in a time when many were convinced the world was going to hell in a handbasket.

And another thing about the landing…it was on public display for all to see…successful or not.  It was broadcast in real time.  The communications between the spacecraft and the ground were broadcast in real time.  The whole world would know if those men would live to return to earth or die trying.  There’s something special about a nation that will hang its laundry out for all to see…as it happens…in real time…in an event never before attempted and fraught with danger to human beings.  There’s something about a nation that will allow the world to see what democracy and an open society look like and how it operates…warts and all…the good and the bad.

I’m better now.  I can finish the day now.  I can talk with the woman who will be coming to the office in a few minutes to ask me if we can help her with her electric bill…her power has been shut off for non-payment.  I can go home and be at peace with whatever I see on the news.  I can bear the aches and pains of osteo-arthritis and older age.  Because I know that it isn’t all bad…it isn’t all downhill.  God IS.  God LOVES.  God CARES.  And we STILL live in the absolute best place on the planet.

Look at the Calendar

Every year, either in late December or very early January, I open EXCEL and call up my calendar template.  It’s one that I downloaded years ago that will create a 12 month calendar on a single sheet of paper for any year.  For example, I know that July 4, 1776 was on a Saturday.  One used to be able to determine particular days of the week by use of a perpetual calendar that consisted of tables where you would look up a certain date on a table to find the day of the week.  Now, all you have to do is enter the year and the spreadsheet automatically calculates an entire year calendar in about 1 gillionth of a second.

I’ve been creating these calendars, in one form or another, to hang up at my home office (and sometimes at my work office) for about as many years as I’ve had EXCEL (20 or more).  I’ve known how to work spreadsheets since before that, and learned on the old “SMART” system of word processing, spreadsheet, and database.  That system is, I think, still available, by the way.

Oh, back to the calendar!  Just as I have for many years, when January 1 rolled around this year, I created yet another calendar and taped it to the storage area above my home desk.  I didn’t think much of it then, but as I sit here now looking at it, I am reminded of times long ago when I wondered what the year 2000 would be like, and couldn’t fathom the year 2016.  I was just a boy then back in the ‘50s and early ‘60s, and dreams of futuristic space travel, time travel, personal aircraft, and meals in a pill were all the rage.

As I look back on those years, and compare what I was thinking might be with how it really is, I see that some things came true, some are nowhere to be found, and other things exist now that weren’t even conceived of back then.  Some things have stayed relatively constant over the years.  Other things have taken quantum leaps in technology.

I look at the calendar for 2016 and can hardly believe that I am really here.  It seems so far removed from 1958,, yet there is something there that ties the two together in a way that is indescribable.  For that matter, the year 2000 seems to be far, far away.

I know that I have at most about 18 to 20 years left, assuming good health and lack of stupid accidents.  I don’t yet know if I’ll have dementia or not.  I don’t yet know if I’ll have a heart attack or not.  Shoot, I don’t yet know if I’ll survive this day or not!

We live in so much uncertainty regarding the future that it’s a wonder that we can function at all.  We think we know what we’re going to do today and how we’re going to be able to retire tomorrow, and when we will see our grandkids next, but do we really know that stuff?  Or are we just making plans, hoping for the best?  Just as I couldn’t fathom the year 2016 back in 1958, even so I can not fathom what the next hours or days will bring.  At some point, I must rely on something bigger than I am to keep me on an even keel and not go nuts with worry, questions, and doubt.  At some point, I must find something solid I can hang my hat upon, and trust it to carry me through what I don’t know and can’t know.

I know that something should be the God of heaven and earth.  But is it?  Is it really?  Do I really put my trust and faith in Him, or do I put it in medications to control blood pressure, the fact that I was able to get out of bed this morning and carry out my usual routine, annual doctor visits, my inability to see day-to-day changes in the mirror, and an attitude of benign denial that time is moving ever so quickly to the end of that 18 to 20 years?  Where do I really put my trust as I look again at the 2016 calendar hanging on my desk?

No Surpirse

In reading a book written by Darryl Tippens today (“Pilgrim Heart…The Way of Jesus in Everyday Life”), I was drawn to the old hymn written by John Greenleaf Whittier in the later 1800’s.  It’s always been a favorite of mine.  I’ll give you the two verses that are most pertinent to my blog today.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways;
reclothe us in our rightful mind, in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence, praise.

Drop thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.

Tippens was talking in the chapter I read about the Sabbath rest and how much it is needed even in our modern culture.  No, he’s not talking about some rigid following of rules regarding how far we can walk or whether we can bake bread or not.  He’s not even talking about Sunday as opposed to other days of the week.

He’s saying that we all need to take a break…to slow down…to contemplate, pray, meditate, and think.  Whether we do that in 10 minute increments during a busy day, or whether we take an entire day or afternoon, we need the rest and refreshment that comes from a Sabbath.

Most of us are defined by our work and by how productive we are at our work.  When we are introduced to someone for the first time, following their name we usually want to know their occupation or former occupation (if retired).  And if you’ve been out of work for any time at all, you know that you feel a little disjointed when meeting someone because you have no occupation to give.

We also are defined by our productivity.  Perhaps you were responsible for the building of a hospital, or you constructed something of importance.  Maybe you created a non-profit organization or you developed a working method of service to others.  You might be someone who has written a popular piece of music or you’ve been part of a renowned choir or orchestra.  Perhaps you have taught hundreds of 4^th grade students and have seen many of them go on to be a great success in life.  You may have developed a new procedure in heart surgery or created a new mode of transportation.  Whatever, the list is endless, and we are all defined by what we do and what we’ve done in life.

“But”, says Whittier, “Forgive our foolish ways.  Reclothe us in our rightful minds.  Take from our souls the strain and stress.  Let our ordered lives confess the beauty of Thy peace.”

How incredibly awesome are these words!  I can feel the stress melting away just repeating these lines in my head…and I love to sing them aloud!  I’m beginning to know the beauty of the peace of God in letting up, letting go, and quieting down.  I’m finding times and ways to have a Sabbath during the days and during the evenings.  And I am becoming more calm and serene as a result.  Things that seem to delay me in life don’t seem to bother me as much as before.  People that get in the way don’t seem to evoke the kind of emotions that used to come over me.

I have a long way to go.  I still treat driving in traffic as a game of “Who can be first?” more often than I would like.  I still get perturbed in the checkout line when the lady gets out her checkbook (yes they still have those things) and begins writing AFTER all has been checked.  And I still consider myself defined by my vocation and not by who I am and by Whose I am.  As I said, I have a long way to go.

But with time and the grace of God, I will get there.  There will come a time when I will have no choice but to be quiet, to wait, and to slow down.  I don’t want that to come as a shock and surprise.