Hello from Evergreen, CO

Hello from Evergreen, CO

Tuesday morning   January 24, 2012   (fourth travelogue of this trip).

Before we get started, I did “wash” the last post by pasting my word processing work in a text editor and then pasting the text editor document in the blog.  It did seem to solve the word spacing problem.  Not a big effort, I just have to remember to do it.

In our last post, I talked about leaving San Antonio on Sunday and taking a leisurely drive home.  Well, that did not happen.  Sunday our GPS program took us on a route that had very few towns with reasonable hotel options.   We finally made a course change in Paducah, TX and headed west so that we could connect with I 27.  We ended up stopping in Plainview, TX at a Holiday Inn Express.  That put us a bit less than half way home (about 450 miles that day).  We ended up crashing after having a great Mexican dinner at a local restaurant.

Monday we left the hotel about 8:00 AM and arrived in Raton, NM about noon (with one hour time change).  The weather was great, but there were some indications that it would snow today (hasn't really started).  We ate lunch and made the decision to drive the rest of the way home on Monday.

We really could not have asked for better traveling weather on Monday.  The same could not be said of Sunday.  We fought terrible high winds most of the day.  At times we could not see more than 100 feet in front of us due to blowing dust. 

We had noted that our route on US 87 in NM took us through Des Moines.  We had hoped to have lunch there to say that we had spent some time in Des Moines, NM.  Turns out the town is very small and like most of the towns in the area, it is slowly becoming a ghost town.

The vast amounts of blowing dust conjured up pictures of the terrible “Dust Bowl” that took occurred in the 1930's.  While the terrible dust bowl conditions existed in a large area of the US and some of Canada, the major impact was on the Oklahoma and Texas panhandle area – right were we were. 

There are lots of good reference on this terrible period.  Here it the Wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

I have often wanted to read John Steinbeck's “The Grapes of Wrath”.  The  excerpts I have seen suggest he vividly portrayed the tragedy and suffering of that era.  What we saw was very scary.  The farmers had really tilled the soil to the point is was very finely divided.  That coupled with the terrible drought they have suffered the past couple of years make you wonder if the conditions might be conducive to a repeat.

We do not have any plans for travel until May.  You never know when that will change.  As a result, our posts will not be frequent for the next few months.  You can check in once in a while or sign up for the email option.

That is all for now.