Durango is one of those really artsy towns that you see a lot of college people in. It's also a very recreational vacation spot. In the summer, it is all about whitewater rafting, mountain biking and hiking. In the winter, skiing and snowboarding. Since it's summer, the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad was open, so we booked seats for a three-and-a-half-hour ride to the small town of Silverton. The views we got were some of the most beautiful mountain scenes I've ever seen. In fact, this railroad is one of the top ten best in the world! It runs parallel to the Animas River, and comes up through steep dropoffs. We only got to stay in Silverton for two hours, but you can pretty well get the gist of it in that amount of time. It's very touristy, because the main source of income is the railway itself. One thing my brother really wanted to do here was buy a knife....I guess it's just one of those things you have to eventually do to stop it from bothering you. We walked into a really macho hunting shop and my brother and cousin immediately rushed to the knives, while my mom and I wandered around a while, admiring all the taxidermied animal carcasses. I got bored with that and walked over to where the guys were and started looking at knives too. Before I go on, let me just say: I think knives are cool. I appreciate them, however, they do make me nervous sometimes. The man at the counter started giving us a spiel about which ones were the best, which eventually led to him teaching us about all the weapon laws and knife laws in the state of Colorado. Yes, switch blades are illegal in every state but Oregon, unless you are in the military and have specific orders to carry one, or you are a police officer.
