9/23-25/22 Addendum HOU-DEN and drive home

 9/23/22 Friday

Our kind neighbor Cheri takes us to the airport this morning and we have an uneventful trip to Denver on United.   Once there, we make our way by moving sidewalk to an elevator which takes us to Level 5.  There we catch a train that goes to the baggage and ground transportation area.  Then we find the shuttle to the rental car location.  Whew!

Our rental with Payless is a tiny Chevy Spark.  I asked for economy, but geesh!  It holds us and our bags, though, so all's good.  Until 10 miles or so down the road when a light comes on.  They forgot to put gas in it and we assumed they had -  you KNOW what assume means...  Luckily we come to an exit with gas and fill 'er up. (8.5 gallons in the 9 gallon tank!)  

We get off of I25 and take a less-traveled but still busy road to Laramie.  Nice scenery including rock formations, rolling hills and prairies - lots of antelope in areas not taken by cattle.  On a mission, we didn't stop much for photos :).

We arrive at the GM dealer around 12:30 and check things out.  All seems well.  They have repaired the body damage adequately and have done several test drives on the transmission.  We head out, with Greg driving the Trek and Beth the rental - back to the Denver airport!  Uneventful drive and the folks are quick to refund the gas money with no problems.

Then we begin the long drive back to Texas.  Instead of going back towards Denver and down I25, we take 70 east, across the eastern part of Colorado.  Quite different from the Rocky Mountain Colorado!  

Interesting clouds were the only ones in sight.  See the rain in the distance?

This is mostly flat, with occasional hills or buttes.  As in much of the west, railroad tracks parallel many of the roads.  We see loads of coal, along with Prime and Fed X cars. Lots of cattle - and still quite a few antelope interspersed.  We pass several areas of wind turbine farms. I recall reading recently that farmers can make quite a good income with wind turbines.  

This juxtaposition of old and new was interesting.

We stop at a Walmart is the small town of Lamar to spend the night.  As we head south the next day we get into more rugged countryside for a while.  This sculpture advertising an art gallery was eye-catching!

 Into Oklahoma with more of the same and then we begin to see less cattle and more agriculture.  We cross the narrow Oklahoma panhandle and are soon back in Texas.  (With 800 miles still to go to reach home!)  Lots of ranches and farms here growing wheat, sorghum, soybeans and this as yet unidentified plant.

We take a loop to Bypass Amarillo and stop for a quick lunch at a convenient Wendy's.  We continue on route 287, which we have been on for a few hours.  This road will go the whole way to the Texas Gulf Coast, though thankfully we won't go quite that far!

The temperature has been rising as we head southeast towards home.  At 5:00 it has reached the mid-90's. We decide to stay in a hotel tonight in Decatur, about a half hour northwest of Fort Worth.  Hotels farther along were hard to come by and we figured there must be a Dallas Cowboys game tonight.  We stayed at the Lonestar Inn, which is an independent spot.  No frills, but it was clean and quiet with a nice hot shower.  We found a Chile's nearby where Greg enjoys a well deserved beer along with our light dinner.

Next day is a piece of cake (ha!).  We leave at sunrise after a quick breakfast at the hotel.  And soon  (4-5 hours later) arrive at I45 and home - about 12:30.  Especially nice to be home!