Yesterday, I loaded up on a trip into Colorado and Kansas. I had the car instead of a van, a quick site in Colorado and three sites the following day.
Just a few minutes after getting on the road from Trinidad to La Junta, the Talking Heads' "Road to Nowhere" came on my phone. Pretty appropriate for that stretch of road.
As I passed the Highway 160 turnoff, I debated taking the alternate road in, but decided otherwise. Ten minutes later, as I was stalled behind the first of three one lane roads, with their accompanying pilot cars, I was starting to rethink my decision, but I allowed an extra hour, so it wasn't as critical as it could have been.
The site took 26 minutes, and I had the rest of the day to kill and just two hours' drive to today's site. I decided a detour was in order and drove up to a town that I had never seen before.
When I was 18, I hit the road and drove until my car ran out of gas north of Rolla, Kansas. I was given a ride to a town near the Colorado border (probably Syracuse; after all of these years I don't remember for certain), where they arranged a ride up to Limon, Colorado. All I remember about the guys were that they were from Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, and that they were Jehovah's Witnesses.
So I decided to swing through Cheyenne Wells. I didn't expect to find anything, but I did consider putting up a sign telling the story and inviting the family to contact us (it's a very small town, so if they're still in the area, they would probably get the message if I left it at the post office). I chickened out, though, figuring there was nothing to gain out of it. If they did remember me, I doubt they've spent that much time thinking about a hitchhiker they picked up 26 years ago. On the other hand, I've never forgot any of my hitchhikers over the years.
I took a road that, on further examination, only added even MORE unnecessary miles to the trip, and found myself grateful I was in the car. It was worth it, though, as I stopped at Fort Wallace, a small fort in western Kansas. I went to the nearby cemetery, and walked through it, enjoying the quiet solitude of the moment.The cemetery had a monument that was erected around the end of the Civil War. It is currently protected by a steel enclosure. I walked through the replica headstones (the original graves were moved years ago) of the older part of the cemetary that had once belonged to the fort, and saw the headstone for the murdered members of the German family, a family that had been attacked and several members murdered in the battles with the American Indians that were fighting over the land on these plains. I can't help but think I will be using the story later.
Monument Rocks is a series of outlying rock formations that stand out above the plains and were used as a marker for settlers headed west. I didn't get a close view of them, but saw several much smaller, but equally interesting formations by the roadside.
I drove down past Monument Rocks and saw them in the distance, but was getting aa bit road weary and ready to pull in, needing to be well rested for today's work. Even with as much road as I've covered, it is still compelling to know how much I have NOT covered.
No comments:
Post a Comment