Ports-to-Plains Trade Route - Friday, June 12, 2020

Wow! When I went to bed last night at 10:00 p.m., after only one-half hour of sleep the night before, I didn't read even three pages in my book. Boom, boom out went the lights. I didn't wake up until 6:00 a.m.

The cat was hungry and meowing at me. I fed him and gave him his insulin. It was quite windy in Amarillo with wind gusts to 22 mph, but safe to drive. 

Amarillo was in our rear-view mirrors at 10:00 a.m. Fort Amarillo RV Park was just one mile from U.S. 287, but instead of turning north toward Oklahoma and barren nothing-ness for miles and miles, we turned south in search of diesel for the truck. 

Once Beauty's thirst for diesel fuel was slaked, we pointed our truck north on U.S. 287, part of the Ports-to-Plains Trade Route. Today, we learned about the Ports-to-Plains Alliance and, if you haven't heard of it, you can learn about it now. The route closely follows I-20, 1-27, I-35, US 83, US 277, US 287, SH 158, and SH 349. 

According to portstoplains.com, the "Alliance is a grassroots alliance of communities and businesses whose mission is to advocate for a robust international transportation infrastructure to promote economic security and prosperity throughout North America's energy and agricultural heartland including Mexico and Canada.

"The Alliance, based in Lubbock, Texas, USA, is a non-profit, bipartisan advocacy group led by mayors, council persons and other local elected leaders, elected development officials, business and other opinion leaders from nine states (Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming), Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada and a developing corridor connecting central Mexico. In addition to domestic movement of goods along the existing highways, the corridors service major international border crossings including Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Laredo between Texas and Mexico, and Sweetgrass/Coutts, Wild Horse and Raymond/Regway between Montana and Canada and Portal/North Portal between North Dakota and Canada. The Ports-to-Plains region services a 4,950-plus mile economic development corridor of existing highways stretching from Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico to northern Alberta.

"Over the past decade and a half, Ports-to-Plains Alliance members have seen almost $3.61 BILLION [emphasis mine and Bob's] in federal and state funding for road improvements in the Ports-to-Plains region."

Also, "The Alliance was formalized in 2009 through an agreement between groups representing three congressionally designated High Priority Corridors on the U.S. National Highway System (NHS): the Ports-to-Plains Trade Corridor [where we found ourselves today]; the Heartland Expressway; and the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway..."

It's really happening. This topic was controversial a few years ago. 

Other than that, our drive was good. The wind wasn't an issue, we had clear skies, and saw quite a few pronghorns along the way. The time spent driving today was six hours.

North Texas panhandle scenery

The photo below almost didn't happen. The first photo I took had the Mountain Time Zone sign just in front of this one. When I saw that, I had to quickly take this one as the truck was bouncing over rough spots in the road.

Tonight, we are staying at Trailing Edge Park in Limon (pronounced LIME' un), Colorado. It is a basic park with water and electric hookups on a gravel lot. It is clean and there are only 38 sites. The owner, Cindy, is a sweetheart. Many of the sites are for monthly workers (doctors, traveling nurses, and wind turbine constructors). The rigs in here are well cared for. Five pull-through sites are for people traveling through. The rate is $30 per night. We're not unhooking the pickup, because we don't need to go anywhere in town that we couldn't walk to. 

Bob asked Cindy if there is a bike path nearby. It turns out there is one that goes just behind the RV park. He went out on his bike to scout out the path. He came back enthusiastic about what he found and wanted to take me for a walk.

I was writing my blog and a little grumpy about being interrupted. It was only 6:45 p.m. and I thought there was a lot of daylight left to take a walk when I finished my blog. 

He said, "It's getting dark outside." 

I said, "Well are there clouds? It's too early to be getting dark." 

After I thought about it, it made sense to walk now because it would provide more blog fodder and probably some good photos. Anyway, he talked me into going. 

When we got outside, it was obvious clouds were obscuring the sun with a massive thunderhead building up. We left at 7:00 p.m. We went by a fishing pond, past a couple of museums (Limon Heritage Museum and Limon Depot Museum), past an old schoolhouse, and through Railroad Park. It was a great walk. The Railroad Park had some windmills in it, including one that I think is the prettiest one I've ever seen! Then we walked through town and saw murals. He took me to another part of the bike path that went around a cemetery and back to the RV park. Here are photos of our 5k walk.

Trailing Edge Park pull through.
(Limon, Colorado)

Entrance sign at the campground.

Wind turbine blade
with a pretty painting on it.

Western Grebe

Mural on a bridge abutment
by the fishing pond.

The Limon Heritage Museum was not open but we could walk behind it and see a few exhibits. The same goes for the Limon Train Depot Museum.

Windmill behind Limon Heritage Museum

Train track snow plow.

Tractors on display.

Cottontails are prolific here!

Pretty yellow caboose at the
Train Depot Museum

My favorite windmill
(in Railroad Park).

Bob next to an interesting
historical marker.

This is the scale mentioned
in the historical marker.

Great mural painted on a
door of the library.

Limon Town Hall

We must be in the Wild West!

A new mural is being born.

Thunderhead building up to the west.

Bike path heading toward the cemetery.

Another view of our pull-through site.

Even though thunderheads built up, we never saw lightning or had rain. We ended up walking three miles. Yay, Bob, for getting me off my duff to see the interesting things in town. Bob said, "It's what Bob and Susan do. We explore and find stuff."

And I must say, it was great that I had enough sleep last night.

That's it for today. Tomorrow, Custer, South Dakota. Travel Bug out.