Today was a long drive - about 381 miles of 2 lane highway with everything from a 10,700' mountain pass to a 100 mile jaunt straight across absolutely nothing. I could only imagine what the early settlers experienced as they crossed the plains in covered wagons. At least I had air-conditioning and cruise control!!
I was kinda sad leaving Mesa Verde because I knew what we were getting into as we moved onto the plains. There was one point where the road stretched out flat and straight in front of me yet, in the rear view mirror was the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I do have to say that, as we were going over that 10,000' pass, it was kind of cool to know that we were actually crossing the Continental
Divide. As we were driving up, there was a river beside the highway. Almost immediately after cresting the mountain, there was, once again, a river beside the highway but it was, of course, going the other direction towards the east and the Gulf of Mexico. I had never crossed the Continental Divide before.
With about 80 miles left in our journey, I decided to let my Dylan drive for the very first time on this trip. Not 5 minutes after he started driving he says to me, "Dad, what is that up there?" I said, "SLOW DOWN NOW!" Come to find out, a truck pulling a trailer loaded with pipes had it's load work loose and there were a bunch of pipes sideways on the trailer so that they were sticking into our lane. Problem averted but I couldn't help but think if that had happened right as we drove by. Ugh!!
We finally arrived at our lovely campsite. NOT!! Actually, it's not that bad. There are quite a few trees and the temperature is dropping nicely and the bugs are out in force. I'm OK, but poor Dylan is getting eaten alive. There was a sign on the empty ranger station that said, "Alcohol over 3.2% prohibited" What the hell? I'm currently drinking a Single Track Copper Ale from Boulder Brewing Co.....I guarantee that it's more than 3.2%!!! Bzzzzzzzz..........
Tomorrow, we're off early for Kansas. My goal is somewhere around Hutchinson. We'll see.
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