Heading Home

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Today is Friday and our plan had been to spend a few more days in Colorado Springs and then to start heading home on Sunday or Monday. However, it seems that the weather once again is changing our plan. Ahead of us is a rainy stormy front and behind us is a snowy cold front that is evidently to bring some unseasonably very cold weather and quite a bit of snow.
This morning the temp is 33 degrees and there is a small amount of snow on the car. Considering the weather report and the fact that it will only get worse, we decided to start heading home today. We started south on I-25 to travel one last scenic route in Colorado. This one is part of the Santa Fe Trail which was a 19th century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. First used in 1821, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. At first an international trade route between the United States and Mexico, it served as the 1846 U.S. invasion route of New Mexico during the Mexican-American War.
The route crossed Comancheria, the territory of the Comanches, who demanded compensation for granting rights-of-way. Americans routinely traded with the Comanche along the trail, sometimes finding the trade in Comancheria more profitable than that of Santa Fe.
After the U.S. acquisition of the Southwest, the trail helped open the region to U.S. economic development and settlement, playing a vital role in the expansion of the U.S. into the lands it had acquired. The road route is commemorated today by the National Park Service as the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. A highway route that roughly follows the trail's path through Colorado and northern New Mexico has been designated the Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway. We encountered no Comanches today, just lots of prairie dogs in the grasslands and the occasional tarantula crossing the road. The route was very flat with miles of grassland so I imagine that in comparison to many of the other pioneer trails that we have seen, this one would have be a fairly easy route as far as the terrain is concerned. Of course there were the tarantulas and Comanche to contend with.
There were quite a number of towns named on the map, but they were no more than an abandoned log cabin or two from early pioneer days. According to what I've read, there is a lot of history along the trail and many things to see if you go looking for them. We did not stop as we were trying to keep ahead of the bad weather. Our day had been sunny with temps in the 50's and really pleasant but the snow and cold were evidently following us.
Lunch today was in La Junta at a charming little family owned restaurant named The Copper Kettle. La Junta was one of the few real towns along this portion of our route today.
From the Santa Fe Trail we turned onto US 287 and started heading south to Amarillo Texas where we would spend the night. As we neared the Colorado Oklahoma border we began to drop in elevation to 4,336 feet. That was the lowest we had been in weeks. The towns and cities in Colorado post the elevation on their signs rather than the population. I know that when we were traveling throughout the state, my question was always the elevation rather than the population. Somehow it seemed important to know how high we were. I've no idea why, as it mattered not if we were at 8000 feet or 12,000 feet. It was still very high and the air was thin and cold. At least that's the impression one gets when one lives in Florida. The highest elevation in my home town is about 8 feet above sea level.
We crossed the Oklahoma panhandle in 45 minutes and were soon in Texas where the land became absolutely flat. The scenery had changed so dramatically from the Colorado Mountains. This portion of Texas was absolutely flat and we saw oil refineries, grain silos, wind farms, oil rigs and coal trains. Sadly we had left the mountains behind us. It had been incredibly picturesque and just a photographers paradise. We saw the sun set on the horizon this evening, something that because of the mountains, we hadn't seen for quite a while. In the Rockies the sun just disappeared behind the mountains at the end of each day.
The weather was warmer with temps in the high 50's and when we eventually began to see trees again, they had not even a hint of autumn colour.
We reached Amarillo after dark and eventually found a hotel for the night. It was Friday night, there was some sort of huge craft fair in town plus homecoming at one of the universities, (Texas A&M) so hotel rooms were at a premium.
We usually try to be off the road while it's still light outside because at dusk and definitely when dark, the wildlife are out and unfortunately wander into the roads. It's dangerous for the cars and really sad for the animals because when it comes to car vs. wildlife, the car always wins.
Tomorrow we will continue east in the direction of home.

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