Scenery & Colors

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When we left you, we were in Clarkesville, Tennessee, and we are now on our third day in Durango, Colorado. Apologies for being so long between blogs, but we've been really busy. After leaving Tennessee, we drove through a bit of Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri, spending the night in Kansas City. As you can see, we saw an unexpected bit of fall color in those states, and were both quite surprised at the topography of Missouri; we expected flatland and instead there were low, rolling hills. I reminded Tom of how Independence, MO was one of the main jumping off and outfitting points for the westward pioneers. It was also cool to see Chimney Rock, a sight often mentioned in pioneer journals. The day after that was Kansas most of the day, just barely getting into Colorado and staying in Limon for the night. In Kansas we kept seeing vast fields of a low-growing plant that we couldn't identify, so that night I got on the computer and discovered it was sorghum, used mainly for cattle feed, but can be used as a flour and syrup, too, depending on how it's processed. The original plan called for us to stay in Colorado Springs, but we changed it after deciding there really wasn't anything we wanted to see there (hopefully I haven't just offended anyone who's either from or is passionate about that city!). Instead, we made Durango our home base for three nights, and JUST WAIT until you see the pictures from our activities there!! The restaurant pics are from a place called Seriously Texas BBQ. We ate there Sunday night after our first two choices were closed; after eating there we decided it was all for the best. As you can see it's a very casual place, but the smoked meats were awesome.....you'all know how finicky Tom can get about his bark and smoke ring. We actually returned there again the next night for "buck-a-bone" night. That's right, $1 per rib......so good. And Nancy swooned over the lemon buttermilk pie. So that's pretty much our mad dash across the midwest. Stay tuned for the next blog......you won't be sorry. As always, all our best. Tom & Nancy

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