Day 4: A Flock of Seagulls

May 25, 2019

What do "men working" and "rivers in the southwest" have in common?  Both require a sign to let you know they exist.  Yes, we're back in the dry zone, having passed through the remainder of Kansas and a good portion of Colorado.  And holy flat, Kansas is flat.  Fluh-HAT.  Like, Kansas puts the "eff" in "flat".  God must have made Kansas, and then made the Rockies by way of apology.

At one point we just pulled over and looked around 360 degrees, the world falling away in all directions, and we both remarked about the curvature of the earth.  To the south, a long low (yes flat) line of white clouds marked the horizon, looming like a distant wall of ice just visible through the haze of several hundred miles.

We'd left Colby just after 8 AM, and headed southwest toward La Junta.  We spent much of the morning being dive-bombed by swallows, intent on picking the bugs off our windshields, or maybe just showing off for their feathered friends.  More than one nearly traded places.

Just before entering Colorado we passed the World's Dumbest Cat.  Paint if you will a picture, of a laser straight road for 25 miles in either direction.  A solitary house sits far away to the left, surrounded by the obligatory copse of trees.  As far as the eye can see, there is just open grassland, and a car passes by perhaps a couple times an hour. 

With literally a million acres of playground to explore, no traffic, and unfettered visibility the family cat was dead center in the middle of the road.  Freshly dead.

We spent the afternoon riding up to Great Sand Dunes National Park, saw the dunes, saw the line to get in, and turned tail back for Alamosa, where we descended like a flock of seagulls, ate and drank, squawked a bit, and flew back out - no rooms to be had.  The wind got vicious and we found out how those dunes got made in the first place, with dust devils visible the rest of the day, some several hundred feet high.

We've settled in South Fork and tomorrow promises to get twisty at elevation, with so many corners the average recommended speed limit is 35 mph for much of the day.  And so ends a fantastic Day 4 of the 2019 Prefrontal Tour, with more yet to come.

Thanks for sticking with us, and for all the words of encouragement.  Until next time...  Onward and upward!