Day 6

Today is a travel day. We let the kids sleep in a bit and then packed up and off we went. As usual Harris was my trailer buddy and has now gotten to where he can back me up to get hitched up. The trailer was heavy with waste water from 4 days of camping as we made our way the 18 miles down into Durango. The city of Durango actually has a trailer dump station near the wastewater treatment plant and a large park. We stopped here and Amy and the kids went to the park while I took care of the dirty business. When I circled around to pick up the children, they were very excited to see some other kids their age with a lemonade stand. They were sure to purchase a glass for each of them. The trip from Durango to Pagosa Springs should take about an hour. We ended up taking almost two. Amy stopped at the health food store and picked up some sandwiches and baked goodies for lunch. We got on the road and the highway had three separate areas that were shut down to one lane traffic with a flag man. This killed our time. Nonetheless the drive was stunning and the weather perfect. There are worse places to be stuck in traffic I suppose. We arrived at our campground in Pagosa. It is a full service campground and we will have all utilities. We checked in and then proceeded to tackle laundry. It is amazing how much laundry a family of six accumulates. I took Alex with me and made her get change from the front desk. Figured we could fit a math lesson in. Later in the afternoon our friends from back home Amy and Tim and their three kids arrived at the campground. We decided to meet up here for a couple of days and do some joint hiking and have the kids play. There is a local hot springs here that has multiple pools filled with natural hot springs. It is a nice place to relax and soak. Once we arrived, they had neglected to inform us that the kids area would be closed for cleaning. We were disappointed, but the manager gave us vouchers to come back another day. We went back to the campground and lit a campfire and watched as the kids made smores. Hopefully, they will have great memories of these adventures.