Tuedsay Oct 4th, 2005

Oct 4th~

Before leaving Santa Fe--Laura and I did some touristy things downtown. We toured "Loretto Chapel" the home of the miraculous staircase. This was a sight..a circular staircase -legend has it -made without nails and without bracing...some work of art that still has engineers and architects bewildered. They added the handrail many years later. We had a destination--Durango, CO-Walmart. On the way-we passed thru this town called Pagosa Springs. Pam told us we needed try the natural hot springs. So off we went in search of them ---to no avail. Finally-asked the lady at the Best Western---the springs literally were across the street from them. Not at all what we were picturing. WE were looking for something out in "nature" not having to enter through a building-like spa. They had 17 (or 14- i forget) springs with varying temps. Ranging from 98 to about 110 degrees. There was a nasty sulphur smell in the air. The springs were very modern-looked just like a hot tub. I have this conspiracty theory--they are jump pumping out water that they boil in their basement and then cook some rotten eggs in the kitchen and charge $15.oo ahead to soak in quote "a natural hot spring"...yeah right.

We were pretty exhausted after soaking in the hot egg water but we traveled on. We found our Durango Wal-mart and hit the hay. By the way--this was a very nice Wal-mart. They tried to make it blend with the mountains behind it.