Return from Cripple Creek

For our return trip from Cripple Creek, we backtracked to Dalhart, TX, to spend the night. It rained on us most of the day, starting shortly after we left Cripple Creek. We took our time descending through the mountains on those narrow roads, and were glad to reach Canon City and a 4 lane highway.

Canon City is an interesting town. It is located near the Royal Gorge, among other things. I wouldn't mind spending some time there. Should we ever buy another trailer and full-time, I intend to go there. In fact, there are numerous points of interest from the Raton area to Canon City, including several state parks. All beg for a visit.

But today, we just skirted through Canon City. 35 or so miles later, we were in Pueblo, site of our first stop of the day. We always go around on Highway 45 on the west side of Pueblo. There is a nice McDonalds there where we always stop for drinks. We picked up coffee this cold, rainy day. A mile or two farther down the road, I pulled into a Walmart Neighborhood Market for fuel.

We continued around the loop and hopped on I-25 heading south. The rain continued. It would rain heavy at times, then slack off and just drizzle, but it continued non-stop. As we passed through Trinidad, we began climbing Raton Pass. I was glad to descend on the other side. We made another McDonalds stop in Raton, then headed east on US 87. We had hoped to stop at Capulin Volcano National Monument, but the weather was not cooperating, so we drove on past.

We finally drove out of the rain around Des Moines. For fellow travelers, please note that there is a nice rest area with restrooms located on the north side of the highway about 6 miles east of Des Moines. At Dalhart, we stopped for the night. Early the next morning, while it was still dark, we pulled out. The morning was clear until about Boys Ranch, then the fog moved in. We continued south on US 385. Just south of Vega on I-40, the fog was replaced by drizzle. It would rain on us the rest of the day.

I chose this different route home because Donna and I wanted to do a "memory tour." We were able to detour off this route to drive through towns we formerly lived in. First, we detoured through Olton, where I enjoyed my first full-time teaching job way back in the late 1970s. Courtney, our daughter, was born while we were living there. We drove by our old house, which was old when we lived there and is even older now. The school still looks good. The town itself seems smaller. It appears to have fewer businesses. Olton is a farm town, and life has not been good for our farmers in recent years.

Farther down the road, we detoured through the small community of Wellman, where I taught from 1984 to 1987. Since my time there, the school has consolidated with another country school -- Union -- to become Wellman-Union. It was in Olton and Wellman that I had my best public school teaching experiences, I believe. Those were some good kids. Most of them came from hard working farm families. It was a pleasure and privilege to teach them.

From Wellman, we worked our way home, stopping in Big Spring briefly for a late lunch.

It was good to get back home. I discovered 2.25 inches of rain in my gauge upon our return. Boy, we could use the rain. It continued to rain off and on following our return home.