Colorado Road Trip: Returning to Alabama

Kat and I slept in one last time and headed to the town of Gunnison where we were to meet up with the rest of the crew. Koes, David and I would head home and Kat would move on to Utah with Reid and Kristin’s fun family. We got into the town and were happy to discover all the shops open. Kat found a few more things and I found a vintage boot store – I couldn’t resist and bought a few. We met the crew for lunch and had fun catching up on the horse trip. What fun!

We all got on the road, some heading west and us east. Looking at my travel books, it appeared we could hit a bit of the Santa Fe Trail (Sites 10-12) and we'd already hit Taos and Santa Fe. The trail was primarily a commercial highway connecting Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. "The route was pioneered by Missouri trader William Becknell. Later, the Santa Fe Trail became a national road connecting the more settled parts of the United States to the new southwest territories. Commercial freighting along the trail boomed including considerable military freight hauling to supply the southwestern forts. The trail was also used by stagecoach lines, thousands of gold seekers heading to the California and Colorado gold fields, adventurers, missionaries, wealthy New Mexican families and emigrants. This made for lots of legends and historical markers along our route." (https://www.nps.gov/safe/learn/historyculture/index.htm)

We also took in the entire Highway of Legends which had no markers, few road signs or paved roads, and no service. It was an old coal mining area and a hideout for Doc Holliday and a few other western characters. I think maybe it wasn't intended to be their hideout, they just got lost and were to embarrassed to admit it so they said, "We hid out there a while".

On several of the county roads we ran into locked cow gates, strange unmarked factories with warning signs and really large, new power lines not necessary to support the ghost towns we rode through. We stayed lost for a few hours and upon finally finding our way out, we all agreed that we’d felt uneasy.

Just outside of Cokedale.

Abandoned homes in NM are all over the place.

And entire towns

We had left late and were pretty tired so we stopped in a little town in New Mexico and finally found a room in Poncha Springs at the Poncha Lodge. Teresa is the owner and, after three months, has finally been allowed to open again. She was interviewed in May about her experience as a small town business owner during Covid closures.

Highway towns hope reopening will jumpstart business

She had spent her free time working on her gardens and courtyard. I was surprised to see so much variety growing in this environment. She spent some time showing me her plants before her brother and his friends rode in on their bikes. They'd been riding in the mountains I'd had to handle in the Road Trek. I’d wanted to hear accounts from the bikers I had seen on the mountain roads. I’m not adding it to my list of things to do, but it sounds like a fascinating way to experience the stunning scenery.

Teresa's pleasant courtyard

David poses proudly at our room

Koes models our comforts and the vintage styled room

We crossed into New Mexico at the Raton Pass, one of the hardest passes for wagon trains to pass, described as an axle breaker – easy to imagine. We stopped for a quick breakfast in some town.

In Texas we found a great campground at Mckenzie Lake. I hadn’t known Texas had these huge canyons and it turned out to be a great spot to observe the always impressive Texas Panhandle sunset.

This was our first time to test the Road Trek’s ability to keep us comfortable with just the generator on – no electrical power. David still hasn’t felt like he’s had the backcountry camping experience he loves, but he was happy to be in a campground. He’s really sweet to us, fixing our beds every night and getting us set up. Likely he doesn’t want us to break anything but anyway, he makes it pleasant and we are appreciative. The evening was amazing. I think Koes and I really like the part where you sit in the chair and have wine and look at the incredible scenery and hear the night sounds and write.

I do not like all the night critters. Especially this guy who had several friends.

As we left the canyons of Texas, we entered the plains again. I loved the Blue Bonnets and other wild flowers carpeting the road sides and the little towns we went through every hour or so. But the towns were so quiet. It’s hard to tell what is due to Covid and what is just the state of these little towns. We would drive through and rarely see anyone and could never expect much to be open. It was clear how much life there used to be in this town. Most have hand painted murals on several buildings representing something important to the town. I always love driving around and looking at these.

Typical small town mural

Most towns have an old theatre and I always enjoy finding them. Some have been repurposed.

Some still have posters of the last film shown.

The owners of the coffee and doughnut shop had to make a pot of coffee and only had ice cream. They seemed really surprised someone stopped in.

Even off the 66, little towns on the side roads are hard to get through without taking a few pictures.

Rolling into one of these towns we see some impressive metal signs welcoming us to the town. Each church seems really excited about us being there, what with their fancy metal welcome signs. In town, many of the stores have signs looked to be made of the same metal and similar designs, and they look pretty new. I come to the conclusion that someone in this town got a CNC machine during the quarantine and made everything possible for everyone they knew – which was everyone between this town and the next. Almost every ranch we passed had the same designs and there were huge cut out bison and turkeys in random places for several miles. Around this time Koes and David both said I couldn't take any more pictures. The trip was over and it was time to get home.

I think David started to take parts off the car just to get me on board with getting home.

I take the wheel again as David grabs some sleep. Sometimes when the drive gets really boring I have to challenge myself to stay entertained. Looking at neighborhood names is always good for entertainment. I’m driving through this completely flat plain and they are selling places in Highland Hills and Midway Ridge??? Then, I pass the old WagonFix Road. I bet you could really get your wagon fixed there way back when. I couldn't take pictures of this stuff either. I think the trip is over and I admit, it's nice to be headed home. It has been a very strange time to travel for sure. We had gotten so depressed listening to the Grapes of Wrath wile on the 66 we had to just stop it and completed Dispatches from Pluto that we'd started in the MS Delta. Heading home we drive over the MS River listening to Rising Tide, the account of the great MS flood of 1927 and how it changed our country. It's been good to revisit the history of our country, both in person and in our books, and to realize that sometimes horrible things have made us stronger, more compassionate, and more united in the end.

Overview of our Route

Fairhope Alabama to MS Delta (Minter City)

MS Delta to Hot Springs NP

Hot Springs to Shamrock, TX

Shamrock, TX to Tucumcari, NM via Route 66

Tucumcari, NM to Taos, NM with a stops in Santa Fe and Puye Cliff Dwellings

Taos, NM to Great Sands National Park, CO

Great Sands NP to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP

Tender Foot horse trip for most and San Juan HWY and mining towns for Kat and I

Gunnison, CO to Poncha Springs, CO

Poncha Springs, CO to Lake Mackenzie, TX

Lake Mackenzie, TX to some state park somewhere

Some state park somewhere to home