Lebonon KS to Trinidad CO
We had the free breakfast at the hotel this morning, it was a Comfort Suites and pretty good hotel breakfast. After breakfast it was off to town for some needed maintenance. First up was getting an oil change, we’ve driven over 4000 miles since leaving home and it was due. We had a tire that kept going down so the oil change place recommended a tire shop nearby. They got us in right away and found a nail in the tire. This same tire has had a screw and another nail pulled out in the past. Got that fixed and off down the road by about 10am.
We were still in Oklahoma when we stopped at a little park along the highway for lunch. Met a nice 70+ year old lady who had lost her husband the year before. That didn’t stop her from pulling a large travel trailer to their annual camping spot, the tradition lived on.
The scenery quickly took on a mountainous look as we left Oklahoma and made it into New Mexico, state number eleven since leaving home.
We were driving on a state highway but like all our days in the past it was mainly dirt. At one point we went over 20 miles without seeing another car. Very desolate out here.
Today was wildlife day! We had two mule deer run across in front of us, we saw a jack rabbit, and dozens of pronghorn antelope grazing along in the fields. It was well in the 90’s and we got a late start so it was surprising to see so much wildlife.
Today’s trail wound through several little towns, most were long past their heyday. Rural western America on full display.
Today’s destination was Trinidad Colorado, gateway to the western portion of the TransAmerica Trail!
We got a campsite at Trinidad Lake State Parke. It was a beautiful park on a high bluff overlooking the dammed up lake below, but the fees rubbed us the wrong way. It was $24 for the campsite but had to pay a $10 “convenience” fee to book online even though online booking was the only way they allowed you to camp. On top of that there was a charge of $7 cash per day for the park so our $24 site cost $41. Adding insult to injury they had the nerve to charge $.50 per 3 minutes to take a shower! At $41 a night for a site that only had electric I think they could toss in a hot shower.
Luckily the nickle-dime regulations were not enough to dampen how beautiful the area was so it was all good in the end. Some geocaching friends have been following our adventure online and reached out to tell us the were due to get into Trinidad the next day so we decided to stay here two days and made plans to get a few caches together.