you CAN go home again

Day 3

Boy – I have to say – it would be hard to beat the fun we had on Day 2!
I had planned for us to head out to Durango at 6am – but seriously – it became clear that that was going to be too little sleep so I texted the girls that I wanted to leave at 8 instead.

We had a quick breakfast and hopped into the car and headed North to Durango

Home sweet home
And I have to tell you – having made this drive at least a 100 times – I was dreading this drive – because – well – it’s so BLECH

Except?


My childhood contempt for New Mexico seems to have faded – there are really beautiful parts of that drive – perhaps making it with two sets of brand new eyes in the car has changed things – we oooh and aaaahed along the way until the teens lost consciousness and I was left to sing Billy Joel off key to myself and cruise along the road

There were a few times I actually considered waking them up – but in the end just let the car chew up the miles and spit them back up behind me.

One of the things that Miss M really wanted to see on this trip was a Native Amercian Pueblo – and it ends up we can’t see the Taos Pueblo on the way back because it’s closed at this time of year – yesterday we had the chance to see some Native Americans in Santa Fe and she remarked that some of them sort of look Mongolian.

We got to talk about how many people think that some Mongolian and Siberian people may have come over the land bridge – I told her that in a way? They sort of could be Mongolian – very very very very slightly.

As we got closer to Aztec – I discovered that I could ALMOST take her to a Pueblo – the Aztec Ruins are there – ok – they’re not AZTEC ruins – they’re RUINS in Aztec NM – We had a blast wandering around – and took the most amazing photos in the reconstructed Kiva

Then? – on to Durango

This was my first time home since 1994 – and I know that many people come back here and get really upset at how much it’s changed – and it has. But it is more unchanged than changed in my mind. Places I worked are still there – and houses I lived in are (mostly) the same – except FOR THE LOVE OF GOD – HOW DID THE PEOPLE IN OUR HOUSE LET THAT TREE GET SO INSANELY BIG???
And
We had a great picnic by the bridge I walked to school over – Miss S’s first picnic ever – just three girls enjoying the sun – and the Spring breeze – and the river

And we shopped – like you do here.

Downtown is very changed – and not really for the better.

But Durango was never downtown for me

It was walking the train tracks by the river
It was visiting the fish hatchery
Or the fairgrounds to see the horses

Durango was visiting with a stranger in a store and discovering that we knew some of the same people (which we did)

Durango is strangers waving and saying ‘Hi” and smiling –

I know why people love it here so much
And why it’s always going to be home

No matter how long I’m gone.