The One Constant Is Change

Amarillo By Morning may be a great song, but Amarillo In Real Life sucks. It's a dreary depressing town that suffers from poorly planned and marked roads, which makes it difficult to navigate. Of course, my perspective is that of a frustrated traveler. Other opinions may vary.

Day Two of the Great Hunting Road Trip was characterized by change and contrast in just about every way imaginable. Let's start with elevation. My starting point for Day Two - Amarillo, TX - has an elevation of around 3500 feet. After a few hours on the road I was crossing Raton Pass on the New Mexico-Colorado border, with an elevation of 7834 feet.

Then there's topography. The Texas panhandle is devoid of geographical features. It is as flat as a tabletop. The roads are laid out with rulers. From above, it looks like a checkerboard. Once I got into Colorado, however, I encountered curves and mountains. Up and down, right and left - it's enough to make a flatlander seasick. I also saw my first snow-covered mountains of the trip in Colorado. Quite a change from the Texas plains.

The weather likewise changed. Yesterday the temperature was in the mid 80s. I wore shorts and a short sleeved shirt. Today the thermometer never got out of the 50s. Well, technically it did. It was in the low 30s when I stopped for the night. And the wind ... OMG ... blowing between 30-40 MPH, with gusts in the 50s. It was a crosswind today, blowing me all over the road. I don't know how the big rig drivers kept their trucks in one lane. One bonus to the wind: tumbleweeds were blowing across the road like crazy. Kind of neat...

Yesterday I spent all day in one state - Texas. Today I traveled through four; Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.

Another difference - yesterday I experienced only one brief construction delay. Today those damn orange cones were everywhere. Miles and miles of construction and closed lanes. The most frustrating part was that in most of those 'Work Zones' there was no visible work going on. Lanes were blocked, speed limits were reduced, and absolutely nothing was going on. Government at its finest...

The wildlife changed also. Minimal road kill, as opposed to yesterday. I saw small herd of antelope grazing near the highway in New Mexico. I hope they're just as accommodating when I hunt them in Wyoming. Also, in place of all the Deer Crossing signs in Texas, Colorado had Elk Crossing signs. Very cool!

The roads I drove on changed as well, from state and U.S. highways in Texas and NM to Interstate 25 in Colorado and Wyoming. I'll be on IH-25 all the way to Sheridan WY.

Traffic changed from non-existent in Texas and New Mexico to terribly busy and congested in the 180 miles between Pueblo and Ft. Collins, CO. Speed limits were another difference. Texas has very reasonable (read: high) speed limits. In both NM and CO the speed limits are lower, and the reduced speed zones are much larger around small towns. Even the interstate's speed limits are lowered when passing through small and medium sized towns.

In Texas and New Mexico I went miles without seeing another vehicle, and hours without seeing a tree. In Colorado there was plenty of both.

Local radio station note of the day: the Raton NM station I was listening to read the obituaries on the air - all four of them. It also read the police blotter from yesterday. One arrest for failure to appear. No other calls or incidents.

Today's totals: 560 miles and 8 1/2 hours driving time, for an average of 65 MPH. Not bad, but not as good as yesterday.

I'm spending tonight in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Tomorrow should be a relatively short day - around 350 miles, about 5 hours or so of driving time. Then it'll be time to get out in the field and reduce the number of deer and antelope playing on the range...