On the Road: From Missouri to Colorado: A Night at Love's

I've left Missouri for a two-month sojourn in Colorado. 

I passed the night in Chez Prius at a Love's in Ellis, Kansas. 

A very cozy bed chamber. 

 

Cozy bed in Chez Prius. Ellis, Kansas. Credit: Mzuriana.

I awakened to a glorious dawn, co-starring a slice of Americana. 

 

Dawn in Ellis, Kansas, at Love's Truck Stop. Co-starring an A&W. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

Dawn in Ellis, Kansas, at Love's Truck Stop. Credit: Mzuriana.

On the Road to Longmont, Colorado: A Stop in Czechoslavakia, Sort Of

 En route to Longmont, Colorado, I pulled over for gas and other sustenance in Wilson, Kansas. 

Hi, ho! A giant egg! 

Giant Czech egg in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

And no worries, I took more photos of this good egg from different angles and distances, in case you yearned for same. Wilson, in fact, claims that its egg is the world's largest Czech egg:

Giant Czech egg in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

Giant Czech egg in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

There was more visual evidence of Wilson as the "Czech Capital of Kansas:" 

Czech heritage acknowledgement in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

Czech heritage acknowledgement in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

Czech heritage acknowledgement in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

Czech heritage acknowledgement in Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

The giant egg puts me in mind of the Big Alaskan Road Trip that my daughter, Kit, and I took back in the 90s, which Kit deemed the trip of "Buttes and Big'uns," thanks to the many "largest in the world ..." roadside attractions we visited, in addition to the countless buttes in the northern plains.

But I digress. Below is Wilson's historic opera house, undergoing restoration: 

Historic opera house undergoing restoration. Wilson, Kansas. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

So why the hell did the Czechs land in Wilson? 

They came to build the railroads, back in the 1870s. They left their homes in Europe because of poverty, for the most part. American railroad companies even advertised in Czech papers about the opportunities to be found in the American plains.

Also, early Czech arrivals to Kansas wrote back home about the opportunities in Kansas for work and land. Some Czechs, already in the US, simply migrated west from the American east.

Next stop: Longmont, Colorado

 

Ski Run Road and aspens, Highway 532, New Mexico. December 2012. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

I'm leaving tomorrow for Longmont, Colorado, where I'll visit with my sister, Murphy, for May and June. 

The last time I was there was in 2016, my summer of multiple travel adventures: 

• Toronto
• Antigua
• Washington, D.C.
  
• Revisit in South Louisiana to share it with my grandchild, Jet (nee Avery)

It's also the year where I bought a new laptop and a new digital camera. At seven years old, the laptop is now geriatric, and I've found that I depend too much on my mediocre phone camera, and less on the petite, pocket-sized Canon I bought back then.

 

Jefferson City, Missouri: 'tis Spring

 

From a friend's garden of spring blooms. April 2023. Credit: Mzuriana.

 

A Kansas City friend and I met in Columbia recently. She brought me the best kind of flowers: Cut from her own garden and in a glass vessel from her home. 

Add to that spirited conversation over coffee (me) and tea (her) on a sunny, warm day .... yes, 'tis spring. 

This is my friend who packed 6000 condoms in her suitcase on a volunteer mission to a country whose people suffer from a very high STI rate and a shortage of just about everything else.

 

10 Years Ago: Columbus, New Mexico, Part 1: You Mean There's More Than One Part? Are You Kidding?

 Yeah, crazy. 

There were ultimately TEN parts to the saga of little ol' Columbus, New Mexico: 

• Part 1's original post here. 
• Part 2: Drug Running
  
• Part 3: The Wall
  
• Part 4: There's Something About ...
  
• Part 5: Raids
  
• Part 6: Going Over to Puerto Palomas
  
• Part 7: Pat, Who Rescues
  
• Part 8: The Library
  
• Part 9: Odds and Ends
  
• Part 10: "A Future We Don't Know About"
  

And then I took a brother and a friend there two separate times when I lived in El Paso in 2016.

 

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Columbus, New Mexico, Part 1: You Mean There's More Than One Part? Are You Kidding?

Columbus, New Mexico. April 2013. Credit: Mzuriana.

I know, I know! How could it be possible to require more than one post to talk about a town with fewer than 2000 residents, a lackluster landscape, and where the "good" restaurant closes at 3:00 p.m.?

Where the in-town state park has a sad sort of parking lot vibe? 

Where, counter to "normal" New Mexican water towers with painted murals that display community pride, the Columbus water tower is strictly No-Bullshit Black?

Where downtown Columbus boasts perhaps 6 or 7 storefronts? OK, maybe 8.

Columbus, New Mexico. April 2013. Credit: Mzuriana.

Stay tuned. 

 

2023 Word of the Year: FEAR: "Take More Risks"

 

Tammany Trace, Mandeville, Louisiana. May 2021. Credit: Mzuriana.

Around the beginning of the year, the universe whispered into my ear : "Take more risks." 

I've done scary things. Adventures. Acts of derring-do here and there. Uprooted myself.

But the whisper in my ear - "take more risks" - came from a different wellspring. There was a sense of some urgency.

I'm not getting younger, and evidently I am not immortal.

My grandparents are gone. Both my parents are gone. Most of my aunts and uncles are gone. 

I'm almost at the front of the line, closest to the abyss. 

I don't want to be on my deathbed regretting that I didn't take the fullest advantage of what life offers because of silly ol' fears of things like looking stupid, experiencing rejection, failing, falling, flailing. 

I've got to take more risks.

Related posts: 

• 2016: Flashback: Fear and Adventure: A Skydiving Story
  
• 2013: One Thing That Scares You Per Day Keeps Apathy at Bay
• 2023 March: Word of the Year: FEAR: Forgetting Everything's All Right 
• 2023 February: Word of the Year: FEAR: Fuck Everything And Run
• 2023 January: Word of the Year: FEAR: Looking Into the Abyss Without Falling In