Minnesota and Take a Left

[lhuff]

Sorry for not explaining, I forget that y'all don't really know me. I've got really crappy lungs. Been that way since birth and oftentimes I'll have a lot of trouble breathing and some chest pain. It had started getting bad before I left, but I decided to press on anyway. I'm very glad that I did. No big deal - just normal annoying Laura crap.

[lhuff]

I had set my alarm for 6:30, but the excitement of being back out on the road was too much and my car was packed by 6:30. I took highway 385 to Deadwood just because. It was a touristy as I'd thought. It looked a lot like the small towns of East Texas that I love so much, but somehow corrupted. Dead cowboys don't impress me too much. I mean, my own family was run out of Tennessee after the Civil War for murdering a US Senator who happened to be their cousin. Whoops! They moved to East Texas which was, at that time, no mans land where all the outlaws ran to.

Although, I did get introduced to Chai Tea in Deadwood by a very nice lady in the only coffee shop in town that I could find. It was wonderful. I'm worried, though, that it won't be as good elsewhere,though.

I took Highway 85 back to Interstate 90 and on into Wyoming. Yay! A new state!

I took a side trip to Devils Tower off of Highway 14. It was wonderful. A very impressive sight that once again gave me a feeling of peace. I especially love the legend surrounding it. It seems that seven little girls were being chased by a bear when they climbed onto a rock that started to grow. The bear tried to climb after the girls, but instead only scratched to tower with his claws. The rock grew until it reached the heavens and the little girls were transformed into stars.

I took the 1.3 mile hike around the Tower and had a grand time watching the crazy people trying to climb the thing. It was a very peaceful hike through the woods that wasn't even marred by all the people.

I got back on I-90 to Gillette and turned off on to Wyoming Highway 59. It was a truly barren landscape. I had managed to dive off into coal mining country on a road with only one town over a 109 mile trip from Gillette to Douglas. I saw lots of horses, buffalos, train cars full of coal and dry, brittle looking, scrub grass. In a way it seemed almost more barren than a desert. I think it was the possibility of green that made it that way. Almost like it was an expirement in growth that had only partially succeeded. I don't know. Remember that I'm from Louisiana where we have to wage a constant war against the trees that randomly pop up in our yards if we don't mow for two weeks.

I was going to press on to Cheyenne in a mistaken idea that Fort Laramie was near Laramie, WY. Um, wrong. I spotted the exit off the interstate and decided to pull over at the next town for the night. So here I am in Wheatland, Wyoming in a Motel 6. I stopped off at a store here in town and purchased the worlds ugliest bathing suit and a couple of books on tape. I've just gotten back from taking a nice long swim and soaking in the hot tub. Very, very nice. Now if they'll just make me muffins I'll be in hog heaven.

Laura

[RoadTrippers A & R]

Sorry for not explaining, I forget that y'all don't really know me. I've got really crappy lungs. Been that way since birth and oftentimes I'll have a lot of trouble breathing and some chest pain. It had started getting bad before I left, but I decided to press on anyway. I'm very glad that I did. No big deal - just normal annoying Laura crap.

I never smoked, and can not for the life of me adjust to altitude
They say ya get accustomed to it,,, not here.
I understand your situation.

[lhuff]

Woke up in Wheatland, Wyoming thoroughly rested and ready for the day. I went to Fort Laramie National Monument to poke around. It was supposed to open at 8:00, I got there at 8:30. Unfortunately 8 apparently means 9 to them. I had to wait for someone to come and take my money and then the visitors center wasn't open until I had finished my hour tour. Other than that it was a very peaceful and interesting tour. It was so remote that a rabbit hopped across the trail in front of me and didn't even notice me until he was on the other side of the trail.

After this I headed out to see the wagon ruts left by the crossing of the covered wagons on their way to Oregon and other points west. It was amazing to sit there and look at tracks that had been there for over 150 years. Then I went to Register Rock to look at the grafitti left by the pioneers and other more modern grafitti artists.

It was now time to start heading south. I got back on I-25 and started making my way towards Cheyenne and Colorado. In Colorado I had planned to stop and do some sight seeing and check out a yarn shop I had read about in Colorado Springs. This didn't happen.

I don't know if it was the fact that Denver was the first large city I'd seen since I went around Kansas City last week. Or the incredibly bad drivers. Or the miles and miles of road construction that was not helped by the aforementioned bad drivers. All I could think about was that I must escape Colorado. It became my mantra between the tourettes like fits of cursing and screaming and beating my hands on the steering wheel and shaking of my fist at other drivers. I was either trying to avoid construction barrels, the insanity of people attempting to go 20 above the speed limit on jam packed roads or avoiding hitting people going 30 below the speed limit. I was not a happy camper.

So I kept driving and driving. Only pulling off for a bathroom break and discovering that the entrance back on the interstate had been block and having to follow the worst thought out detour I had ever seen. It was only by chance that I found my way back to the interstate. I didn't stop for the night until I got to Raton, New Mexico a whole 7 miles over the border. But it didn't matter. I was out of Colorado.

I ate dinner at a Mexican Restaurant called the Sands that is owned by a couple from Hondouras. Very very good food. I thought about updating my travelouge here last night, but I was still dropping too many curse words in my prattle to even attempt it.

[lhuff]

I spent last night sitting on my bed in Raton, NM trying to figure out how I wanted to proceed with this trip. I decided that I was going to get off of the interstates and dive off into New Mexico.

My first stop of the day was Capulin Volcano National Monument. Beautiful place. I was surprised to see that the volcano was green. Well, as green as New Mexico gets. There is a two mile drive to the top of the volcano from the vistors center. Boy, that will get your heart started in the morning. It was a sheer drop off the edge of the road with no guard rails and no should. I white knuckled it the whole way and gave a deep sigh of relief when I reached the top. I attempted to do the one mile hike around the rim of the volcano, but the elevation coupled with my crappy lungs soon put an end to that. So I opted to just do the short hike to the crater. I then went down the very scary road again and went back to I-25.

I only stayed on the Interstate unil I reached Las Vegas, NM. Let me tell you, though. Go to the bathroom in Raton. There were no facilities until I reached Las Vegas 109 miles away. Well, there were some, but I prized my good health too much to use them.

I then took US Highway 84 South. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive. I had picked up a new book on tape in Wheatland, WY and found myself laughing out loud at times. It's Janet Evanovich's Metro Girl in case anyone else wants to listen to it. Highway 84 meets up with I-40 for a while, but soon darts off on its own again.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of road construction along the second half of Highway 84, but New Mexico drivers didn't lose their minds and it was generally ok. I gave in to the whole dead Cowboy thing and took a detour to see Billy the Kid's grave at the site of the old Fort Sumner. Then it was on to New Mexico Highway 20.

For a while now I had only been able to pick up one radio station. It was a public radio station out of East New Mexico somewhere that kept playing the cover versions of classic songs from the 50s. You know, Nat King Cole's "When I Fall In Love" being sung by a white doowop group and the string orchestra version of other classics from the 50s. I kept having to go back to the radio to see what they'd pulled out this time. Well, while on Highway 20 I hit a spot where I couldn't get any radio stations. It was a weird feeling to be so far out that I was unable to even get a radio station.

If you're following a map of New Mexico you've probably figured out where I was heading. And if you've read my original itenerary you know that my very loosely followed itenerary has been stomped into the dirt and torn up.

I'm in Roswell, New Mexico and spent a glorious afternoon playing in the UFO Museum, eating at the Cover Up Cafe and shopping for alien related stuff. I even stumbled on a Mexican Bakery and ate my fill of pastries before coming back to the hotel and ending the day with a swim.

All in all, New Mexico has shown me again why I have such fond memories of the place. Every time I've come here I've had a good time. I especially like the Roswell/Carlsbad areas of the state. I'm heading to Carlsbad in the morning after I try to hunt down some kind of alien related breakfast.

Goodnight!

[UKCraig]

You sound like you're having a great time - keep the reports coming!

[lhuff]

Sorry I'm so late in finishing up my field report, but here goes.

I woke up to the sound of thunder in the middle of the night in Roswell. Only I could go to the desert and get rained on. It was weird seeing all the puddles in the streets and in yards from that small amount of rain. Being from Louisiana, I'm used to little thunderstorms like that leaving little to no trace by the next morning.

I forgot to talk about my escapades in Roswell. It seems the UFO Museum is very patriotic. Lots of signs up in support of the troops and the National Anthem was playing at the end of the alien videos. Kind of cool. But I was in for a bit of a surprise when I noticed that the only two people working there had almost incomprehensible English Accents. Sounded a lot like Ozzy Osbourne before the drugs.

The next morning I gassed up my car at $3.29 (eek) and headed down 285 to Carlsbad Caverns. I've been there before, but my cave fetish took hold of me and I just had to go back. I opted for the audio guide this time and it was well worth the $3. I probably would have been ready to throttle the "guides" if they had been there in person (way too perky for me), but being on a little wand thingy it was nice to be able to tell them to shut up when I was sick of hearing them. I wound up spending 2.5 hours there. The only real annoyance was the families that kept stopping in the middle of the aisle and blocking the entire passage-way while they stopped to take photos. Grrr. Also, I kept being run into by this one boy, but I gave him some slack when I heard his Momma call him Trigger. I thought that I'd misheard at first, but then she said it again. It took all of my moral fiber not to ask them how Roy Rogers was.

I did get caught in the rain and got soaked through to my underwear trying to find shelter after I got out of the caverns. I ate lunch at the National Park while trying to dry off, did some shopping and finally gave up and got back in the car. It was then that I noticed that my passenger side windshield wiper had self destructed. What the. This car seems to eat windshield wipers. I don't know what the deal is. I'm not talking they wear out. I mean they freaking explode when I turn them on. Oh well. It had finally stopped raining so I just kept trucking along.

I took a shortcut that my Intrepid Roadtrip Partner and I had stumbled upon the last time we were in New Mexico. The last time we took it we were shocked by all the signs saying that this was cattle grazing land and all of the cattle grates that we had to cross. Well, this time I actually found the cows. They were standing in the road and kept mooing at me as I drove around them. Not one of my brighter moments.

It was now 2:00 and I was still in New Mexico. So, I put the peddle to the metal and headed for Pecos, Texas. In Pecos, I stopped at a Flying J Truck stop for some new shoes (mine were killing me) and a rest stop. I spotted a bunch of truckers by canteloupes off the back of a farmers truck in the parking lot, so I decided to buy some canteloupes off of him. Boy are those good! The truckers, for some reason, thought I was a trucker too and asked me which truck was mine. Then we got to talking about canteloupes and whether or not mine would make it to Shreveport or not. And they actually knew where Shreveport was and had been there. Boy did that feel nice.

I got onto I-20 and started going east. My next stop was at the Odessa Meteor Crater. Not much to see there. Whatever was there in the past got trampled all over by good old boys digging for oil and the meteor back in the 40s. But it's still a good stop. The ladies running the gift store were very bored and I finally just had to walk out of there to get them to end the conversation. Very nice mother and daughter, though. They were raising money for the Relay for Life because one of the 14 year old daughters friends was dying from Ovarian Cancer.

I had decided that I was going to stop in Abilene for the night. But I didn't see any hotels there that didn't make me feel uncomfortable. That's really only happened to me a few times, but I usually try to listen to my gut. I wound up driving all the way to Eastland, TX before stopping for the night around 9:00. I checked in to a Ramada Inn and scooted over to a nice Mexican Restaurant for supper where I was openly stared at. Not sure if it was a stranger thing or a "what is that girl doing alone" thing. Oh well - they can deal with it. I was disapointed to learn that Eastland is in a dry county because I really wanted a Margarita. Grrr.

[lhuff]

I was going home today. It felt good and sad all at the same time. I had loved my time out on the road, but I was ready to get back to my bed and my pug for a good nights sleep.

First things first this morning. It was grey and cloudy outside and I was sitting here with half a windshield wiper on my car. I went into the nearest Auto Zone in Eastland and did my best southern belle routine (you've got to do that in Texas - just one of those things) and got the guys to rip what was left of my wipers off for me and put new ones on. Yay - I need no longer fear the rain.

I remembered that Eastland was famous for a horned toad. Let me tell the story real quick. It seems that back in the 1870s or so, Eastland built a new courthouse and for some reason, the local judge stuck a live horned toad into the buildings cornerstone along with a Bible and other assorted goodies. Well, in 1929 the town was tearing down that old courthouse to put up a new one. When they opened up the cornerstone they discovered that the toad was still alive. He went on display and even met President Calvin Coolidge before succombing to the inevitable. The town was so upset that they embalmed Old Rip and laid him to rest in a glass coffin in the front window of the new courthouse where he still resides today. If this sounds familiar to you Looney Tunes Fans, this is where they got the idea for that cartoon about the singing frog that came out of a cornerstone.

As I was standing on the front steps of the courthouse I hear a man's voice asking me if I believe it or not. I turned around to see a nice Sheriff and told him that I didn't know. I had decided to keep an open mind about the whole matter. He told me that a lot of odd things had happened in Eastland in 1929 and sent me down the street to look at another marker and then come back to talk to him. Well - it seems that Eastland is the proud spot of the last mob lynching in the state of Texas. They killed a robber/murderer who had committed his crimes while wearing a Santa Claus suit. Ok then. So I went back and thanked the Sherriff for the interesting tale and marked down Eastland for further investigation.

I had timed it so that I would hit Dallas/Fort Worth around 10 and miss a lot of the traffic. I detest driving through big cities. It's just a Laura thing.

My last stop of the trip was at my favorite knitting shop in the world, Stitches and Stuff in Longview, Texas. I managed to spend $120 after the 15% July sale discount, loaded my goodies into the car and went home.

Oh my is Shreveport depressing right now. You can see the moisture in the air. Literally. It has rained off and on since I pulled into my driveway. The Red River has overrun into its flood zones, my backyard is one giant mud puddle and the mosquitoes are everywhere. Blech. Not exactly how I'd imagined home while driving through the Bad Lands, etc. But I was still happy to be here.

[Mark Sedenquist]

I was going home today.... The Red River has overrun into its flood zones, my backyard is one giant mud puddle and the mosquitoes are everywhere.

Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for the field report -- sounds like you had quite a road trip adventure!

Mark

[UKCraig]

Well done on succesfully making it home... these solo trips really are the best, aren't they? I can't imagine taking a trip with anyone else for quite some time!!

Sounds like you had a lot of fun -- thanks for the updates!