Sept 28 – Day 21 – We woke up to rain. It was running ahead of schedule. Fortunately, our car was about 10 feet from the cabin door and 2 feet from tree cover that had kept the ground dry so far. We hope to beat it to the Great Sand Dunes NP. We love this area and wish we had more time. They have a place for rail cycling here. That would combine two of Dane’s favorites. There were also many great places for regular bike riding.
We really have enjoyed staying in these little cabins and remodeled older motels. Websites like Vrbo, Airbnb, and Booking.com have made it easy for these places to find guests and for us to find them. In most cases, you are dealing directly with the owner and, for the most part, they take great pride in their facilities. As a general rule, they are cleaner and nicer than hotels, and very distinctive with character. And when traveling like we are, with a car full of stuff and things stuck in every nook and cranny, it is great to have the car parked so close. We were pondering how difficult a trip like this would have been before the Internet. GPS is handy too. Although I love a map, in some cases we have taken slightly different, more scenic routes. If you only follow GPS, you will miss out on some sweet areas.
The rain beat us to Great Sand Dunes NP. We got a photo with the park sign before the rain started, though. At first, I had it on a timer and got a funny one with me running and Dane acting silly, yelling hurry, hurry Then someone else pulled up and took a photo for us. We enjoyed the visitor center. Then I put on my rain gear and climbed about ⅓ to ½ the way to the top of the dunes. It is hard to judge distance in these wide open spaces. Dane chose to sit that one out. Here is a quick video I took when I decided to head back due to strong winds.
Then we took off again. We got ahead of it in New Mexico. We learned of a volcano, the Capulin Volcano National Monument. They closed at 4. We got there at 3:55 and spoke to the Park Ranger. She said the Visitor Center was closing and the road would close TO CARS. Pedestrians and bikes could go until dusk. So they made all the cars leave and locked the gate. We had the whole place to ourselves. It was just over 2 miles to the top. Wow! What a view! Then we rode back down and rode to the gate for a photo with the park sign. That volcano was a nice surprise and a fun ride. We can check off that we have ridden in NM now!
We are staying in Pampa, TX tonight. We want to be in Oklahoma City tomorrow. We have not driven at night on this trip, but the TX panhandle is nothing to see. We are not missing anything, and we lost an hour going back to Central Time. However, the moon was spectacular. I took a photo with my phone as we drove that turned out not half bad, all things considered (i.e., phone camera, from a moving vehicle, through a bug-splattered windshield).
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