Bar D Chuckwagon Dinner Show

June 17, 2011

Got to Durango, Colorado yesterday afternoon and checked into the General Palmer Hotel, right next to the train station. Very opulent, old world Victorian hotel restored recently to its former glory.

Just had a nice breakfast and I'm sitting in the lobby, as one of the Durango-Silverton steam engine trains is pulling up to the depot next door, with the bell clanging and the whistle blowing. For a Western history buff, it doesn't any better that this.

Last night, I attended the Bar D Chuckwagon Dinner Show, just north of town, in the tall pines. Really a wonderful show, with great music and comedy. They opened with "Rawhide", then segued into "The Navajo Trail" and then Marty Robbins' "Big Iron," all done with flawless harmony and hilarious sound effects ("Whip-hyeeeaaa!"). From there the show just got better and better. Laughed as much as I did at the Comedy Store in Hollywood, which is saying something.

I'm presenting Durango a Top Ten Western Town Award tonight on Main Street. They're closing off the street. The mayor will be there. Won't be a problem praising this wonderful, Western town.

"No more motels for 150 feet."

—A sign on an old school Durango motel, which has one of those new, pre-fab express hotels plopped down right next to it