Travel -: Dining a la car at Fennville Station

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Dining a la car at Fennville Station Jul 23rd 2011, 07:00 The hottest restaurant table on the southwest coast of Lake Michigan isn't in a restaurant. It's on a train. Fennville Station, which opened in May, seats its customers in a restored 1940s rail car complete with white-tablecloth tables, curtained windows and vintage suitcases in the overhead luggage racks. Waiters are clad in buttoned-up porters' uniforms. All that's missing is the swaying. The restaurant was created by David and Deb Barton, who own the successful White House Bistro in neighboring Saugatuck. White House Bistro, however, is a rock-themed, global-menu restaurant in Saugatuck's tourist epicenter. Fennville Station, a classic Italian restaurant in a location that's not even on Fennville's main drive, is another animal altogether. "It wasn't exactly in the 10-year strategic plan," David Barton acknowledged. "It was something that just came together. "I had decided in May to slow down," Barton added, "and promoted my son to general manager of White House Bistro. And my wife said that now that I had less responsibility, it was time to move the corporation forward." And so the Bartons took on this Fennville property, which consists of a onetime railway station (now a cocktail lounge), two 75-foot silos that belonged to a grain company (now housing twin semiprivate dining rooms) and the dining car, a onetime passenger car that has been gutted and restored to 1940s splendor. The train car includes an overhead luggage rack occupied by various pieces of out-of-date baggage, some of them provided by locals and covered with travel stickers indicating exotic locales. Barton maintains what he calls a "liar's case" of stickers to dress up otherwise mundane baggage. Customers get a free appetizer for their donated luggage. Overseeing the kitchen is chef Hans Riem, a former corporate chef. "He was retired," Barton said, "but wanted to get his hands back into restaurants." Riem's menu covers all the expected dishes: chicken piccata, veal marsala, eggplant parmesan and a selection of five pastas that customers can order with their choice of four sauces. A pair of boneless pork chops, matched to summer squash and firm polenta, is a menu highlight. The food isn't fancy, unless you count the tableside preparation of Caesar salad, arguably the least practical offering possible in an already-narrow dining room. But it seems popular judging by how often Riem can be seen lugging his bowls and ingredients down the aisle. Most entrees are in the midteens. Fennville Station,115 E. Fennville St., Fennville, Mich.; 269-561-4030; fennvillestation.com pvettel@tribune.com

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Travel -: How do you explain park deaths? You can't

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How do you explain park deaths? You can't Jul 25th 2011, 07:00 Why did they do it? Why would three people ignore posted signs and shouted warnings and climb over a metal barricade to stand on slippery rock 25 feet from a massive waterfall in Yosemite National Park? The woman and two men from a church group who did that last week can't answer. They were swept into 317-foot Vernal Fall and are presumed dead. Michael Ghiglieri can't answer, either. He still doesn't understand it, no matter how many times he has asked the question. And he has asked it many, many times. Ghiglieri, a 38-year veteran wilderness guide, is co-author of two books, "Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite" and "Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon," which describe every known fatality in those parks. He has spent 12 years examining the ways people have died there. He and his co-authors have concluded that it is almost always due to the victims' own poor judgment. Take, for example, what might be called "death by photo." People back up to the Grand Canyon to pose and fall in. They wade into a river at the top of a waterfall to pose and are swept away. They climb over guardrails to photograph a waterfall looking down over the lip, with the same result. One 21-year-old tourist from Ireland, after "drinking a lot of wine," posed for a photo pretending to fall into Upper Yosemite Falls, according to "Death in Yosemite." When the first shot didn't work out, his buddies asked him to pose again. He once again pretended to lose his balance. But this time, he really did. Some people died for a joke. "Death in Grand Canyon" describes a man who was walking with his young daughter along the Rim Trail when he decided to have a little fun: "He paused precariously and dramatically atop the wall. Then, facing his daughter on the path, he wind-milled his arms comically and said, 'Help, I'm falling …' "Then he jumped off backward." People attempt brutal hikes in extreme heat. They hike alone. They drink too little water or too much alcohol. They go rafting without wearing a life jacket. They go rock climbing alone, in sandals. They enter the Colorado River to cool off though they can't swim. But why am I writing "they"? It should probably be "I." Because my own poor judgment at the Grand Canyon one August day in 1973 nearly landed me in Ghiglieri's book. I didn't climb over a guardrail or disobey a posted sign. But if I'd thought about it, I would have realized that bushwhacking with a friend through the woods to an off-trail spot on the rim to catch the sunset was probably a bad idea.

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Travel -: Is Machu Picchu reaching its peak?

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Is Machu Picchu reaching its peak? Jul 24th 2011, 07:00 Reporting from Machu Picchu, Peruâ€" At the top of the mountain, where an attendant will take your $46 ticket, foot traffic is steady and cellphone reception is excellent. At the bottom of the same mountain, the town teems with pizzerias, tourists chatter in half a dozen languages and a school band director is herding his traditionally costumed students into formation. "Roki! Roki!" he seems to be hollering. And then, as darkness falls, his young trumpeters and drummers launch into the rousing theme from Sylvester Stallone's first hit movie. Yes, plenty has changed in this corner of the Andes since July 24, 1911, when Yale University professor Hiram Bingham III climbed these slopes with a local farmer and beheld the ruins we know as Machu Picchu. PHOTOS: Tour Machu Picchu In the last dozen years, visitor traffic here has boomed, been halted by flooding, then surged again. The citadel's most famous stone has been chipped by a beer commercial crew. Peru's president has prevailed in a tug of war with Yale over artifacts Bingham had collected. Even the name of the town below Machu Picchu's ruins has been in flux: Though most locals and travelers have long known it as Aguas Calientes, a growing number of businesses and government agencies are calling it El Pueblo de Machu Picchu. Yet the stacked stones and eerie timelessness of the mountaintop endure. To see and feel this wonder at its best, all you need to do is take a series of planes, trains and automobiles, bring bug juice and sunblock, accept the thin air and some high prices, and get up early. The ruins open daily at 6 a.m., and that's when you want to be there. If you're lucky, the morning will begin with thick mist and fleeting glimpses of neighboring peaks, which hang in the clouds like brushstrokes in a Chinese landscape painting. As the sun rises, the scale of the place will bloom and unfold â€" the orderly boulders, wild orchids, temples and terraces. The llamas nibbling wet grass. The viscachas (cousins of the chinchilla) skittering past the Temple of the Three Windows. It's mesmerizing. I've made three trips to Machu Picchu â€" in 1988, 1995 and this year â€" and each time I've wound up gasping for air and groping for words. You start with a climb to the old guardhouse for its commanding view â€" the postcard panorama, now deepened to three dimensions. You enter the citadel through the stone main gate, pass the western crop terraces, and look down, down, down to the rushing Urubamba River as it wraps around the mountain's base. Later you'll reach the royal enclosure, the Temple of the Condor and the round tower that Bingham spotted early on. But first you'll likely gather around a sculpted rock known as Intihuatana, "the hitching post of the sun." Chances are you'll find visitors holding their hands out to it, as if to warm themselves by a fire. This is where the film crew went wrong in 2000. Making an ad for Cusqueña beer, workers somehow hit the Intihuatana stone with a piece of heavy equipment. Fortunately, only a small bit was chipped off. Most travelers notice nothing amiss, and many guides leave the incident unmentioned. (But I wonder: What would happen if Budweiser went to Mt. Rushmore and broke Thomas Jefferson's nose?) Some experts have warned that foot traffic will destabilize the ruins, and some guides speculate that one day tourists may be restricted from direct access to the stones, as most Stonehenge visitors in England have been since 1978. But for now, if you grant yourself the time, you can roam. Most of Machu Picchu's international visitors fly to the Peruvian capital, Lima, then to Cuzco, then take a train about 70 miles to Aguas Calientes, then take the 20-minute, 18-switchback bus ride to the ruins. But all buy their Machu Picchu entrance tickets ahead of time in Aguas Calientes or in Cuzco, or even earlier through a tour operator, because the keepers of Machu Picchu, the staff of Peru's National Institute of Culture, don't sell tickets on the mountaintop â€" they only collect them. Given all the trouble it takes to get here, you'd think people might stay longer. But legions arrive at the ruins around 10 or 11 a.m., circle the complex for two or three hours, then head back to the train. If you are staying longer, 10 a.m. is your cue to step away for a few hours. Flop on the grass and nap. Join the buffet line in the cafeteria. You could make the two-hour round-trip hike to the Sun Gate, where Inca Trail hikers get their first good view of the mountaintop ruins. Or you could take the trail to the Inca Bridge, a mostly flat path that takes only half an hour each way but will surely get your attention. Much of the trail is cut into a granite cliff face, and at points it narrows to 3 feet wide or so. There's a rope along the wall to grab. But as with the rest of the mountaintop, there is only mist between you and the long drop to the smashing rapids. "It's really cool to climb mountains and look down 6,000 feet to your death," said Alex Schell, 13, of Cleveland, when we met on that trail. Strictly speaking, Alex stood about 1,500 feet above the valley floor. But who could argue with his point?

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Travel -: Study shows people are pressed for time, eager to relax

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Study shows people are pressed for time, eager to relax Jul 25th 2011, 01:46 The latest snapshot of U.S. travelers reveals them to be a stressed-out bunch who remain sensitive to price and continue to suffer from a syndrome known as "time poverty." That could prove to be a challenge for Central Florida's tourism industry, but there is good news as well in the newest research by the Maitland travel research-and-marketing firm Ypartnership. For one thing, the number of people who say they are planning to take a leisure trip in the near future is rising, a sign that demand is returning. When asked about their travel intentions, 61 percent of those surveyed said they planned to take a vacation by October, up from 56 percent at this time last year. About 14 percent of travelers said they plan to take at least one business trip during the same period, on par with a year ago. "It's pretty obvious that the destiny of the travel industry is listing toward leisure," Peter Yesawich, the company's chief executive officer, told hoteliers recently during a gathering of the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association. Yesawich drew his conclusions from two sets of data: the Ypartnership/Harrison Group 2011 Portrait of American Travelers and a quarterly poll of traveler intentions. When it comes to finances, travelers say they're more concerned this year about just about everything: the cost of gas, the cost of airline tickets, the economy in general. More than a third say they're using coupons more often, and 31 percent say they're waiting for sales more frequently. That reluctance to pay higher prices has manifested itself at Orlando hotels, where occupancy is rebounding more quickly than average room price. Hoteliers managed to raise rates 5.1 percent during the first half of the year, but average daily room rates in Orlando are expected to remain below their peaks in 2007 and 2008 through the end of next year, according to Smith Travel Research, which surveys the hospitality industry. "We're still seeing people looking for the best deal," said Scott Tripoli, general manager of the Crowne Plaza Orlando Universal. "A lot of shopping going on out there, a lot of third-party bookings." To lure price-sensitive travelers, some in the industry have turned to time-sensitive discounts â€" also known as flash sales â€" that encourage consumers to make quick decisions when booking. A full 20 percent of leisure travelers said they have purchased a travel service through a flash-sale email, up from 14 percent last year, according to Ypartnership. Private sales and collective buying, on websites such as Sniqueaway.com or via companies like Groupon and LivingSocial, are also catching on. At the Mona Lisa Suite Hotel in Celebration, flash sales are a part of the marketing plan, used to drive demand during slower months such as August and September. The hotel recently offered a two-night stay in a suite, with complimentary breakfast, for $184.99 a person on Overstock.com's vacations website. The short-term sales, generally good for a few hours to a few days, create a sense of urgency and are effective in helping consumers focus on a purchase decision, said Deborah Farish, the hotel's director of sales and marketing. "As long as you have a wonderful offer, something that is intriguing, something the consumer perceives as added value, … you can get great success," she said. "If you put the flash up, you often see immediate results." While flash sales are gaining speed, Yesawich says the "long-form vacation" is losing ground. Pressed for time â€" something Yesawich terms "time poverty" â€" travelers are abandoning the weeklong escape and looking instead for close, quick getaways. Orlando appears to be capitalizing already on that short-haul market: Last year, the destination drew more than half of its 38.3 million domestic visitors from within the Sunshine State, according to data from Visit Orlando, the area's quasi-private tourism-marketing agency. When they do arrive at their quick getaway, travelers want to be able to relax as soon as possible. That's one reason the hotel spa is one of the hottest amenities in the industry, Yesawich said. And with no time to spare, even during a vacation, consumers expect to have their expectations met. "Tolerance for anything going wrong today is zero," Yesawich said. skclarke@tribune.com

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Travel -: The road less traveled to Machu Picchu

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The road less traveled to Machu Picchu Jul 24th 2011, 07:00 Reporting from Machu Picchu, Peruâ€" Our first view of Machu Picchu was from across a cloud-covered valley. My daughter Betsy and I had hiked three hours in air so thick that you could cut it with a machete. We were exploring the partially restored Inca ruins of Llactapata with our companions on a seven-day trek to Machu Picchu via the less traveled Salkantay Route. Just as we reached the ruins, the mist lifted and afforded us a magical view of the mystical Inca city. It was the high point in a trip full of spectacular vistas, all-terrain hiking, high-carbohydrate food and spirited companionship. Betsy and I have gone on father-daughter trips before: scuba diving in the Bahamas when she was 11; following a pack of camels across the Kenyan bush when she was 16; conquering Kilimanjaro when she was 21. Finding a venue that satisfied her yen for an athletic challenge and met my propensity for a warm shower and cold glass of beer at day's end was no easy task. We found it with a 5-year-old travel company, Mountain Lodges of Peru, which has put together a string of eco-lodges in the wilds of Peru's Vilcabamba Mountains and wrapped it all up in a 39-mile, seven-day trekking package that ended at Aguas Calientes, the jumping off point for Machu Picchu exploration. The brainchild of Peruvian businessman Enrique Umbert, the lodge-to-lodge concept took four years and $4.2 million to bring to reality. Although the Salkantay back-door route to Machu Picchu is more than 500 years old, it has been overshadowed by the more popular Inca Trail. Umbert saw an opportunity to put together a first-class trek, with hot tubs and gourmet food, and at the same time give back to rural areas. Thus was born a partnership between locals and luxury travel: In exchange for the rights to buy the parcels of land on which his lodges are located, Umbert pledged to hire local laborers and train local staff members. He also created an eco-friendly organization called Yanapana, which provides funding for small businesses, supports craftsmen and aids in educational efforts. Today, Mountain Lodges of Peru hosts about 2,000 trekkers annually. In comparison, more than 150,000 trekkers and porters trudge up the "gringo" Inca Trail each year. Our route was definitely less crowded. Our trek was led by 15-year veteran guide Jesus Cardenas. With a smile that made even the most grueling of climbs seem effortless, Jesus provided sound advice ("Drink water. Drink water") coupled with ample encouragement ("Don't give up…only five minutes more!"). His easy-going style contrasted with that of his more serious assistant, Helen Reinoso, whom we dubbed "Hell-on-wheels" for the torrid pace she set. Our group was diverse. There was an emergency room doctor and his pharmacist wife from Boston. Another couple, Mark and Mary, were an exceedingly fit duo from Green Bay, Wis. In fact, he was a rugby player who trained for this trip by hiking around Green Bay carrying a 50-pound pack. Another Green Bay couple, Yvette and Travis, were in great shape, but both were beset with trailside mishaps: Travis when his foot caught the edge of a sharp rock while swimming in a glacier lake , necessitating the attention of the ER doctor, and Yvette, whose hiking boots disintegrated on the soggy trail. Duct tape to the rescue. Then, there was an enthusiastic family from Boston â€" a radiologist mom, lawyer dad and three college-age sons. The boys bounded from boulder to boulder like human pinballs. The boys' father, Jim, suited up daily in more orthopedic gear than the Bionic Man, while their mother, Jamie, graciously hung back with me. Finally, there was my daughter, Betsy, 27, a New York advertising executive, and me, a 63-year-old flatlander who lives at zero-feet above sea level on the Florida Gulf Coast. Betsy had cashed in all of her two weeks' vacation for this trip and despite the fact that she had to put up with my snoring, it soon became apparent that she was having a blast matching the boys step-for-boisterous-step up and down the mountain trails, then kicking back and sipping wine with the adults like the woman of the world she was fast becoming. I had trained for four months slogging up and down the highest "hill" on the island where I live, a Calusa Indian burial mound with an elevation of 20 feet, while carrying a pack filled with coconuts, croquet balls and power bars. I wished I had trained harder. Accompanying us were six Waykis, horsemen whose steeds carried everything we needed for our trek, including all our gear, extra water and most of our food. The trek was as advertised â€" strenuous. Our hiking time varied from three to four hours to six to eight hours. Our combined vertical ascent and descent was a little less than four miles. That's a lot of knee-pounding, quadriceps-burning locomotion. Parts of the trek seemed harder than Mt. Kilimanjaro. Most of us took a daily dose of the altitude-sickness prevention drug, Acetazolamide. With only one exception, we were able to complete the trek without suffering the more severe effects of high-altitude sickness. One trekker had to be transported down the mountain on Day 3 from 13,625 feet because of recurring headaches and joint stiffness. After a stay at lower altitude, she and her husband were able to rejoin the group. The first day of our trek started with a bone-jarring bus ride from the little town of Mollepapa to the Salkantay Trail jumping-off point. Soon, we were trekking into an Andean forest at 12,000 feet above sea level. The noon sun was overhead. There wasn't a trace of humidity. We slathered on suntan lotion and bug juice. The woods were awash in earthy smells with an undertone of fresh mint. Some of us sucked on coca leaves. Natives chew coca for energy and protection against altitude sickness. The hiking was easy enough that first day, with the exception of a narrow pathway above an ancient Inca aqueduct that gave me the willies. Before tackling it, I remembered my yoga training, found a focal point, took two cleansing breaths and stepped out into the unknown. I thought I looked like a Flying Wallenda as I picked my way down the path. Betsy thought I resembled a water buffalo in heat.

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Travel -: Planning to send your child on a flight alone?

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Planning to send your child on a flight alone? Jul 12th 2011, 20:23 NEW YORK (AP) â€" Sending your child on a flight alone can be overwhelming for a parent â€" from packing the right things to making sure the kids are fed. Adding to the confusion, not all airlines follow the same rules, or charge the same fees for children flying solo. Yet hundreds of thousands of kids fly on their own each year â€" about 160,000 on Delta last year alone. Delta was the world's largest airline in 2010 before being displaced when United and Continental combined. Here are the general guidelines on unaccompanied minors and some do's and don'ts to avoid problems at the airport. Booking Reservations are made the old-fashioned way: by calling an airline or travel agent directly. You won't be able to book online, but you should still research flights online before calling. Airlines should waive an additional phone reservation fee in this case. Check with the customer service representative about that. You'll be charged between $25 and $100 each way for an unaccompanied minor in addition to the airfare. When two or more children from the same family (immediate or extended) travel together, most airlines charge a single fee for all of them. Most airlines also waive the first and second checked-bag fees for kids flying alone. The fee for unaccompanied minors buys a flight attendant escort on the plane and between flights, but not constant supervision. Children will likely spend some time alone, either on the plane or in an airport room away from other passengers, especially when extended layovers or delays are involved. Now, the basic rules: Kids must be at least 5 years old to fly alone and 8 years old to take a connecting flight. Children between 12 and 14 can fly alone, but they don't have to. Parents can opt to pay the fee to have their child accompanied, up to age 17. It might be a good idea to pay for the service for your teenager, especially if you live in a small town and your child has to change planes at a big hub like Chicago or Atlanta. This provides some insurance that youngsters won't get stuck trying to find a place to stay or calling you in the middle of the night to authorize a credit card if they get stuck somewhere. Extended delays or cancellations are common at the height of summer. To minimize delays, book a nonstop flight whenever possible. If you must connect, avoid using two different airlines. Also choose a flight early in the day. They're less prone to delays than later flights. Most airlines won't allow parents to send a child alone on the last flight out because a delay could mean an overnight stay. Since some booking agents may not remember this, a good rule-of-thumb is not to book a child on a flight later than about 6 p.m. What to pack â€" Kids should have a copy of their itineraries and birth certificates in their bags. The itinerary should include travel dates, flight numbers, departure and arrival times and the reservation's record locator number. You should also include the parents' or guardians' home, work andcell phone numbers. The birth certificate serves as proof of age if the airline asks for it. â€" Snacks and cash for food. Most airlines will give children traveling alone snacks onboard like chips or cheese-and-crackers for free. But long delays can lead to growling stomachs, so give your child some traveling money. About $10 or $20 should be plenty for a decent meal and something to drink. Throw in some gum to ease popping ears. â€" Entertainment. Books, small toys and electronics like DVD players and iPods are great to bring onboard, especially on longer flights. Be sure to tell your child that they'll have to turn off electronic gadgets during takeoff and landing so they don't interfere with the plane's navigation equipment. â€" A day's worth of essentials. Pack a change of clothes in your child's carryon, in case a checked bag gets lost, along with a light sweater or sweat shirt for chilly planes. â€" A cell phone or calling card. Kids will be more at ease â€" and many parents will be too â€" when everyone stays in touch. At the airport When you drop off the child at the airport, get there earlier than you would for a standard flight â€" up to two hours ahead. Parents have to fill out paperwork at the customer service counter and get a gate pass if they want to go through security without a ticket. The adult picking up the child should also arrive early â€" by at least an hour â€" to fill out their share of paperwork. Adults should also bring government-issued IDs. Without them, the child won't be accepted onboard or released to them upon arrival. Don't make last-minute switches for who picks up the child. Changes in the adult assigned to pick up a child cannot be made at the airport. They must be made by calling the airline directly. Boarding and arrival Unaccompanied minors usually board first, along with families traveling with small children and elite flyers. Notifying the airline staff when you get to the gate gives them time to find a crew member to walk the child to a seat on board. Once the child has boarded, stay at the gate until you're sure the flight has taken off. Flights can be cancelled hours after they've taxied out on the runway. When picking up a child at the airport, don't worry if you don't see the child right away. They're often the last ones off. A flight attendant will check the identification of the receiving adult, get a signature and you'll be on your way. ___ Samantha Bomkamp can be reached at http://twitter.com/SamWillTravel

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Travel -: Something to sing about on the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad

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Something to sing about on the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad Jul 23rd 2011, 23:15 Reporting from La Veta, Colo.â€" On a sultry summer's eve, the tables in the courtyard of the Alys restaurant at La Veta Inn are crowded with folks lingering after they've finished their meals, enjoying the music of local singer-songwriter Will Dudley. Hold on to your hat when you cross La Veta Pass The wind blows strong in Colorado The cowboy crooner isn't forecasting the weather, but he might as well be, because some in the audience will ride the rails in the morning up to La Veta Pass in search of more live music. For five summers now, the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad â€" a tourist train operating between La Veta (pronounced lah-VEE-tah) and Alamosa in south-central Colorado â€" has been offering passengers a terrific deal: You buy a ticket for the scenic trip through the Rockies (starting at $30), and they'll throw in a two-hour concert. The concerts â€" accessible only by rail and staged on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through September â€" feature mostly country, bluegrass and cowboy artists. Past performers have included Larry Gatlin, Nanci Griffith and Ricky Skaggs. This year's lineup includes Michael Martin Murphey, the Rifters and Weavermania. Although not superstars, they're talented musicians nonetheless. The concerts are staged in a natural amphitheater, a wildflower-strewn mountain meadow with the towering peaks of the Sangre de Cristo as a backdrop. As Dudley predicted, it's windy atop La Veta Pass. Some baseball caps go flying as passengers step off two trains at what was once a railroad settlement named Fir. An old steam locomotive has made its way up the mountain from Alamosa to the west, while a diesel engine has pulled coaches from La Veta to the east. First-class passengers have paid for the pleasure of riding to the concert in style, in luxurious rail cars once operated by the Illinois Central Railroad. They're reminiscent of another tune in Dudley's repertoire. Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car. Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score. "City of New Orleans" is not only the song's name but also the name of the train on which these cars once saw service. Seated in comfy lounge chairs, guests are served free drinks by railroad personnel who also provide decks of playing cards and rolls of pennies. Card games, however, distract passengers from the passing scenery as the trains chug toward La Veta Pass. From the town of La Veta, the steel rails pass through two tunnels as they climb more than 2,200 feet. The 40-mile journey takes a little more than an hour. "Bear on the left!" a voice squawks through a walkie-talkie as visitors press their noses to the windows. The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad also hauls freight, andbears frequent the spot where 2,000 tons of barley were disgorged during a derailment a few years ago. "Every summer, they come back. Sometimes we see as many as 10 bears in this one spot," explained Ryan Weeks, the passenger services manager. "They know the food's there so they come back every year." After arriving at Fir in late morning, guests can chow down on the contents of a boxed lunch ($10) or a catered hot meal ($12) featuring barbeque beef and pork, plus baked beans and potato salad. Although no buildings remain from the original settlement, the railroad has constructed the chowhouse, the stage and modern restrooms. All the electricity is generated on-site, using solar panels and a windmill to harness that seemingly ever-present wind about which Dudley sings. Keep your boots on at night Keep your coats buttoned tight You never know just when it's gonna' snow They build snowmen in July in Colorado. travel@latimes.com

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