Road Trip

1412 miles from home.

It snowed today. When we got up in the morning in Santa Fe it was coming down lightly and as we drove south towards the Lone Mountain Cattle Company ranch it got more intense, but it still wasn’t sticking to the ground. As we went through Madrid we both agreed that the snow made the town look nicer. As we crested the last hill towards the gate at the ranch the snow stopped. But that is the way it went all day, sometimes it would be coming down (well, mostly sideways, because of the constant winds) and other times it would almost clear up. The photo above shows the Sales Office for tomorrow?s big Waygu beef auction during one of the snowy times.

We visited with Scott and James for a while before it was time for lunch. The folks here have been really great to us, we have been invited to eat every meal with the crew and we don?t have to even once clean out a cow stall or haul hay or anything. We?ve eaten one meal a day so far there, today?s lunch was chicken quesadillas, last night was fried catfish and the night before was waygu burritos. Tomorrow we will probably eat lunch with them, because afterwards is the big auction that is a definite must see.

We made 2 half-hearted attempts at caching today. One was near an outlet mall, but the GPSr was pointing .17 miles down a dirt road, usually that wouldn?t stop us, but there was a big official road closed sign and actual construction happening on it. The other was on the side of a very busy 4 lane divided highway. Did I mention it was snowing, windy and cold?

1389 miles from home.

We were supposed to spend a second night in the Casita in Madrid, but it was a bit more rustic than they lead on in the lovely web site for it, so we moved up the road 30 miles to a HIE in Santa Fe, NM.

Donna and I walked through downtown Madrid early this morning and the main drag through town (20 MPH) is lined with artsy type galleries and stores. Quite a bit of it is way out there and brief glimpses of the artists/residents leads me to believe we have stumbled into a LOST like time travel event that dropped us into the late 60’s. The town must put up gates and travel en masse to Burning Man every year.

The photo is of the 1830’s San Francisco Church in Golden and is reportedly the most photographed sites along the Turquoise Trail and I was just trying to do my part.

Speaking of the Turquoise Trail, we did find 4 caches along NM14 today in between visits to see Donna’s brother Scott, his wife Beth and nephew Baby James at the Lone Mountain Cattle Company’s ranch.

1394 miles from home.

Took this photo on our early morning walk from the hotel to a bagel place a 1/2 mile up the street. Pikes Peak dominates the western sky line of Colorado Springs. You can kind of see why someone would want to live there. I might even like it if the population could be reduced by 90% and they didn’t have snow and winter weather and, oh nevermind, I wouldn’t want to live there.

Today was a long day of interstate travel and even though Donna helped with the driving (don’t tell Dollar Rent A Car that) it still left plenty of time for me to come up with topics from the trip I want to post about, but just don’t seem to have the time to tell them.

• Ford Mustangs
• Satellite Radio
• Lunch in Hullet, WY
• Three Corners
• Winds May Be Gusty signs

We had lunch in Vegas, baby. No we didn’t take a wrong turn in Albuquerque, it was Las Vegas, New Mexico.

We only stopped for 2 geocaches today.

LOST was on tonight, but we didn’t watch it because we have no TV here. We didn’t think we had internet access here either, but it turns out we do.

1334 miles from home.

We spent breakfast, and an hour after, trying to convert our B & B hosts into geocachers. I don’t think we succeeded, but they instantly grasped the business end of it. They might try and hide a B & B themed cache in their little display for the Inn at the end of the road they are on .

We then spent the next three hours geocaching (found 3 of 4) in Scottsbluff & nearby Gering, Nebraska and visiting the Scottsbluff National Monument.

We spent the next 5 hours driving to Colorado Springs via I-25 and the outer loop around Denver. Why we ended up on the Interstate and not the planned back roads is a good story, one that involves the corners of multiple states coming together that I hope to all about write later, but as usual there is not enough time in the day to do it now. This vacationing is hard work.

1365 miles from home.

We have been as far away from Aiken as we will be on this trip and also the farthest north, both of which occurred today. Now we start to work our way south. Up until this afternoon it has been cloudy or rainy or cold or some combination of all three, but around midday blue sky started to show up, so now we are just down to cold, but just at night the days should be pleasant (about like early February for Aiken.)

Speeding north on I-25 in Wyoming yesterday there was a large quantity of black animals off to the west, at first we thought they were cows, but then realized they were buffalo. At the posted speed limit of 70 MPH they were gone from view before my synapses could register that maybe I should take a picture.

Speeding east on Wyoming 24 this morning they was a large quantity of small black animals not far off the road to our right, at first we thought they were goats, but then realized that they were wild turkeys. At the posted speed limit of 65 MPH they were gone from view before my synapses, etc.

The deer up here are fearless. They stand along the side of the road grazing and pretty much ignore us. That ignoring thing works both ways though, as there are quite a lot of dead ones along the road too.

So far I am 0 for 2 when asking for Coke in a restaurant, they have had Pepsi, which I have politely declined.

Devils Tower is awesome. On the way up the rain was sporadic and occasionally the clouds would thin out enough that we would almost need sunglasses, but mostly the skies were gray. I told Donna that I thought it would be cool if I could get a shot of the thing with the top half shrouded in clouds. She didn’t want that at all, she was hoping for a nice blue sky. Turned out we both got our wish.

Three geocaches today.

1429 miles from home (as the crow flies.)

Jackalopes appear to be bigger than either jack rabbit or antelope. Unfortunately we weren’t here during their hunting season, June 31st between midnight and 2:00 AM, or I would tried to bag one.

Don’t ever rent a car from Dollar Rent A Car in Denver. Very slow counter service, I was eighth in line and it took nearly an hour. To amuse herself while I waited, Donna called the 1-800 number for the company and complained.

There are cattle gates at all the interstate entrances.

I-25 in Colorado is straight as an arrow, but when you get to Wyoming it starts to have a bend or two every 5 miles or so.

I think they need a census recount in Chugwater, WY. The sign on the way into town said there are 244 residents, but when we drove through it didn’t seem like anyone was home.

We found 4 caches along the way from Denver to Douglas as excuses to stretch our legs.