From Grasslands to Taos

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Dear Blogifiles, We are willing to bet that no one reading this has ever been to Elkhart, Kansas...right? And, on a whim of sorts, we ended up there to get to Cimarron Nat'l Grasslands. It was a bumpy 4 miles on a dirt road across prairie grassland, a few oil wells, windmills, cattle, sagebrush, and some tumbling tumbleweeds. When we finally arrived (after every cupboard being tossed into chaos and a few fillings missing) we were greeted with the most incredible sunset across this wide open sky of skies. There was nothing there except 2 pit toilets and a place to camp. For $3.50 with our Golden Age Passport it was a bargain. Not a sound could be heard and we were as close to being settlers in our connistoga wagon traveling on the Cimarron Trail as we will ever be! The night sky gave us a pitch black backdrop for the multitude of twinkling stars which shown down and kept our wagon safe for the night. It is a setting which we will always remember as the other campgrounds tend to all run together in a travel mosaic. Back over the same road this morning didn't seem quite so bad as we watched hawks along the way swooping down for their breakfast. Back into Oklahoma...boring road...small shriveled-up towns where a rest stop is comprised of 1 table with benches and a lean to roof which works unless the wind is blowing. Often times we go through these towns and see everything boarded up on Main Street and then notice a Walmart just outside town; this is progress? Into New Mexico we found a very scenic route through the mountains to Taos. We could even see the Rockies with snow capped peaks in the distance. Taos had snow for Thanksgiving and there were a few patches leftover, just like the turkey. We played tourist in town, lots of shops, art galleries, restaurants, traffic facing pedestrians at every corner...are we in Carmel Southwest? Had a great dinner featuring southwestern cuisine and arrived at our campground with full amenities. With this I must close as Dave is in his jammies and Timmy wants to go to bed, too. We now are in Mountain Time and are progressing westward. love, DWT

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