Great Sand Dunes and a Growing Sadness

For The First Time In My Life, I’d Rather Not Be Home

It’s a difficult thing getting me up and out the door this morning, despite how absolutely perfect it is outside. A few hours later, I would say it out loud as I shot video from my drivers seat of a seemingly endless road heading towards the Great Sand Dunes, “For the first time in my life, I’d rather not be home.” Which is a remarkable thing for me to say because regardless of how much fun I’ve ever had on a trip, at some point I start thinking, “I can’t wait until I can sleep in my own bed and just be by myself in my own home!” This trip has been the best time of my life and I wasn’t happy that today was the last one that would include any kind of exciting destination in it.

Goodbye, Movie Manor (I hope to visit you again!)

While checking-out of the Movie Manor, I discover that the concrete in front of the office is filled with signatures and hand prints of celebrities, sort of like a little walk of fame out in the middle of southern Colorado. The morning also provided me with a better view of the layout and the surroundings: What an eccentric and unique motel! As I turned-in my key card and settled-up with the owner, I asked her about the place and she seemed to enjoy talking about it all, letting me know that later in the year a dirt track race would take place on the premises and that I should come back. If I could have, I definitely would have. Someday, I hope I can return to Movie Manor with enough time to actually relax and take-in a movie from my room, regardless of what they’re showing.

A Beautiful Day To Drive

The day was absolutely perfect for driving and/or viewing a national park, and, given the fact after I left it all I’d have to do was drive home through Nebraska and Iowa, I took my time getting there. I decided to drive north on Route 285 until I could cut east towards the park, which was a fortuitous decision because it provided me with about a 30-40 mile straight shot towards the mountains that border the park to the east. It was a stunning drive to slowly watch the mountain range, which spanned as far as I could see from the north to the south, get closer and closer while a storm spilled-over from the eastern side of the range into the park. It wasn’t until later that I learned that prevailing winds went from west to east and only occasionally went the other direction during a storm, which is what I was witnessing.

Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend much time at Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve, but then I didn’t realize it at the time because (as usual) I didn’t do a lot of research on the park before visiting it. It’s impressive enough from afar, but visitors are able to actually climb the dunes and there are various routes around the park to get different viewpoints. Unless I ever get back there, I’ll never know what kind of sand they’re comprised of. Is it like sand on a beach or is it hard and compact? Anyway, the road leading into the park provided a great view and got me directly underneath the storm that was pouring in over the mountain range in the east. It. Was. COLD!!! As I took in my final views, it sunk in that when I left I was going home, which was a miserable feeling. Oh well.

Long Roads, Fog Banks and Terrible Storms

As I mentioned earlier, there was a beautiful storm coming over the mountain range in the east. Well, guess where I was going: East of said mountain range. Which meant that once I got around the mountain range and started heading north, I ran into the storm and the rest of my driving for the day was garbage. At one point, I hit a fog bank so dense that I feared for my life at times: I literally could hardly keep track of the lines marking the road. Once I got through the fog, it was overcast, cold and rainy, until I got to Nebraska which is when I ran into thunder storms and lightening. That being said, the reason I went through Nebraska was because there were tornados ravaging Kansas to the south.

There’s not much more to mention about the day, unfortunately. The motel I stayed in looked like a motel I might’ve visited in my home town or any other anonymous or forgettable motel between Colorado and the Atlantic Ocean. It was seriously depressing and all I had to look forward to the next day was driving for 14 hours to Indiana. Sweet dreams!