Weekend

So, I am going to blog while I have a chance, and when I get home, I will add the pictures to this entry.

Saturday, Jeremy and I took the tourist train to La Veta (pronounced La Vee-ta, not like the Spanish pronunciation... nothing seems to be pronounced "correctly" around here). La Veta is a small town over the mountain range to the east. We went to see the fall colors. The fall colors around here are green (evergreens), gold (aspens), and a little sprinkling of red if you are lucky. It is still pretty - just not Ohio colors. We had decided to go on the weekend train because 1) we don't work on the weekend, and 2) it is pulled by a steam engine which we thought would be neat. The train moves at a pace of 6 mph - actually, I don't have a clue how fast it goes, I just know it seems like I could've run just as fast as we were moving. We realized how people in the past could actually jump on and off trains or hold them up and rob all the passengers. The first part of the ride on the way out to La Veta was pretty boring because it is what we see everyday (see picture above left). Once we finally started climbing over the mountains, the scenery was much better. I caught a picture of our train moving through the fall colors. I jumped off the train to get the picture and just hopped right back on; it was no big deal... just kidding! We went through two tunnels during the ride which were kinda fun to think that you are going through a mountain (see third pic on right). When we arrived at La Veta, the main street of town was filled with booths and people. It was Ocktoberfest in La Veta! It was nice to have booths to look at, but not so nice to fight through the crowd. It is not like there were that many people there, but there seemed to be since they were all crammed into 3 blocks. We ate at a small sandwich/bakery shop and purchased some local honey. We watched some men in lederhosen playing instruments and singing Johnny Cash songs (see pic on bottom right). We boarded the train about 2 hours later for a loooong ride back to Alamosa. It took about 3 hours to get to La Veta and 3-1/2 hours to return to Alamosa. Jeremy and I were both getting a little bored on the way back - after all, we had already seen all this once. Lucky for us, Beulah Bible was sitting behind us and was exceptionally friendly. We learned she lives right on 285 - the road we take to work everyday. Also, she invited us to church - one of the Baptist churches in town - and to the Gideon's meeting on Monday night. (Isn't it so cool she is a Gideon and her last name is Bible!?!)

Jeremy was excited to make it home from the trip to see his first OSU football game of the season. It was, for the first time, aired on regular TV. So, he witnessed OSU beat Purdue, and he got to know the players. I made pizza for the occassion - pizza and football... is there any other combination? :)

Sunday, we went to a new church - Alamosa Christian Church. It was a nice service. There were probably between 30-40 people present. Apparently, they are going through a transitional period. This was their first Sunday without a pastor. A man from the church must have volunteered to preach. He did a nice job presenting a message. I am not sure if we will return; it is difficult to be a part of a transition if you aren't already a part of the congregation and have the big picture. But it is not completely out of the picture either.

Jeremy, my little sports-a-holic, watched the Browns lose to the Patriots - although he loves the Browns, it wasn't as disappointing because Brady is his fantasy f-ball quarterback and the Patriots defense are his defense in the fantasy f-ball league... so it worked out to his benefit in the end. Then, he and Jeff (after watching A Few Good Men with me) went to Wagon Wheel restaurant to watch the Indians lose to the Yankees. Jeremy decided that they lost because he actually watched them play; he says he will not go to watch tonight, but I am sure it will be on play-by-play on the internet with commentary by him.