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.

Going home

There aren't as many photos, as the road wasn't as scenic, and I was quite frankly tired of taking photos. The 4 days and 3 nights going east were also pretty boring and uneventful compared to the jam-packed days and activities in New Mexico and Colorado.

 We drove from Ooray CO north to Montrose, then went through a pass that Suzanne said was Monarch Pass.

We left Colorado on a scenic path...so I'll share a few of those shots. At that time I was again with my friend Suzanne, who said she "loves to drive." I think by the time we got back to North Carolina she had really just had it.

 We drove past a wild fire which had been burning for a few days.

 But it wasn't near the highway.

There was even a reservoir which we drove right by.

Then our first night was in an awful motel in Pueblo CO.  If we'd known before we stopped, we would have chosen another one down the road.

There will be another post with some of the other states we whizzed through.

Cortez CO - my day on my own

This post is not in order...but I wanted to share my day in Cortez back in September!

After working in the library with computer, I needed lunch. Library had free wi-fi and I could plug in my old laptop! The wi-fi at my son's home is limited and Kendra works at home, so I needed to be elsewhere to do the newsletter I edit.

 Coffee comes with nitrogen here.  I didn't try it though.

There's the truck with the tank to haul water to the cistern at my family's house. I didn't go to wherever they purchase their water however...

 The Pie Maker Bakery was my lunch stop...

 A nice mushroom pastry was a savory lunch.

 Down the street was a mural depicting prospectors...

 Outside of the Pie Makers Bakery.

The radio station is located in one of the oldest buildings in town...and across the street is the other one...

The other oldest building in Cortez...

 And then behind one is the Cultural Center...

 Looking across the main street (US Highway 160)

 An old movie theatre also on that street.

 Next to the oldest building is one called the J.C. Penney Building.

 Some small shops are still located downtown. But we must acknowledge the big box store on the outside of town now.

 Another building sign...they are all squeezed next to each other, so you don't really notice when the storefronts are in a different building.

Facing east along Main St. you can see Mesa Verde mountains or maybe the Las Platas Mountains, in the distance, where Durango is.

And another mural that caught my attention: