Trip to Pagosa Springs

June 1- Can’t believe we’re almost into summer! Bill went to Windsurf Beach with Rebecca to clean the firepits there.  Apparently since there is no camp host there it’s been sorely neglected.  While they were gone I vacuumed, did dishes, changed the bed and potted my new herbs.  My lettuce and radishes are up.  Just need to make sure I water them every day.  I got my shower and was ready for lunch when Bill got home.  Once we ate and he showered we headed into Pagosa Springs.  We made arrangements with one of the other hosts to feed Xena and Molly their dinner and we diapered Xena so we figured we were good for the afternoon and evening.

Mountain View from Pagosa Springs

The drive is much curvier and hilly than the drive into Durango, and it’s totally different scenery.  There’s much less civilization along the way and more hills and great views along the way.  Once we arrived we stopped at an eye glass place that takes Bill’s insurance to see about getting his replaced but it was more expensive than Wal-mart and if he has our doctor at home do them. He said he’s doing fine with his old ones that are a slightly different prescription.  Then we drove all the way through town just to take a look since we only passed through 2 years ago.  We found where Kam and Jared got us a gift certificate to so that is where we decided to eat an early dinner to make the 6:00 movie of Men In Black 3 (which we really enjoyed).

1919 Liberty Theatre

We stopped at Family Dollar, 2 thrift stores, a drug store, City Market grocery and got everything on our new list except for 1 item.  We went in some of the shops along the main part of the older town.  We talked to one of the shop owners about how dry our skin, etc was and she gave us each a soap sample to try and a tin of shea butter to try.  Bill forgot his so he was happy to accept.  When it was time to eat we drove back down to the Farrago Market Café and I knew Bill was going to want a pizza.  I would have chosen something a bit more exotic, but pepperoni it was.  I did choose the salad for us to share and it had nuts and goat cheese.  Bill said it was good, so I picked well.  We each got an orange chocolate coconut macaroon to go for our dessert, which we ate when we got home.  It was too gooey and neither of us was at all into the orange part. 

One part of The Springs Resort

After dinner we parked across from the movie theatre and checked out The Springs.  Pagosa is known for it natural hot springs and of course a big resort has grown up around it.  I think there are 28 different hot spring pools.  We saw the rock wall where it originally flowed and it looks like lava flow or what is called a lava flow in a cave.  It’s all right along the river, very impressive.  The views of the mountains from Pagosa were really nice and there was just a tad of snow still on a few. 

The movie theatre was impressive also.  Built in 1919, I think a lot of it was still the same, at least the marquee was.  Of course it has only one screen and you walk in on 2 sides through heavy curtains.  The lobby is tiny and displays old film memorabilia, including an ancient movie projector.  The prices were not bad.  It was $12 for the 2 of us.  The movie was good, plenty of laughs and some nasty goo here and there.

We wanted to see the other side of the river and springs as we left and thought we could curve around to the road to leave on, but after a couple of miles of winding in the wrong direction we turned around and backtracked.  We didn’t want to be driving the curvy roads home in the dark.  We stopped briefly for me to get a photo of Chimney Rock, which we plan to visit while we’re here.  The ride home was uneventful.  We told our supervisor we’d be home by 9 to do a final check of our sites.  The girls were happy to see us and both had eaten all their dinner and Xena had not wet her diaper but was sure ready to get outside.