The CCCA had another Caravan, this time in New Mexico, which went through some spectacular scenery and beautiful cities.  We saw lovely artworks, rode on a steam train, and saw a western music bar-be-que show at a ranch.  It was a great trip, made better by the fact that the Vault Classic Cars ’47 Packard Custom Super 8  made it there and back with it’s customary reliability, comfort and factory overdrive assisted  interstate cruising power!

Here we are, checking out the WigWam motel in Holbrook, AZ, on the way out to the caravan. I did not realize this, but you can actually stay in this motel! The other old cars in the background are props, and you can park in between them to get to your, uh, concrete teepee.  This is some serious original route 66 Stuff.

Here it is at night

And there are many roadside stores that didn’t make it past the interstate bypass of the towns.

Nothing like roadside dinosaurs to put a smile on the weary traveller’s face.

What Route 66 trip would be complete without a stop at the petrified forest?  That tan thing that parallels the pavement and goes off into the vanishing pointis a petrified tree.

Ok, here are some Caravan Cars – this is on the first day, from Albuquerque to Los Alamos.

Our fearless Caravan Leader rolls down the road with V-12 power!

this Packard 626 was a really tastefully done car, and it made the whole trip on 6 cylinder power and a vacuum tank! Awesome!

Here’s a ’41 Cadillac 75 peeking out from the bushes at the cliff dwelling area, Bandelier national park.

And there are the actual cliff dwellings!  Makes Motel 6 look like the Taj Mahal!

A spectacular view, near the “Ghost Ranch” area of New Mexico, made famous by the paintings of Georgia O’keefe.  You could, I suppose, make the argument that I should be paying attention to the road, and not taking photos while driving.  But, lookit, we’re on the correct side of the road, and making that turn just fine!  one of the great things about this caravan was the un-crowded roads!  Even if I HAD been veering, the consequences would have been minimal!

Here’s the railyard in Chama, the Cumbres & Toltec narrow gauge line.  They’re not running now because their trestle bridge burned down.  Railroading is a tough business!

Speaking of a tough business, how would you like to try to restore this steam locomotive?

Here’s a cool old bridge over the Blanco River, with the Cormorant leading the way.  We;re on the way to Durango, Colorado here, to ride the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

Here’s our Locomotive at Silverton – they run the tracks right up the street !

And there we are on the Parlor car platform.  That was a great place to take pictures.

Here’s the place we had lunch in Silverton.  the bar and tin ceiling were unbelievable! You know, the Victorians were supposed to be all uptight & prim & proper, but take a look at the giant nude lady painting in the reflection!  Maybe they weren’t so uptight after all!

Taken from the rear platform of the parlor car, note the little train go-kart following. That guy’s job is to make sure that nobody fell out of the train, and that the hot cinders from the coal fire of the locomotive do not start a fire in the beautiful countryside.

That’s a heck of a view of the train!  When you think about how they built this track back in the 1880’s, it boggles the mind!

There’s the hardworking locomotive.  Note at lower left how close the river water is to the tracks.

Ok, if you think car collectors are eccentric, how about collecting railroad go-karts?  Maybe they call ’em inspection carts,  I’m not sure.  But the whole club was on the siding, waiting for us to pass by.

A family eats their lunch on the trestle bridge.  Look how high the water is.  Hope they don’t fall in!

Rafters, taken from the rear platform of the Parlor Car.

Another Locomotive prepares to turn around.  Seeing all these Locomotives in operation was really fun,  they have 6 operable steam locomotives.  If you like old machinery, this is a kick.

Old buildings in Silverton.

Right down main street.

There’s the giant waterfall on the way back down.

So our original Locomotive brakes went bad on the way down. Even though these trains have a dual braking system,  to their credit they decided to stop the train and figure it out.  It took ’em a couple of hours to decide that the train following us would pull around, and take both trainloads of people back down.  Even though it was a delay, watching the steam engines up close was  interesting.

Those original engineers were pretty smart – they put a big water tank with a catch tube  right next to a raging torrent of water, so they could fill up the locomotive with water on the trip.

AAAAAAHHHHGGGGG  the train is about to hit us!  Ok, not really, this was the locomotive with the bad brakes they were trying to hook to the rear of the train.