On the Road - Liberal, KS - Santa Rosa, NM 05-30-11

It is 4am on May 31st and I am in Santa Rosa, NM.  As much as I love road trips and enjoy the wide, wide open sky in the Southwest, it was a hard day.  For whatever reason, I was feeling sort of puny yesterday and it was so windy it took all my attention and strength to stay on the road.  Mostly it was a quartering wind from the SSW, but shifting to a headwind - willy-nilly.  My gas consumption didn't ever get over 18.something and I usually run 25+ on the open road.  Of course, it wasn't an Interstate highway.  US54 follows the RR tracks from somewhere near Wichita to Tucumcari, NM, and is mostly one lane each direction with no added passing lanes.   Not much traffic, but lots of wind.  

Which is why, I suppose, there is so much of this sort of scenery.  Not much can grow for lack of rainfall and continuous wind.

Not a lot of trees and those that withstand the wind are biased in its favor

The very small "settlements" (too small to even call towns) can be seen from a great distance because the grain elevators are far-and-away the tallest things to be seen.  And how crisp and blue the sky was.

These arches are the shadow of the pipe running horizontally.  My timing with the sun was perfect, eh?  I was so intrigued I had to stop, go back and park across the highway to take this picture. 

Not many miles further the topsoil was blowing across the highway and speeds were down to about 40mph.

In a few miles the wind was still blowing, but the land had not been tilled and stayed where it belonged.



I could see this guy from quite a distance - he towers (maybe 25 feet) in front of an abandoned restaurant/club in one of those "settlements".

 He seems to be mostly metal as his parts are rusting away (not from the moisture that was available today).  There are murals on the outside of the building that depict a typical movie West.

These towering horses are in front of the Holiday Inn Express in Dalhart, TX.  I think it was good planning to have them standing on their tails or the wind would surely have taken them away.  Lights at lower right to give adequate illumination at night. 

All along the RR tracks there was maintenance going on.  Strange machines on wheels whose use I cannot imagine.  But also crews of men working in the heat (in the 90's) and wind.

In the past when I have driven US54 there were wildflowers this time of year.  I was musing on this when I started seeing pale pink clumps such as the one at lower left.  I think it must be a type of penstemon, but that is just a guess.  It doesn't immediately pop up when I Google it.

 

I was overcome by curiosity and finally found a gated ranch road that I could pull into far enough to be off the highway.  I left my hat in the car or it would definitely be in Canada by now.  It was a struggle to even open the door.  I did get some in situ images, but also picked a few stems to examine out of the wind.  Aren't they sweet in a medicine bottle in the hand grip of my driver's side door?  Almost as good as a VW Bug!

 When I checked in at the motel here in Santa Rosa, where I have stayed before, I was too tired to do much of anything.  So, I put on my nightie and went to bed - by which time it was about 8pm - and slept until 1:08am.  So, I have been up about three and a half hours and it is time to get some more sleep.  I'll have a long day on I-40 tomorrow and hope to reach Lake Havasu where I will stay at Corky's house.  He and his parents and guests will be leaving rather early today to return home, but I'm sure they will have some leftovers in the frig for me.  I may just sleep for 24 hours and be on my way on Thursday, but I may spend the 24 hours working on all the pictures I have taken in the last two weeks.  .