Road Trip Out West--The Sights
John Atwood
February 19, 2010
Let's take a journey together through a portion of the Southwest and Rocky Mountains. You start in Dallas and head northwest on Hwy. 287. It will take you all the way to Amarillo. The first hour and a half you are driving through typical suburban sprawl until you are well north of Ft. Worth and on the way to Wichita Falls. The first place to stop for the rest room and refreshments is the Jolly Roger truck stop north of Decatur. You have to experience all of Americana on the trip or you are missing some of the most interesting parts. It is one of those huge truck facilities with bad food but lots of everything. If you forgot anything for the trip you can get it here. It is open 24/7 so you can leave as early as you like. After you leave the Jolly Roger you will come to an area of very large rolling hills--one after the other for at least 20 miles. There is an old steam train that runs through this country that makes for a great day trip with the kids. It runs from Jacksboro, Texas to Wichita Falls. When you approach Wichita Falls the land will flatten and except for a few hills here and there it will remain that way all the way to Amarillo. You are now in the heart of Larry McMurtry country--Lonesome Dove, Texasville, The Last Picture Show, etc. This is also the part of the state where the Commanches used to roam and cause great havoc, killing, stealing and generally plundering settlers in the outlying areas. Quanah Parker was the best known of these renegades even though he was actually a half-breed. This is also one of the areas of the earliest development of the oil fields. There is still some production today but it is very small with "stripper" wells only.
You will come to Amarillo after passing through some great quail hunting country and you have to stop at the Texan. It is a large restaurant on Interstate 40 and the ultimate Kitsch aficionado's heaven. They offer one of those 40 ounce steaks free if you can eat the whole thing. All the waitresses, yes, all female staff, dress as Indian squaws or cowgirls. The beef is pretty good and the chicken fried steak equals those you find anywhere. After your fill at the Texan you head north toward Dalhart. You will pass the nuclear bomb assembly plant just north of town although today it spends most of its time taking apart the weapons under the various nuclear arms treaties. After that you will pass the only helium production well and facility in the US. If you use helium for fun or industry that is where it comes from. Again you are passing through some really large rolling hills. It is big country but not so arid and desert-like as the portions of west Texas farther south. Then you are pulling into Dalhart and on your way to Dumas--some gray beards may even remember the old song about the Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas, well you are driving through the real deal. It is mostly silos for grain storage and railroad junctions. The a flatland shot to Texline (yep it is on the border with New Mexico) and to Clayton, NM.
The drive from Clayton to Raton NM is very pretty and the landscape varies a great deal. It is open country with large mesas and sometimes high mountains off in the distance. It is an area that eons ago had a great deal of volcanic activity and there is a park where you can drive a couple of miles off the main highway to the rim of one of the last of these. It is that majestic open country you portrayed so often in the Westerns. Right before you get to Raton you will pass a very large ranch. It even has a landing strip and hangar right beside the highway. The ranch house snuggles up against the foothills of the Rockies. It is a very beautiful locale and as you drive by you will ponder what it would be like to own that place and be the king daddy rancher in the neighborhood. You hit Raton and turn north on Interstate 25 which will take you into Colorado and points north. You should also know that immediately west of Raton is what a few years ago was the largest privately owned contiguous land parcel in the Continental US. It is called Vermejo Park. It comprises 688,000 thousand acres and extends from just west of Raton all the way to Taos and and 30,000 acres in southern Colorado. It has some of the best trout fishing in the US and the largest elk herd in the country. It is a beautiful place, very scenic, remote and I should warn you quite pricey. It goes all the way back to Spanish land grant under the Hapsburgs when Spain controlled the Netherlands. Then is passed to Phillips Oil and a few years ago Ted Turner bought it. I have no idea if he still has it.
When you leave Raton you make your way over the pass. It is not very high but it is uphill for several miles and the weak car motors and heavy loads have a hard time. I doubt those new fangled electric cars would ever be able to make the pull. Then you are into Colorado. It will be a mix of mountain driving and open spaces for the entire trip to C0lorado Springs. The hills and mountains are covered with pine and aspen trees and the open land is brown with sage brush and cut with arroyos and ridges. To your left you will always have the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains in view. They are magnificent especially when the morning sun is shining on them.
Next up will be the great Sand Dunes and park just south of Pueblo. They are a few miles west of the Interstate and well marked. You should give them a gander for the kids. They are huge; each dune is sometimes a couple of hundred feet tall. It is so barren there but you are within sight of the greenery of the forests covering the mountains. The weather patterns there over the millenia have created a gap where there just isn't much moisture. It reminds of those Saharan landscapes. If you have ever noticed on so much of your correspondence or dealing with almost any branch or agency of the Federal government the mailing address is Pueblo, Colorado. Half that town is on the Federal payroll. It goes all the way back to the Johnson Presidency and the Democratic push for more votes. They established those huge Federal processing centers there to create jobs and assure a Democratic majority in that State forever. The don't really do anything there but push paper and you be the judge of whether the political strategy worked over the long haul. Then you are on your way to Colorado Springs. But that is a trip for another day.
China and Japan together hold over 1.5 trillion of US debt and that is only the government owned debt, it doesn't count the debt of private investors. China takes the excess money it earns on its trade with us and converts some of it into Treasuries. Since allegedly the companies selling to the US are "private" I wonder how the Chinese government ends up with all that money. Please note that China cut back by 35 billion its debt ownership of US bonds in December. They didn't want to loan as much as they have been--hmm. www.olcranky.wordpress.com
You will come to Amarillo after passing through some great quail hunting country and you have to stop at the Texan. It is a large restaurant on Interstate 40 and the ultimate Kitsch aficionado's heaven. They offer one of those 40 ounce steaks free if you can eat the whole thing. All the waitresses, yes, all female staff, dress as Indian squaws or cowgirls. The beef is pretty good and the chicken fried steak equals those you find anywhere. After your fill at the Texan you head north toward Dalhart. You will pass the nuclear bomb assembly plant just north of town although today it spends most of its time taking apart the weapons under the various nuclear arms treaties. After that you will pass the only helium production well and facility in the US. If you use helium for fun or industry that is where it comes from. Again you are passing through some really large rolling hills. It is big country but not so arid and desert-like as the portions of west Texas farther south. Then you are pulling into Dalhart and on your way to Dumas--some gray beards may even remember the old song about the Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas, well you are driving through the real deal. It is mostly silos for grain storage and railroad junctions. The a flatland shot to Texline (yep it is on the border with New Mexico) and to Clayton, NM.
The drive from Clayton to Raton NM is very pretty and the landscape varies a great deal. It is open country with large mesas and sometimes high mountains off in the distance. It is an area that eons ago had a great deal of volcanic activity and there is a park where you can drive a couple of miles off the main highway to the rim of one of the last of these. It is that majestic open country you portrayed so often in the Westerns. Right before you get to Raton you will pass a very large ranch. It even has a landing strip and hangar right beside the highway. The ranch house snuggles up against the foothills of the Rockies. It is a very beautiful locale and as you drive by you will ponder what it would be like to own that place and be the king daddy rancher in the neighborhood. You hit Raton and turn north on Interstate 25 which will take you into Colorado and points north. You should also know that immediately west of Raton is what a few years ago was the largest privately owned contiguous land parcel in the Continental US. It is called Vermejo Park. It comprises 688,000 thousand acres and extends from just west of Raton all the way to Taos and and 30,000 acres in southern Colorado. It has some of the best trout fishing in the US and the largest elk herd in the country. It is a beautiful place, very scenic, remote and I should warn you quite pricey. It goes all the way back to Spanish land grant under the Hapsburgs when Spain controlled the Netherlands. Then is passed to Phillips Oil and a few years ago Ted Turner bought it. I have no idea if he still has it.
When you leave Raton you make your way over the pass. It is not very high but it is uphill for several miles and the weak car motors and heavy loads have a hard time. I doubt those new fangled electric cars would ever be able to make the pull. Then you are into Colorado. It will be a mix of mountain driving and open spaces for the entire trip to C0lorado Springs. The hills and mountains are covered with pine and aspen trees and the open land is brown with sage brush and cut with arroyos and ridges. To your left you will always have the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains in view. They are magnificent especially when the morning sun is shining on them.
Next up will be the great Sand Dunes and park just south of Pueblo. They are a few miles west of the Interstate and well marked. You should give them a gander for the kids. They are huge; each dune is sometimes a couple of hundred feet tall. It is so barren there but you are within sight of the greenery of the forests covering the mountains. The weather patterns there over the millenia have created a gap where there just isn't much moisture. It reminds of those Saharan landscapes. If you have ever noticed on so much of your correspondence or dealing with almost any branch or agency of the Federal government the mailing address is Pueblo, Colorado. Half that town is on the Federal payroll. It goes all the way back to the Johnson Presidency and the Democratic push for more votes. They established those huge Federal processing centers there to create jobs and assure a Democratic majority in that State forever. The don't really do anything there but push paper and you be the judge of whether the political strategy worked over the long haul. Then you are on your way to Colorado Springs. But that is a trip for another day.
China and Japan together hold over 1.5 trillion of US debt and that is only the government owned debt, it doesn't count the debt of private investors. China takes the excess money it earns on its trade with us and converts some of it into Treasuries. Since allegedly the companies selling to the US are "private" I wonder how the Chinese government ends up with all that money. Please note that China cut back by 35 billion its debt ownership of US bonds in December. They didn't want to loan as much as they have been--hmm. www.olcranky.wordpress.com
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