John's Travels

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Saturday 08/30 and Sunday 08/31

Saturday, August 30, 2014 - Day 12 – Denver, CO to Santa Fe, NM Headed out late about 10AM since I had to pick up my back rest from the Sheepskin Factory. 431 miles today, 2692 total to date. It was beautiful sunny 60 degrees when we got on the road. Headed to Hwy 285 and stayed on it all day. The first part was typical Colorado going over a pass, curvy, switchbacks, and fun roads. After that, we were in the valley between mountain ranges. It was very windy, but a nice ride all the way to Santa Fe. Stopped in Bueno Vista for lunch at another old bar that has been there since 1885. We ate quickly as a storm was moving out of the mountains towards town. We got out in time but could see storms all day in the mountains to our right. We headed to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, which was awesome. The park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America, rising about 750 feet (230 m) from the floor of the San Luis Valley on the western base of the Sangre de Cristo Range, covering about 19,000 acres (7,700 ha). Researchers say that the dunes started forming less than 440,000 years ago. It was pretty cool seeing these dunes in the middle of Colorado. We rolled into Santa Fe about 8:30 and found out that most of the nice restaurants close between 9:00 – 10:00PM. Sunday, August 31, 2014 - Day 13 – Santa Fe, NM to Lubbock, TX 379 miles today, 3071 total to date. It was almost 70 as I rolled out this morning at 8:30AM. Today was that day that I said goodbye to my friends Rod and Brook. They stayed in the Santa Fe/Taos area for another day as I started heading back to Texas. I knew that today was going to be warm and boring. I was not expecting it to get as hot as it did. I stopped in Roswell, NM to visit the Alien Museum and Research Center. It was already 95 degrees by noon. It was fun to read all the information and conspiracy theories surrounding the crash of 1947. In my humble opinion, we would have to be very arrogant to think that we are the only living things in this universe!!!