Women of the Road: Driving the Country

One of the best things about driving rather than flying across the country is watching the land change. In Michigan, we drove through forest and farmland, and we knew that not so very far away was the Lake Michigan shoreline that we know and love. When you get past Chicago, eventually the land opens up to the farmland (corn and wind, as far as I can tell) of Iowa and Nebraska.

Northeast Colorado brings you through what is usually dry ranchland, but this year the heavy rains have turned Colorado green as far as the eye can see. It’s startling if you are expecting yellow grasses to cover the hills. As we got closer to Estes Park this week, we noticed first a lot of cows roaming the land, and then between Sterling and Greeley we saw more of what might be the factory farms—enormous numbers of cows in small fenced-in areas. Those farms you can smell before you see them.

Today we drove from Estes Park to Arroyo Seco, a small town near Taos NM. Along the way we passed the Rocky Mountains, very green as I mentioned before, Pikes Peak, and then the land started to dry out a bit and we started to see more sagebrush. The dark, carved Spanish Peaks in southwest Colorado were brooding and beautiful, and the mountains started to become lower and flatter on top. Now we are amidst sagebrush and piñon trees. It’s a beautiful journey.

We made a few stops along the way.

First, along with my sister-in-law and her kids, we went to Casa Bonita, a ridiculous Mexican restaurant in a Denver suburb. I was there last fall with her, and I enjoyed the cheesiness of it so much I wanted to share the experience with my kids. You can read more about it at my blog post about Denver last fall. But suffice it to say, there are few Mexican restaurants that feature cliff-diving, Wild West shootouts, pirates, and gorillas. They’ve got it all, and even the teens got into the spirit of it. The restaurant requires that everyone buy an overpriced meal to enter, and they have a reputation for terrible food, but it actually wasn’t that bad, so that was a bonus.

After lunch it was time to part ways with my sister-in-law, her kids, and along with them, Allison. That was a sad moment, even though I know she will have a blast with her aunt and cousins. But she’s never been away from us for so long (2 weeks!), and I’m also thinking that at 12 years old it may be the last time I get such a demonstrative and earnest farewell from her.

We headed south and east to New Mexico, with a long but rewarding detour to see Bishop’s Castle about half an hour outside of Pueblo. Jim Bishop has been building this castle, purported to be the largest one-man construction, for decades. It is open to the public. It’s an amazing piece of work. Nothing you’d want to live in, you understand. But there are turrets and a network of stairways and metal walkways spiraling up the structure. The girls explored every inch of it and went very high up. I tried not to think about it.

I personally could not bring myself go up too high. Being of a not petite nature, and seeing as my feet were about twice the size of one step, it just didn’t feel right. Today I came to appreciate the concept of building codes a bit more.

Jim Bishop is not happy with the government and taxes and bureaucracy, which he has written about on numerous signs that are hanging somewhere between his partially-finished moat and the portapotties lined up outside of said moat. He also has a sign about the fact that a man who pretended to be helpful to the Bishop Castle “cause” was pocketing the donations. Another sign pointed out that the street vendor outside the moat (no one was there today) has no connection to the castle and therefore does not pay his share in terms of port-a-johns and trash collection.

I had to tear them all away from the castle to finish the drive to Arroyo Seco. We were all very ready to get here and to eat supper tonight. We are staying in a rented adobe that is currently up for sale, and it seems obvious that landscaping is no longer a priority. Still, the place is the perfect size for us, and the girls fell in love with it and the surroundings. We can walk out on part of the roof and watch the sunset over the desert. It feels like we have the countryside to ourselves, even though we know other homes are not far away. Plus it has the all-important good wifi connection!

I’m tired. Driving without a backup driver is a lot of work. But it’s fun to see the kids reacting to new and different things. And tomorrow Taya will begin to show us what life in Taos was like. We’re looking forward to it.