Colorado Road Trip: Arkansas to New Mexico

Warning: This writing switches verb tense often and is fraught with grammatical errors. Sometimes I write as David drives and then I’ll try to recall the rest of our long days in the few minutes I have before we all fall asleep.

Today we aim for Route 66 and our ranch reservation in Shamrock, TX. Mom had already made me a Route 66 dress 7 years ago when I was taking a trip from Alabama to California and back. I didn’t think it would still fit but I packed it anyway. I somehow struggle into it.

Leaving Hot Springs we take the Talimena Scenic Byway crossing the mountains into Oklahoma. Three of my books suggested this route and Dad confirmed it was a good one. We have loads of driving books Mom has given me over the years. Their pages are dog eared and marked with notations from past trips. I take them everywhere so not to miss a thing. My parents, mainly my Dad, taught us that it’s on the back roads where you meet the real people and see the unexpected. David and I are aware that Koester, watching movies in the back between snacks and naps, will want to travel this way too when she gets older. I hope so. Her sister Katherine is traveling parallel to us somewhere south as confirmed by their dad who is tracking them. She is having a similar drive with my brother’s family. We all plan to meet up in Colorado for a 4-day guided horseback adventure.

The Byway is deserted excepting the few motorcycles winding past us. It takes longer, much longer, than I had planned to finally pop out in Talihina, OK. David grabs some vintage farm pieces he’s using to make his industrial furniture line.

David makes some great furniture and it’s fun to see what he picks up and hear what he plans to do with it. I’m a little concerned we won’t make it to Route 66 by sundown, much less our reservation in TX. We decide to enter the Route in Oklahoma City and not Tulsa. I delete the map and attempt to reroute us. There’s no service – like none on any phone. It just spins around. I ask Koestler to grab me the map from the back and she passes me her phone. No, I say as I point to the tattered Atlas with years of notes and as much tape as paper. It’s also a journal of all of the places we have been or planned to go at one point. Was it always this hard to read? I add readers to my list of things to purchase if we ever get found. We stop at a great little what not store and affirm we need to turn around. This is the first person we have seen in 4 hours.

We grab the Indian Nations Turnpike into Oklahoma City and catch the Route from there. It's still two hours away and by now its noon. 4 hours later it is still 2 hours away? I consider changing my Route 66 dress so it will be clean tomorrow and changing our reservation. We decide to push through Oklahoma and see what we can. We have a hard deadline of reaching Black Canyon NP by Sunday for the horse trip we have reserved and where we meet up with Reid and my Katherine. This seemed real doable until today.

The vegetation hasn’t really changed much since we left Alabama. Still lots of yellow coreopsis, white Queen Anne’s lace and Mimosa trees but slowly we start to see new plants mingling in. The pine trees are shorter and scrubbier. All trees are shorter. The magnolias seem to be gone.

Our drive takes us past huge ranches separated by tiny towns followed by more space and one more ranch sign, probably the owner of all that space. It’s pleasant and we decide to start Grapes of Wrath in prep for the Route. The road kill is pretty healthy and gives us a good idea of what’s out there. A real good idea of what’s out here.

Our day was longer than we’d planned but we made it to Oklahoma City around 5 and made our reservation for David’s birthday party at Black Walnut. Oh it was so good! I called to make sure they were open about an hour before and they said I’d need a reservation. I made one but we remained confused, as by 7 we’d seen only two other couples come in. Why did they make such a big deal about us needing a reservation? Things are really strange.

We managed to get in an hour on the Route 66 as the sun set and we rolled into Shamrock, TX. around 11. We met Lana, the owner of our AirB&B, at the gate to the ranch and she led us to her Remote Barn House on Lone Mound Ranch.

We woke up to a beautiful sun rising over the mesa. Koestler was already up working on her Bible study. I made coffee and joined her on the deck overlooking miles of the ranch. We’d come in late so didn’t know what we would see when we woke up. Oh my goodness. God's country!

While drinking coffee, I noticed some cow skulls littering the ground and texted Lana to see if I could buy one for my ag classroom. We’d already had some of her fresh eggs and grass fed beef delivered to our fridge so I planned on just leaving a bit more if I could please have this great skull. Lana responded that not only could I have one, but if I wanted her to pick us up in the jeep, she’d ride us all out to the boneyard so I could pick out my own. As she toured us across her ranch she explained her process of mob grazing her cattle. The process involves mimicking how herd animals would have grazed in the wild, before fences. They would spend short amounts of time grazing in one area and then move on when predators ran them off, food was deplenished or their waste fouled the feed. The grass would then use this waste to recover and replenish for another herd in the future. Lana moves about 80 head around her ranch at least once a day. I couldn’t stop asking questions about all of her regenerative practices and she was more than gracious to share what she knew. Perhaps I am naïve, but I hadn’t imagined it being done on such a large scale, 1500 acres I think she said. The more she told me, the more I wanted to know. By the end of our morning, I told her I’d be willing to do anything she needed done if she would just let me come stay and learn under her for a few days. I meant it and I'd pay to return and work just to hear more about what she knows. Coolest cowgirl ever and I was so grateful for Koestler to have shared this experience with me. I don't know if my heart or my mind was more full.

Here is Koestler’s early morning account of waking up at Lana’s Remote Farm House at Lone Mound Ranch.

As a morning person, I love being able to wake up and feel bright and active right away. Lots of thoughts run through my head, not in a stressful way but in an “I am ready for the lovely day ahead” kind of way. And as nature plays a part in my morning routine today, I think I can actually start my day off on the right foot. After arriving in Shamrock late last night I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the view, which has always been a fun guessing game for me whenever I travel… the excitement of waking up to new things and new places. So, I walk out onto the balcony of this little cabin in the middle of miles upon miles of land, and just take in the beautiful intelligent designs that make up our planet. I feel this unfathomable sense of “how dare we”! Around 1200 years ago, in the first stage of the agricultural revolution, (9th Grade World History Knowledge can sometimes come in handy) we started to own land and people. We started to disconnect from nature from which we had come and with which we lived with harmony with until then. I can see I forget where I came from and what I came from. On mornings like this it’s easy to contemplate a simpler time when people and nature worked together.

We left the ranch around noon and jumped back on the 66 stopping wherever and whenever. I have this great set of maps that organizes the Route and sites by state. I can’t believe I still have all. Like the books, they are pretty worn down with memories. None of the tourist sites were open but we found more then we needed to entertain ourselves.

Our goal was to camp around Santa Fe but we couldn’t find a spot. Some campgrounds have closed, some are partially open, so then of course the open ones are fully booked. I can’t say I was sorry when we all agreed skip camping and book one of the restored motels on Route 66 in Tucumcari, NM. We were able to secure a room at the Roadrunner Lodge with no problem. They too have a no contact policy so our room was left open with the radio playing music of the era. Koestler thought this was just great! I thought it was just great that she did. After a great dinner across the street at Del’s, we strolled back to our cozy room.

It has been a journey. We can’t believe how quiet it is on the road. On the I-40 we rarely see a regular car. Lots of 18-wheelers and work trucks followed by campers, but not many sedans. So much is closed. Summer 2020 is a strange time to be traveling through the country for so many reasons. But we love the people we are meeting along the way and we are loving this special and blessed time together.