Ponderosa Campground, Antonito, Colorado

     I usually start planning trips months before we go on the road.  This trip was prompted by Rick's love of trains and the fact that Colorado has some great and interesting historic trains to ride.  Today we left the Great Sand Dunes on a calm morning and headed south to the small town of Antonito.  It is one end point of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway that we will be riding on tomorrow.
   I knew that the train ride goes all day so I wanted to find a campground in Antonito so that we would not have a long drive in the early morning to get to the train.  One of us is not a morning person.  I found a highly reviewed campground which was described as being "on a river" in Antonito and was happy when I called for a reservation to discover that we could get a site right on the river.
    I plugged the address into our GPS today and was surprised at the distance we had to drive.  I was thinking about 55 miles, but the GPS showed 80.  Without Internet service or phone service in the park I was limited to looking at the map which verified to me that Antonito was only about 55 miles south.  We started driving and figured that we would get more information when we found phone service.  I am so dependent (I was looking for another word but dependent is exactly right) on my phone to help me with trip planning along the way.

The view from our camper

   I discovered that the campground is actually 20 miles outside of Antonito, despite the mailing address.  I was grumpy.  Now we will have to drive 20 miles back to get on the train and then another 20 miles to get back to the campground after the train ride. Grump, grump, grump.  We got to Antonito and found it to be a dusty, weather beaten, little plains town without trees, green grass, pleasant scenery - nothing.  So I wasn't so sorry that we were not staying in town.  We drove the additional 20 miles and found ourselves in the mountains among tall pines, rushing water, and green grass.  Ahhh!
    The campground is beautiful.  We are parked under huge pines with a trout stream just outside our door.  The campground owner told us that an air horn will sound if there is a flash flood.  We will have to hop in the car and drive like crazy.  However, clear blue skies tonight so I am not going to worry.  We sat in our lawn chairs all afternoon, listening to the water, watching the fisherfolk, and reading in the sunshine.  I am flushed with a tinge of sun and so relaxed I can hardly keep my eyes open.
    So the message of the story is:  don't get grumpy until I am  sure there is something to get grumpy about.  I will sleep well tonight to the sound of a mountain stream.