We Took a Left

May 15, 2006

We could have turned right at the end of Loop 288 and gone through Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, and still ended up in the Grand Tetons, a place we want to be sure to experience. Instead we turned left. In a way our choice was not the “less traveled” road. We have certainly traveled this way before. But 287 through Bowie, Chillicothe, Esteline, Headly, Claude, and Dumas beats I35; and 82 through Dalhart, Texline, Clayton, Capulin and Raton is definitely less traveled than I40. After all, Frost’s road may go through Wichita Falls.

The main reason to turn left was the biscuits and sausage. In the early 70”s we started backpacking and skiing in Colorado. Our route, with only a few exceptions, followed 287 at least to Amarillo. We left early and always had Biscuits and sausage. Now I have a Pavlov dog reaction. Anytime I smell biscuits and sausage, I get altitude sickness; and for me the drive out 380 to Decatur so we can pick up 287 is like realizing Annie is wearing perfume on Friday night and we are not going out. Adventure is in the heart.

So we took the left and again traveled the oil country around Iowa Park, cotton country near Amarillo, cowboy country on both ides of the Canadian River, wheat country west of Dumas, cow poop country just outside Clayton, volcano country next to Capulin and antelope country on the rush into Raton. We climbed the caprock at Childress, gazed at the fire blackened fields near Amarillo, wondered at the white wooden cross hanging miraculously between the fresh leaved mesquites and the yellow dirt waiting for cotton just past Headly, watched the dust clouds billow into the air behind distant multiple racks of plows pulled by Goliath tractors on the road to Hartley, and sucked in our breath as the mountain peaks still frosty white finally materialized over the barren ridgeline west of Raton.

Left is good.

Tim