Along the road going southwest

 

This is the second and final post about my trip from western North Carolina to southwestern Colorado.

Wildorado TX, July 24, 2026 - Yes, we saw lots of wind farms.

Adrian TX, July 24, 2026

We saw several dust devils rise up and disappear in seconds.  I missed catching the ones that were perfectly defined little tornadoes.

Vega - what an interesting cloud!

We did drive through a few rain storms. 

Breakfast at La Quinta Inn in Santa Rosa, NM on July 25, 2026. Tai also cooked me a delicious waffle. The Rte. 66 auto museum was just down the street. We had other things on our minds!

Santa Rosa NM

One of the many casinos were passed.

Albuquerque NM

A whole lot of land where not much can grow.

Small settlements were scattered around, just like the mesas.

You may have seen Jabba the Hutt before.

I was watching the soil turn into these strange black rock formations

And then they were gone...

My first train appeared, and then another within a few miles.

Adopt a Highway Litter Control...

Newsome Resource Center

Shiprock beyond Tai's relentless driving.

Tsé Bitʼaʼí, known today as Shiprock, NM

First view of the San Juan Mountains.

And we were welcomed to Colorado!

Towaoc

 Mancos CO

Coming into Cortez CO, there are little mini-bill-board signs, so you still can see the view!

A domestic view with my son finally home, with wife and dog doing their thing!

And an exhausted me describing something or another while enjoying home-made garbanzo stew! (Fortunately the bruises on my legs come and go quickly...but it was hot, so comfort was the choice over beauty!)

------Yes this was lots of photos...just wanted a completion of the journey all together!

My main emotion is immense  gratitude for my son's helping me move my whole life to a new setting, to be near one of them and to hopefully breathe better!

---------------

Update from Thursday...

I went to the Post Office first thing, and the address change order I'd put in in North Carolina July 22 didn't show anywhere in their records. Sometimes I like that our whole lives are on digital files. So I made a new address change form.

Then to Natural Grocery to sign up for the raffle of a free car. Why not. I got my iron tablets on sale also, to help with adjusting to the altitude. And some of my favorite drink, Reeds Jamaican Ginger Beer.

Walgreens was right across the street, so I activated my account for a prescription that's being transferred. With the medicaid in limbo, I doubt it will be the usual price, but quite a bit higher. We shall see when they fill it.

---------------

Sharing with Skywatch Friday

The land we crossed

We traveled the first part of our journey on very nice non-interstate highways!

 Raton and Clayton CO - 1/2 mile ahead...getting on a different road.

 Capulin Volcano National Monument.  We'd never heard of it either! It's in New Mexico...and due to rain damage the road to it's top is closed. I noticed a familiar road number, US 64 (which goes east/west near home in NC.)

We jumped on and off interstates the first 2 days, then went east the rest of the way on I-40, which I can see from my apartment back home!

 Des Moines and Clayton ahead...which state?  Still New Mexico, just before going into Texas.

Suzanne brought a bit of sage back from New Mexico, where she visited friends, or maybe CO where she visited her sister/daughter, can't remember who.

A train headed west while we went east.

 And back onto an interstate in Amarillo TX.

We stayed in the same motel in Clinton OK which we'd stayed in on our way west 15 days before.

 Early on Oct 8 we drove through Oklahoma City, OK.

 What was that ahead?

 Just one of the interesting sculptures that decorate the cross streets.

We went the Ft. Smith direction...

 This may be my only photo in Arkansas, as we approached the Mississippi crossing over into Tennessee at Memphis!

 The tugboat reminded me of my growing up in St. Louis MO, seeing the same river boats chugging along.

 And there's that weird pyramid building again. Wikipedia says:
The Memphis Pyramid, initially known as the Great American Pyramid, formerly referred to as the Pyramid Arena and locally referred to as The Pyramid,^[5] was originally built as a 20,142-seat arena located in downtown Memphis. The Memphis Pyramid has not been regularly used as a sports or entertainment venue since 2004. In 2015, the Pyramid re-opened as a Bass Pro Shops"megastore", which includes shopping, a hotel, restaurants, a bowling alley, and an archery range, with an outdoor observation deck adjacent to its apex.

We were happy to get to the east side of town to find a motel, thus avoiding morning rush hour traffic.  However there was a lot of evening home-going traffic slowing us down as we drove east of the city into the suburbs.

 Nashville was just a blip on the road as we stretched through the length of Tennessee.

Look, someone built a pyramid shaped roof there! But the bigger cone had more than 4 sides. What does the sign say? I think "Adventure - Science..."  We were on our last leg, heading for our old familiar mountains by that evening.  So I'll save those last shots for another post.