Our Adventure along the Santa Fe Trail

Labor day weekend was approaching.  Timm and I had spoken a while back about me finally coming to Lamar and I had mentioned that Labor Day weekend would probably be the soonest I could come.  But when I said, "do you still want us to come out?" he seemed a little taken surprised.  But then he got very excited. - Exhibit One

So even though, don't tell him, but we weren't super geared up to drive all that way after a long couple weeks at work and school.  We jumped in the car and started off around 3:30 on Friday afternoon.

 The first 110 miles - to flagstaff were rough. Lots of traffic, especially RVs and trailers that were clogging the road.  But once we hit Flagstaff, it picked up.  This was the scenery for then next 4 or 5 hours.  ugh!

We passed the tiny town of Two Arrows...

 Followed immediately by the next exit town of Two Guns.  There's gotta be a story behind that.  I'm gonna have to research it sometime - I was a little disappointed that Two Guns didn't have two giant guns visible from the freeway, like Two Arrows did.

 Timm told me it was a tradition to stop and take a picture at the Continental Divide (both times he took the boys up, he took pics of them there) but it was dark and the guys wouldn't have it... so all I got was a blurry picture through a dirty windshield.

 

To give you a little sense of where we are headed, here are some visuals.

It is 820 miles from Anthem Arizona to Lamar Colorado. Knowing that we lose connectivity, as we get closer to Lamar,

I pulled up the navigation on my phone and had Trevor right it in a notebook for us. 

 

Unfortunately, when we hit the circled line - that was where our directions led us astray.  The directions said to take US160 to Potter Drive and then hit 50.  That was incorrect.  We should have taken 350, where 160 splits off.  But we instead took 160, per our directions.  That being the case, around 3:30am MDT, we were smack dab in the middle of a dark, two lane, very lonely country road - when we ran into some wildlife issues.  Literally, ran into... 

We saw two of these - Does, who had just crossed across the road and were on our passenger side.  But that dang 2nd doe - looked up, and darted back in front of us.  I knew there was no missing it. 

 (Artist's rendition of my face)

BANG!!!  Then all I saw was white.  Didn't know if I died, had an aneurysm or or what.  Never once did the stupid Air Bag cross my mind.  - That is, until it punched me in the face.  When the airbags deploy in a Land Rover, it automatically cuts the engine (so you aren't driving blind, I guess.)  Once the white faded, I made sure everyone was ok and assessed the damage - The front window was shattered - correction, cracked.  It's shatter-proof glass.  Both front airbags deployed.  (FYI - that doesn't feel good.)  These pictures are in the day, but my initial assessment was in the dark.  I was lucky enough to have put a flashlight in before we left.  The car started back up, but was making a noise.  We got out and looked, the right fender was bent into the tire, but with the help of my handy dandy vice grips (or as Tay called them when they were holding my hood up before I left, my Ghetto tool), we were able to pull it out and continue on our way.  Here is a look at the damage in the light.

 

 

 

 So we loaded the deer up in the back of the car and proceeded.

Just kidding.  I have no idea what happened to the deer after everything went white.  And no, I did not go back to look for it.  Sorry animal lovers.  My #1 concern was on getting me and my boys into civilization (or as close as we could get in Eastern Colorado.)

We actually were very blessed in this.  The car sits high enough that the deer didn't come up over the hood.  I was driving instead of Jake - as a 17 year old with limited experience would follow gut reaction - which would be to swerve.  Had we swerved, going 65, we likely would've rolled.  And the car was still functional and we were all unharmed, so we proceeded on.

The boys went back to sleep and I continued to look for US50 - which was no where to be found.  As my fuel gauge was getting lower and the clock was moving later and later, I was getting worried.  Many prayers were said to help me know whether I should turn back or not.  We passed through a couple of "non-towns" - called towns but with no gas stations or any lights on at 4am.  But I felt like I should still go straight.  As I hit 30 miles left on my gauge, I pulled into the town of Springfield.  Quite honestly, I wasn't sure which state Springfield was in at the time - we were very near Oklahoma, Texas, & Kansas.  But as it turned out, it was Colorado.  And there was a sign that said Lamar 48 miles.  And even better, there was a gas station open.  So I filled up, wiped the chemical powder off of my face, got a Diet Coke, as now it was 5am and I had not slept and confirmed with the woman working at the station how to get to Lamar.  As it turned out, I had gone the "long way", circling back behind Lamar and coming in from the East.  The cool thing about that route, was the wind farms, which I passed at about dawn.

And within 20 or 30 minutes of that, I found this.

And we found Timm in a dirty little apartment.  But we were never so happy to see him!  He came out and looked at the damage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And pulled some stuff off so it could drive without issue.

Then, while Trevor and Taylor slept, Timm, Tanner and I went to check out the town.  And get Doughnuts Here.

This is the town:

Tanner's comment was "it looks like the town from the movie That Thing You Do"  which is a movie set in the 50's.  Which coincidentally enough, if you look at the picture blow, that was actually from the 50s, the town has not changed much.

 This is at the Train Station, where Timm's assistant Coach Tom was dropping one of their girls off.  Tom went back to the apartment and helped Timm ensure the car was drivable.

And of course we went past here.

 

This is their Gym.  it is really nice.

We laid around and rested for a bit - still no sleep for me.  Then I cleaned their disgusting shower so we could get ready for the day.  From there we went to Walmart - AWESOME.  OK, it was just like every other Walmart, but whatever.  Timm went to pay his rent and complain about the boiling heat - the AC wasn't working.  The Landlord offered him a new apartment, fully furnished with a Washer and Dryer and all utilities included, for $160 more a month.  He took it.  It worked out great, because that was where we would end up sleeping the next two nights.

 

The Athletic Director had invited our whole family (and Tom) to Dinner with him and his wife at Chez Duvall - the fanciest place in town (which wasn't really in town, but in the next little town.)  We passed this on the way.

It was cute.  The food was fine, albeit a little price.  Probably wouldn't have chosen to take my boys there for expensive hamburgers had I done the choosing.  But it was nice to meet them.  They were very good people.

That night, we opted to hit the "Loaf N Jug" - similar to 7-11 for a Redbox video and then went to the old standby, Walmart for treats. But alas, I didn't see any of the movie.  I crashed.

The next day, the boys slept in.

 We went over to the gym to look around and played a little dodge ball and volleyball.

 We just chilled, which was nice.

 They snuggled... LOL

 and played video games.

Then we went to "Tanner's Favorite place" - which I think is actually Timm's favorite place for Chinese food for dinner. - And of course Tom came too.  It was like he was the "Alice" to our family. he he he.

After dinner, the guys helped move some more stuff from the old apartment to the new one.  Then we had to go get shakes at the famous BJs.  They were good.  Tom came too. :)

We just chilled that night and watched the movies we had slept through the night before.  I think someone was enjoying our visit.

The boys wanted to leave early, but Timm wanted us to stay and go to breakfast with him (and Tom, of course) at the famous Hickory House.

It was fun to hang with them a little longer.  Then we said our goodbyes and headed on our way.  Taylor drove.  Here is the scene headed out of town.

 

Pretty farm country  Very rural.  Which is nice, except when you are out of gas... Yep, the trip home was not to be without its issues.  We were about 10 miles outside of Trinidad when the car stopped.  I was PEEVED - to say the least.  And I think the lack of sleep and saying good bye got to me because the frustration boiled over when I called Timm and said crying, "This is the trip from HELL."  Ironically I hadn't shed a tear over the deer incident - took it very in stride.  But this was the last straw.  He said he'd come pick us up - but we were 2 hours away from him.  So I started to walk.  Taylor being upset because I had yelled at him, apparently started to walk too, so when the sheriff pulled over to ask me if we were ok and if I knew the "red headed" (hee hee - red headed) guy walking the other direct (away from town - super smart Tay), he thought it was a domestic issue. lol.  But I told him that was my son and then the nice Sheriff took me into town to buy a gas can and some gas.  He also told me I was lucky I didn't encounter a rattlesnake walking in the barrow pit - nice. Once the kind Officer brought me back and our car started up - we were on our way - riding off into the eventual sunset... it is a long ole' trip.

Around midnight we finally got home.  It was awesome to see Timm.  But I am thinking next time, it is worth the price of airplane ticket just to have him come here.