Denver to New Mexico to Texas

2 Amarillo, TX

Click it or Ticket!  Helmet law?  Nope!  #doublestandard

Drive #1 Denver to Clayton Lake State Park and Dinosaur Trackway NM

On Tuesday morning we got up, made coffee, and packed the van.  We left Denver at around 10am and took I-25 south towards New Mexico.  Our first stop was in Colorado Springs, or The Springs as everyone in Denver calls it.  We were stopping for a burrito at El Super Taco.  The burrito was perfect.  There was no rice to be found.  We continued driving down I-25 while eating our burritos and then stopped in Pueblo Colorado for gas.  Once we were in New Mexico we turned on US 87 and continued on to Clayton Lake NM where Clayton Lake State Park and Dinosaur Trackways is located.   Our campsite was perfect!  The State Park is an oasis in the middle of dry flat Northeastern New Mexico.  We set up camp and then walked to see The Dinosaur Trackways.  Dinosaur footprints fossils were found and preserved and you can walk amongst them on elevated walkways.  That evening we were told there was a presentation at their observatory so we fought the urge to go to bed and walked to see the stars through expensive telescopes.

We saw a skunk kicking it in the shade at a rest stop

New Mexico

Our backyard for the night

Our happy hour view

Dino Footprint

The footprint of a carnivore

Cool logos

The calm lake steps from our campsite

Francis approved

Nesting Cliff Swallows in our campsite

They had a few less expensive telescopes you could try out and mess with

It's pretty hard to find stars with a telescope like this

The expensive telescopes were in the observatory 

During the summer it takes a while for it to get dark but it isn't cold!

   Drive #2 Clayton Lake NM to Amarillo TX

Now it is Wednesday and I am in our hotel in Amarillo.  Our drive today was pretty short.  We diverted to the panhandle of Oklahoma to visit our 28th state together and then we drove to Amarillo Texas to visit our 29th state together.  After checking into our hotel I found us some BBQ at Shi Lee's Southern BBQ.  Tomorrow we press on to McKinney Texas where we will spend the month.

Our campsite pour over routine

We dipped into Oklahoma

Thanks Google Maps but I think we will pass

Texas has green energy

We drove the extra mile to visit Deaf Smith, a county named after a Texas Ranger

Some BBQ joints focus on the BBQ and not the seating area, or waiting area in my case

They got a write up

The outside isn't fancy either

If you didn't read about how we spent our last day in Denver, you can read about it here.

History Colorado Center

 Denver, CO

The entrance to the History Colorado Center

A Great Museum

On our last day in Denver we visited the History Colorado Center.  We had been riding by it on the bus all month and they had great banners that intrigued us so we went.  It wasn't a museum we could get in for free but it was totally worth the price.  We spent a good 4 hours there and saw all four floors.  The museum is all about Colorado and this area.

There were Legos on all of the floors worked into different displays

Gene and Donna posing with Emmet because.  Everything was awesome except Emmet was missing a hand and had the appropriate facial expression. 

The first floor had a giant topo map of Colorado on the floor

The iconic Welcome To Colorful Colorado sign

You can't even tell I am not by the side of the freeway taking this!

Most of the building had Colorado Stone on the walls.

Step 3 of tanning deer hides is rubbing their brains on the hide.  Glad my hides already come tanned these days.

They had a wing on the 4th floor dedicated to the indigenous people that were in the area and I liked this beadwork

Some more cool clothes and flags too

Put your hip into it!

The next area was all about city planning from the start to today as well as life living in a city.

Everyone just wants to be treated equally

More Lego worked into the displays

Many outdoorsmen became activists for the environment.  Here I am trying a belay ledge

Coors had some misguided ideas about the world early on

Beaker speaks the truth

Early urban planning had 3 different groups line up the streets in 3 different directions all using rivers to align with.  This is why the roads get wonky as you get downtown.

Elitch Gardens has been around a long time

Some people are opposed to the I-70 Project

A Lego version of "The Cash Register" building

Gene and Donna finding our Airbnb

We found a balcony to sneak out onto and get some fresh air and take photos

Another exhibit chose 100 objects to represent Colorado

We have seen the Golden Spike and now we have seen the silver spike

Soon it was time for a snack in the cafe.

A Lego Union Station

A great section on The Dust Bowl

You got to sit through a 9 minute Dust Bowl experience that was pretty cool

Next up was a section on the Eisenhower Tunnel and how it gives city access to the mountains

They also talked about how to improve access.  I swear I didn't alter this survey

There was a section on Skiing and the Ski Culture

Just us Ski Bums

There was a Denver A to Z exhibit which was cool

Fudge!  A Denver Boot!

The first museum I have seen with multiple references to South Park

They cheated a little

I got to dress up too!

They had a Ski Jumping Simulator.  I am not positive you can land a successful jump but it was fun.

Mining is a big part of Colorado's history

They had a blasting simulator.  I blew up the mine real good

Gene did it better and had a successful controlled blast by following directions 

I learned that the mines were all air conditioned by Honeywell

I took a photo of me in an old timey year book and the image was emailed to me

They even had a cow milking simulator

Donna guessing smells

Colorado had a troubled history with the LGBTQIA community but that is improving now

Amendment 2 was passed in 1992 making it illegal to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.  This dubbed Colorado The Hate State and a huge travel boycott really hurt tourism.  Amendment 2 was fixed in 1996 and now Colorado is a progressive state. 

That's our time in Colorado.  We hit the road tomorrow (actually today, Tuesday morning) and camp in New Mexico tonight and then stay in a hotel in Amarillo tomorrow night and we get to visit Big Texan Steak Ranch.  I am looking forward to the cheese factor there.

If you didn't see my post yesterday about a pair of month old potatoes, check it out here.