Thinking Ahead

July 31, 2016

I come from a very large family. There were seven of us kids. Now there are lots of nephews and nieces and in-laws and lots of great-nieces and great-nephews and in-laws. So, when we have a family reunion it’s a big affair.
We decided to hold a reunion in Colorado this year and thirty to forty Vincents descended on Durango the last week in June. I’m not sure it will recover soon.
There was rafting, hiking, an ATV scenic mountain trail ride, a train ride through the mountains, and of course lots and lots of eating. Durango has some great restaurants.
And…there was shopping, lots and lots of shopping. I found some black pottery for my writing cabin. It adds to the western ambience.
We rode the train from Durango to Silverton. It was my second trip, but this time I made it all the way to Silverton. The first time I rode it we broke down about half way. It was disappointing at first but they managed to stop at a beautiful spot and my daughter and I spent several hours enjoying the mountain scenery.
This time, as we slowly made our way up the mountains, I started thinking of a new Will and Buck story about how that train track was built. I bought some books and DVDs about the history of what it took to build that narrow gage track. I strive seriously to be sure I am historically accurate.
Sometimes the ledge the track sits on is not much wider than the track itself. It does get scary when you can’t stick a finger out the window for fear of hitting a solid wall of rock on one side of the train while on the other side you are looking straight down at what looks like a tiny river racing several hundred feet below you. I like to have an element of historical events in each of my books. This would make a great background for a story as Will and Two Feathers get a little older.
I have included some pictures from beautiful Colorado. I hope you enjoy them.