KC to . . .

OK then.  We have left Kansas City far behind us by this time.  The first day out of KC we drove to Pueblo, CO.  That involved driving across Kansas which always annoys me a little bit.  I could go on a bit about Kansas, but I might bore you.  Suffice to say that they have their socio-political proclivities on billboards across the state.  I can assure you that if I had my socio-political proclivities on billboards almost any place in the United States I might risk being burned at the stake.  I’m pretty sure that’s the direction we’re headed.  Other than that, it’s a boring place so maybe it’s good that they raise my blood pressure a bit with their pre 20^th century slogans and imagery.

We burned right on into Colorado from Kansas.  We stopped at one of those tourist displays alongside the road to Kit Carson, CO where we were going to stay for the night.  While we were there we decided that we had enough energy to press on to Pueblo, CO.  It wasn’t long before we were rolling through these little towns in Eastern Colorado that looked pretty impoverished to me.  Once again I didn’t really get a good look at the towns, just the part that the highway ran through.  They all seemed to have poorly maintained small houses along the highway.  It is February and I think that people haven’t started to come outdoors a lot yet. 

When you are just blowing right through a town you kind of make up stories about the people who live there based upon how you are feeling that day and what you see, which may look different to you on a different day.  It is an anecdotal experience.  You are the blind man and they are the elephant.  We have a hatchback door that keeps coming open while we are driving.  The car sets off an alarm whenever the door comes unlatched and we stop not long after we hear the alarm beeping.  We stopped in a little town in Colorado to latch the door.  There was a rundown building right adjacent to where we stopped.  There was an animal’s nose peeping out from under the door which had about a 3”, or 4” space.  I still don’t think it was a cat, although that was Kristi’s assessment of the situation.

One of the high points of our stay in Kansas City was a visit with Jim Page.  I have known Jim casually for years.  I remember the first real conversation I had with him, probably in the mid-80s at the Ruston Inn when we were at a Victory Open Mike.  We had a discussion about socialism.  I remember that compared to Jim I am a bit wishy washy.  There is something about Jim Page that makes me remember almost every time I am around him, and many times it has been to watch him perform.  I’m not sure it was a “nice” conversation this time as we were discussing the horror of the D.T. presidency.  Kristi and I also had the pleasure of seeing one of Jim’s showcases.  He was in fine form and quite conversational about the subject matter in his songs.  The crowd there loved him and he had a full room.

Meanwhile driving into Colorado we were driving into the sun, mountains in the distance.  We move all of our gear out of the car every night which is sometimes a daunting task after a day of driving.  We spent the night at a motel in Pueblo.  The next day we drove to Walsenburg, CO and stopped for a visit with our old friend, Will Dudley.  Will gave us a brief tour of the town and we got to see firsthand where he lives.  He had shown us pictures of his place before and they looked just like the pictures in person.

Will Dudley 2/2017

Walsenburg, unlike the other little towns we had drifted through, looked to be somewhat more prosperous although Will said that there is no major industry there people seem to be employed to a large extent.  After staying for a couple of hours we got back in the car and drove into serious mountains.  I turned the driving over to Kristi just a little bit out of Walsenburg and she drove us all the way to Bloomfield, New Mexico where we are right now.  On the drive we drove into snowy heights which at one point was over 10,000 feet, pretty high for a major highway to be especially if you are from the the PNW where there aren’t any roads at 10,000 feet. 

We stopped in the little town of Chama, CO.  The main reason we stopped is that we saw a sign for the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.  We were familiar with that railroad because JW Sparrow had put it in one of his songs that we used to sing with him.  We stopped, took pictures, drove through lots of snowy landscape which became more and more rugged until finally we came to  stop in Bloomfield, NM, our goal for the day.  Today we went to Chaco Canyon and spent the day kicking around the remains of the Chacoan civilization.  We go back tomorrow for a tour.  There was five miles of the worst road I’ve ever driven.  Maybe I have found myself temporarily on a short piece of bad road, but never 5 miles of it.  I’ll have more to say about this later.