So I quickly planned out my return to Denver for the Bacon party on September 9th and 10th. The night of the 1st in Abilene, TX, the 2nd to 3rd in Amarillo, TX, and then the 4th in La Junta, CO. So basically 5 days to travel 1,000 miles.

I rushed around the morning of the first getting hooked up and going to Crestview RV to get the trailer inspected. Got that done, dropped the trailer there so I could go into Georgetown and get the registrations done. That took about an hour and needed to be finished before I hit the road again because my tags on the truck expired on the 2nd. But got it done and on the road.

Nothing to report going to Abilene but on the second day ran across something I didn’t expect driving to Guthrie, TX. I hit a desert area where three roadrunners crossed my path on the highway. It was beautiful through there and want to stop and spend some time on the way back. Need to find out what the name of this area is.

Made it to Amarillo. The KOA is close to the airport there so the occasional flights that come in you can hear them. I went down and ate dinner at Bracero’s Mexican Grill. Now this area is touted as being historic Route 66. But when my sister and I drove it using the EZ guide we didn’t end up going by any of this. Which was confusing to me but overjoyed at finding a fun area to explore.  The dinner at Bracero’s was awesome and I was treated to live Mariachi music.

On Saturday morning I woke up and went and had breakfast at the English Field House restaurant. It is located right beside the airport.

Driving out of the airport is a small Air and Space museum. They have maybe a dozen planes but I noticed a sign that said they were giving B17 flights. I stopped because this isn’t something you see every day. The flights cost $475. Not what I wanted to spend but for $10 to get inside and climb around. Fantastic.

It is very tight crawling around in the B17. I’m fairly certain now that I don’t want to go on an actual flight. When I was younger I used to play a game on my Commodore 64 that was based on the B17. The story was if you survived 25 missions in a B17 then you could retire. According to this game I played it was nearly impossible. Well at least I never won. After being inside a B17 and realizing the tight quarters and altitude they flew out without any pressurized cabin I can see why this was. I’ll have to go back and watch the segment of the movie Heavy Metal and see how accurate the illustrations were. A guy standing outside said the B29 is even tighter getting around in.

The thing I didn’t realize until later was that B17 is the start of the license plate of my travel trailer I just picked up.

Serendipity!!!

I also stopped at the Quarter Horse Museum.

It is a gorgeous museum. The thing that interested me the most was the race the All American Futurity. It looks like it’s a 100 yard dash for Quarter Horses. Meaning a straightaway race no turns. (Looked it up and the distance is 440 yards) The Kentucky derby meanwhile goes for a mile and a half. Started in New Mexico after it legalized horse racing after World War II. I found out that it was Labor Day weekend but couldn’t change my plans going forward to redirect. Maybe next year. Never been to a horse race. But also might try to hit the Kentucky Derby next year too. (Also, just learned that there is an AQHA triple crown)

On Sunday I packed up and headed for La Junta. Now I had driven through southeast Colorado a couple of years ago and saw the signs for the Comanche Natural Grasslands. But didn’t find them that interesting. Well that’s because I didn’t take the right road. This time I drove up 109 to La Junta. Beautiful rock shaping and scenery. Very little traffic. This is truly a great byway that everyone should drive.

Also starting to see some tiny homes at some of the camp grounds. Very neat although I’m not sure I would want to clean the bug splatter off the front if I was hauling it very many places.

That’s it for another segment of Hugo’s Highways and Byways. The road should be wide open after my stay in Colorado through the 16th.