The Road Goes On…

2015 Southern US

  • Chama, New Mexico

    Pepsi had the day off today while we rode the Cumbres and Toltec steam train from Chama, New Mexico to Antonito, Colorado. The train line was built in 1880 to extend an existing rail line from Denver to the silver rich mountains near Silverton, Colorado. These days it is a national historic landmark and the longest, highest and most complete example of late 19th and early 20th century narrow gauge railroading in the U.S.

    What a treat it was to see the steam and smoke from the engines! We arrived early and took pictures prior to departure and were allowed to freely roam along the tracks.

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    We rode in the Parlour car and were served a fruit plate as soon as we boarded.

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    Our adventure began and we quickly crossed the bridge close to our campground and waved to our fellow campers who had assembled for the passing of the train.

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    The trip from Chama climbs a 4% grade and the engine needs to work very hard to pull the train up the mountain. Many curves gave great photo opportunities.

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    We were in the last car and walked up to the locomotive and were rained on by hot bits of coal. It was like being sand blasted. The train stopped briefly while the water tank was refilled. The tank can hold 5,000 gallons of water.

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    Lunch was included in the fare and was at Osier, roughly in the middle of the 64 mile trip. There were lots of choices and the food was tasty and the service on the train and in the restaurant was great. The commissioner of the railway was also on our trip and seemed happy with how things were going.

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    After lunch it was all downhill – at least with the train. We passed through a beautiful 600ft canyon, saw some antelope and had a great rum cake as an afternoon snack. We arrived in Antonito at 4:45pm and two busses were waiting to take us back to Chama.

    This stream train trip is definitely recommended!

  • Chama, New Mexico to Newton, Kansas

    It has really difficult to depart from Chama, not only because it was fun riding and hearing the steam trains, but knowing that from now on it would be a long haul home.

    As a treat we were able to hear, see and photograph today’s steam train trip as it passed by our campground and later the road we travelled on. We even made a video of the steam train chugging up the mountain.

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    We drove non-stop to Newton, Kansas, stopping only for gas and a quick lunch in the parking lot of a closed Italian restaurant. While having lunch, a man walked by the van glaring at us and mumbling something which made us decide lunch was over.

    We stayed at the Newton, Kansas Walmart for the night.

  • Newton Kansas to Cloverdale, Indiana

    Wow, US states just fly by when you’re on the Interstate and there isn’t much to see. We decided to make this a pure driving day to make it as close as possible to Indianapolis for a visit with Kevin Raber tomorrow.

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    Our campground for the night was interesting to say the least. It was a tucked away, old, treed park with inhabitants who seem to have lived there in their decrepit, permanently parked trailers for a long time. The bathrooms were old as well, but we were happy to smell the bleach when we entered the facilities.

  • Cloverdale, Indiana to Dundas, Ontario

    This morning we were all excited to go to Indianapolis to see Kevin Raber again and visit his new gallery. We’ve known Kevin since our 2009 Antarctica trip and our PODAS trips to Death Valley and Iceland. Kevin used to be the Vice President of Phase One USA and is now the CEO of Luminous Landscape, a great online resource for photographers.

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    Kevin has a lovely gallery/workspace in the Stutz building in downtown Indianapolis. Stutz was a car manufacturer and some of the historic cars are on display in the building today.

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    Ruth loved the old freight elevators and we all enjoyed a nice lunch in the building’s restaurant. Thanks for lunch Kevin.

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    After a great visit we decided to drive the remaining 700 or so kms home rather than spending another night so close to our final destination.

    It was an amazing trip and rivals our Route 66 trip.

  • Southern US Trip Summary

    This morning at home we feel as though we are living between two worlds. Before we enter back into our everyday life with all its responsibilities we look back on six and a half weeks of excitement and adventure. We’re happy we did write the blog so that we don’t forget all the things we saw and experienced. It definitely is a trip to remember and does rival our Route 66 trip from two years ago.

    What worked well:

    WIND Mobile’s Unlimited US Roaming. We’ve been WIND Mobile customers for a number of years now and their price just can’t be beat. For $15 a month we had unlimited voice calling, texting and 1GB of data while in the US. This allowed us to keep in touch and look up things on the road.

    Good Sam Membership: This RV club membership cost $25 a year and give you 10% discount at member campsites.  It definitely paid for itself.

    America the Beautiful Pass: This $80/year pass gives you free entrance to US Parks and other recreation sites. It paid for itself as well.

    Garmin GPS: We love our Garmin GPS system. At the start of the trip we had the RV/Trucking dezl 760 model but it was stolen in Albuquerque so we bought a nuvi 2689LMT to replace it. These GPS units have campground locations pre-installed and provide lots of information on arrival times, traffic conditions, etc.

    Allstays Camp and RV App: We use this app on our iPads all the time to look for campgrounds. It shows the location of campgrounds and gives information about their rating, facilities and distance from your current location.

    NOAA Weather Pro App: This app for the iPad and iPhone shows a map with weather conditions. It also has the ability to send alerts to your phone when severe weather is nearby.

    Visitor Centres, Park Rangers and Bureau of Land Management offices: These are always a source of great information and have invaluable knowledge of local conditions and opportunities.

    Frugal RV Travel Guides: These guides have great route information as well as tips on inexpensive places to stay overnight.

    Here’s a map of the entire trip. This is an image grab from Google Maps as it wasn’t possible to use the entire GPS track on a live map, probably because of its size.

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