North Pole 45 Years Later

On our first vacation as a married couple, Eva and I went to Colorado and visited many different sights. Eva was so excited to see so many new places and we had a great time together. Over the years, we were fortunate to be able to take family trips to many places around the country. During the years that our kids were at home, our vacations were always family vacations with destinations that would provide an opportunity for them to see new parts of the country or to revisit places like certain theme parks that they enjoyed.

Some of those trips included my parents when driving became more of a concern for long distances. I always tried to plan at least one family vacation trip every year when possible to just get out and enjoy this country. For most of our 58 years of marriage, we were able to travel, create new memories, and take some pictures to help us remember those moments. After our home became an empty nest, the second time, and Eva had recovered from her cancer treatments, we planned a vacation to get back to traveling.

It was July 2010 and we planned to go back to Colorado again. For this trip, I wanted to take the train ride from Durango to Silverton as a new experience for us in an area of the country we had traveled to before, but by car. Getting tickets for the train ride required effort and schedule for any of the months that it was open. Once I had booked our tickets, our trip was then planned around that date. There were two options that involve a train ride and a bus ride. Option 1, is a train ride from Durango to Silverton and then a bus ride from Silverton back to Durango. Option 2, is a train ride from Silverton to Durango and a bus ride back to Silverton. Both options get you back to where you left your car.

When we got to the Train Station in Durango on the morning of our trip, they could not find where we had booked our trip. After some research using my confirmation email, they determined that it was in error because of over-booking. However, their email notifying me was sent after we had left on our trip. They were very nice and went to discuss the issue with other people to see what could be done. They put us in the special car that was normally used just for company groups, but our trip would be different because there were no seats available on the bus for the return trip. We would be riding the train in both directions.

We really enjoyed the train rides in both directions and the time spent in the little town of Silverton was special. The stagecoach rides and everything from the Old West days made it a great place for pictures. That little town with lots of tourists at lunchtime meant waiting in lines to get a table and at the restrooms, but it was a fun place to visit. We were both tired when we got to our hotel that night so we decided that we would not leave as early the next morning for other parts of Colorado.

We went to some of the winter ski resorts that we had not been to before and enjoyed some beautiful scenery. Our trip from there took us back to places we had been to multiple times over the years because Colorado and Tennessee were two of our favorite states to visit. As we visited places like the Royal Gorge, Gardens of the Gods, Seven Falls, Pike’s Peak, and the North Pole, we talked about our trip to those places back in 1965. We discussed how we remembered them looking back then and now.

As we were preparing to head back home, we started talking about our life together over those 45 years. That it was just the two of us there experiencing those places and thinking about when we were still kids finding our way in life. We talked about how we had been blessed and we had passed through many storms during those years.

During the years 2011-2013, we did not take a vacation trip due to a number of reasons and in September 2013 Eva had a bad fall that crushed her right arm and shoulder. Then in July 2016, she fell and broke her neck. God gave us almost 6 more years together after that fall, but our lives had changed and would never be as it was before.

I cannot explain why our last vacation together was also the same place as our first together. I just realized that as I was writing this story.
God truly blessed us in so many ways.