Month: June 2019
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Day 27: Trail landmarks part one
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Cheyenne, WY to Casper, WY My first stop was the Fort Laramie National Historic Site. The grass really smelled sweet there. Of course, I hit the visitor center and watched a great NPS video. Fort Laramie was established at the confluence of the Laramie and North Platte Rivers. It was a rest and provisioning stop…
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Day 26: Built by the railroad
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Silverthorne, CO to Cheyenne, WY Father’s Day. Left a Happy Father’s Day to my Dad on Facebook. In the elevator I saw a dad with two adorable boys and wished him happy Father’s Day. Sweatshirt weather. Loving it. Left Silverthorne. Went through the Eisenhower Tunnel, which takes I-70 under the Continental Divide. (I was recrossing…
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Day 25: The world’s highest Starbucks
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Buena Vista, CO to Silverthorne, CO A sunny and cold morning. 42°! Drove to Leadville, the highest city in Colorado at 10,151 ft. Took a walk down the main drag, Harrison Ave. Families with little kids, runners from a race, tourists like me, and maybe a few locals. Sat on a bench and watched the…
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Day 24: A New Urbanist vision
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Pueblo, CO to Buena Vista, CO Left my hotel in Pueblo a little later than normal. Thought about what Blake said about kissing the joy as it flies. I am feeling joy, but I know it’s not going to last forever. I can’t hold onto it, so I kiss it as it flies. I listened…
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Day 23: Coal wars, steel mills
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Clayton, NM to Pueblo, CO In the morning in Clayton (alt. 5,056), 51 degrees and breezy! Loving it! A beautiful day. Back to Oklahoma and visited Kenton, the westernmost town in that state. Tidy little town with one store (the Kenton Merc) that was closed, and three B&Bs. I drove to Black Mesa Nature Preserve,…
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Day 22: Heaped on high horizons
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Liberal, KS to Clayton, NM Loving the freedom of this trip. The freedom to go wherever I want. Back in Oklahoma, stopped at a coffee shop, Urban Bru, in the tiny Panhandle town of Goodwell. When I got there, there were a few young men customers, one wearing a cowboy hat. The barista was really…
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Day 21: No man’s land
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Enid, OK to Liberal, KS Finally a beautiful day. It is 75° with humidity 40%. I am out of the punishing heat of the South. CVS has made this trip a lot easier by being everywhere and having everything. Still in Enid, I went to the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center. The Cherokee Strip, officially…
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Day 20: Happy midpoint day
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Tulsa, OK to Enid, OK Today is the midpoint of my trip – 19 days since I started, 19 days till I’m done. The midpoint of a trip usually represents the farthest away you get from home, and when you start returning home. In this case, that isn’t true because I am flying home. But…
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Day 19: Tulsa tough
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Fort Smith, AR to Tulsa, OK I found a hipster coffee shop, Fort Smith Coffee Co. It’s in a former gas station, in a lovely reuse. Left Fort Smith. Entered Oklahoma and stopped at the state welcome center. It had concrete tepees with picnic tables in them and a roof over them. I stopped to…
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Day 18: Up the flooded Arkansas River
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Little Rock, AR to Fort Smith, AR While walking to the Clinton Center, saw some flooded-out areas along the river. Went to the Clinton Presidential Library. There was a great exhibit called Washed Ashore – art made out of petroleum-based waste found on the beach. Some of the art was playful and some was beautiful.…