Day 7: Sunflower

There’s not really a lot to say about the dawn of the 7th day. It happened. We were already driving. Towards Colorado.

Eventually we reached the border, and as one does when entering Colorado, we stopped at the sign. This was just before sunrise, so we spent some time enjoying that, before heading off to Trinidad to find us a map.

What we found instead though, was… really cool dude whose name I can’t remember. But he ran the Trinidad visitor center, and was probably the most friendly and helpful person we met on the trip. I picked up a few extra things in addition to the maps, including a motorcycle map of Colorado, and, of course, a keychain.

From there it was a trip through the part of the Highway of Legends, from Trinidad to Walsenburg. The scenery was pretty good, but it wasn’t great. Definitely worth it, probably better on a bike. The stuff I really love is open or mountainous, large and expansive views though. Rocks, not trees.

Not really sure where it happened, but somewhere around here I picked up a generic CO keychain. Not nearly as awesome as the one from the visitor center.

While there’s a ton I’d love to do in CO, it’s time to head onwards, so we pass over from CO to KS, and aim for the highest point: Mt Sunflower. Like many stops, this was a highlight of the trip. Kansas is pretty dang flat, but there is always a high point, and this was officially recognized as it, so went there we did, and glad we were for it.

They’ve got one of them “take a book, leave a book” mini-libraries, and some sculptures setup to mark the top. High points are recognized as such, and there’s a whole community of people who “collect” them. They also usually have some sort of guest book or registry, so we signed in because we’re polite. It’s pretty cool, there was 2 other parties who had been there before us that day, this was there #17 and #5 peaks respectively.

No giftshop, no keychains, but still… really glad to have made it here. The rest of the day was nothing special, we drove on through the darkness until we reached Salina, our stopping point for the night. We made some sammiches, and since our supplies were getting a little stale, I fed some leftover cheese to a truckstop kitty. It was super timid, presumably being a feral cat it wasn’t treated well by humans – it never came within 3′ of me, despite being fed. But you do what you can.

Summary

• Daily Distance: 1084.2km / 673 miles
• Total Distance: 6134.6km / 3812 miles
• Keychains: 2 new, 17 total
• Maps acquired:
  • Georgia
  • Alabama
  • Florida
  • Texas
  • Louisiana
  • Arkansas
  • Oklahoma
  • New Mexico
  • Colorado (new!)
• Days behind live: NaN