Shawnee, Oklahoma—September 21, 2024

Yesterday morning we left Telluride and drove a long day out of the mountains to Trinidad, Colorado.  We were going to stop over in Durango for a couple of days to camp, but it was supposed to rain, we are out of clean clothes, and we are pretty much ready to go home.  We will arrive home in Georgia on Monday afternoon.  In June and July we were gone 25 days, and this time will have been gone 12 days, so our 2024 Western Adventure has been 37 days total, enough for this year.

When we reached Durango, Colorado yesterday afternoon, it was “Deja vu all over again” (Yogi Berra, 1961). We are now backtracking across America. The route below is not quite what we did, because after we reached Durango in June, we went through Wyoming to visit the Tetons and Yellowstone. But, to give you a visual:

We Below are pictures from the Million Dollar Highway from Ouray to Silverton in June, 2024, and then from yesterday. Not quite in the same place, of course, but what a difference in colors.

Most of our drive has been scenic and interesting, but it’s so boring to get out of the mountains and back on the interstate to travel across Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama. In John Steinbeck’s iconic travel book, “Travels With Charley,” he sets out from Long Island, New York with his dog, Charley, to make a cross-country trip to California. This is what he said about interstate highways: “The interstate highway system is a wonderful thing. It makes it possible to go from coast to coast without seeing anything or meeting anybody. If the United States interests you, stay off the interstates.” I agree. The interstate this year in June and then in September:

I know I have mentioned travel books several times in this blog, but if you would like to read some good books about traveling across America, try Bill Bryson’s “The Lost Continent,” Charles Kuralt’s “On the Road,” William Least Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways,” and the aforementioned John Steinbeck’s “Travels With Charley.” (I was on a major reading binge with travel books a few years ago.)

A couple more pictures from yesterday: