A Family Day

Wednesday we drove to Westcliffe to meet John's two sisters and their husbands. Westcliffe is 65 miles north of Walsenburg on Colorado Hwy 69. That route took us through a beautiful valley where we had views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Wet Mountains. This is a small part of the Sangre de Cristo range.



Along the way we spotted two buffalo bulls. Isn't this a good looking animal? The pasture looks like it provides plenty of good grazing.



This country has been farm and ranch land for generations. I enjoyed this old windmill.



Here are John's two sisters, Cindy on the left and Kendal on the right. Would you believe that all three of the men are named John? It can get very confusing, since we never know who will answer when we call "John."



There is an Amish community nearby. On our way into town, we saw a traffic sign warning to watch for horses and buggies. We really saw one in town.



One of the stores we wandered through sold Amish-made wood furniture. Everything was so finely constructed with simple beauty. Cindy picked up a plain wooden box in that store and then screeched as she opened it.



Here is a close-up of what jumped out.



The two men at the front counter--possibly father and son--laughed along with us. We asked why they made them. "To surprise people," they said.

Kendal's husband lived in Westcliffe until he was 12 years old. He showed us some of the old buildings, including this one, which was a train depot back then.



This building looks even more like a train depot. It is a modern building constructed to house a railroad museum. We learned that at the time it was built, the museum committee didn't think they were going to be able to buy the old depot. They did finally purchase it and have plans for restoration. You notice, we can find railroad related sites almost everywhere we go.



The museum was not open Wednesday, so we were poking around by ourselves, looking at the buildings and old caboose that is being restored.



Eventually, a man who had been working on the railroad tracks came up see if we had any questions. Mel Port is the man in the straw hat (mended with duct tape). He had a wealth of information about the museum's equipment and the future plans. We enjoyed our time talking with him.



Actually, there were seven of us in Westcliffe. Here is John with their dog, Baily.



We had a great lunch at the Sangrita Restaurant.



Before we returned to Lathrop, we all drove to a house built by Kendal and John's daughter and son-in-law, Kim and Andy. We were really impressed with the workmanship on the house and loved the setting, with great views and 40+ acres of land to provide privacy.