05/22/06: Day 9: Homeward: Monte Vista, CO to Hays, KS
Sign seen on entering the town of Monte Vista:
"Do The Full Monte: Eat, stay, shop, play"
Shots of Last night's Cruise:
Our room door in the Movie Manor Motel: "Tom Cruise"
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Tom Cruise, seen in a scene on screen from the Tom Cuise room of the Movie Manor in Monte Vista
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Before we left town, we stopped for coffee in the local coffee house that I'd noticed after dinner last night. The artist/owner/barista of Muddpuppy's Coffee House makes delicious biscotti, and has delightfully decorated this place in cleverly balanced eclectica. For example: The table tops are jigsaw cut to work individually, or to assemble puzzle-like for larger groups. After picking up a coffee and a triple shot capuccino to go with our bicotti, we stopped in the thrift shop next door, where Karen got 2 pairs of boots for about $5.
We got on the road at 10:25 and tried to make miles.
Karen catches Dan distracted by a low shot from the axe wielding maniac to his right in Blanca, CO
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Dan took this low tree-crotch shot of a local public violonist. I don't know his ethnicity, but his hair reveals deep roots.
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Dan poses at being well, on a bench made of skis in Blanca, Colorado
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But we did stop in Blanca to take a few snapshots of some woodwork by a local artist by his closed shop. And then on up over the final mountain pass (North La Veta, 9,413 ft) in a light, cold rain. Then down, down, down, through Colorado Springs, through Limon where we stopped to look at a (not yet open for the season) museum.
A museum sample of a snow plow in Limon, CO. The Limon Heritage Museum will open for the seaon, next week! Well, the outdoor displays are hard to close.
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Karen aboard another relic at the Limon Heritage Museum. This was taken before we found the faded, weathered sign asking visitors to keep off the farm implements.
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We finally connected with I-70 in Limon where we can no longer see the mountains, and zoomed downhill for a few more hours to Hays, Kansas. We stopped at the same motel we had on the way out at 8:30 p.m.
Down here at only 2,040 ft above sea level, the air seems thick and moist after a week in which we rarely went below a mile up, but frequently thousands higher.
(We'll probably be home Tuesday night.)