the southern figure-8 tour
Looking back at the trips I've taken, I noticed something. I have gone north, west, and east of Colorado Springs, but I haven't headed south. I decided I needed to fix that. One eight-hour car trip later, I came back with a fistful of pictures. Here they are!
Running out of daylight
We're continuing our trek east for as long as the daylight holds out. Let's see how far we can make it.
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Approaching SH 71.
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Timpas is a little, two house town. But it's better than putting "A Fat Lotta Nothing" on the sign. Although I'd kill to see that on a sign. Timpas is located about 3 miles after the southern terminus of 71, which is 9 miles south of here.
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71 has a short multiplex with 10. How short? See that white barn/house thing in thae background? It turns off before that.
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71 heads north from here. About 221 miles later, it ends at the Nebraska border.
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45? I guess the country kids can run faster than the city kids.
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I pulled up alongside this guy and revved my engine. He looked at me like I was insane.
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I have no idea.
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There is a point in that CR number. I didn't see it until I pulled the pictures off of my camera.
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Just before La Junta, 10 veers left.
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The aliens! Thy've landed!
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I'm all for advertising tight turns, but at 1600 feet? Odd.
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Man, they're not kidding about this turn.
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Just in case there's any confusion, 10 goes with the sharp left.
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We're now at the eastern end of SH 10. Again, no end sign lives here.
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Well, maybe at one time it did. There's an extra yellow sign pole to our right that would be the perfect size for an end 10 banner.
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Now heading east on US 50. We're about to meet up with US 350. Remember that road from earlier today?
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Before hitting 350, though, we have to dip under a railroad track...
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...and veer north on a bypass. What's interesting here is that US 350 intersects at the next turnoff. So why can't 350 traffic continue straight and take its first right...
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...instead of veering north, turning right, and crossing Third Street again. Weird.
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And here's the eastern END! of US 350. Nothing too special here except for the text-based sign announcing its turn.
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We're going to turn here and see if we can get three more ends under our belts today.
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We turn off of 50 and onto this road. We then turn left on 3rd Street...
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... and intersect 109. This is a unique way of signing the four-way stop.
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The marker across the intersection. Maybe with the proceeds from the craft sale, the sign maker can take spelling lessons. "Satarday?" Heh.
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SH 109 flies over US 50, railroad tracks, and the Arkansas River on this bridge.
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Looking east at US 50 from the overpass.
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North La Junta? Didn't even know this existed.
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Approaching SH 194, which leads to Bent's Fort National Historic Site.
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The western END! of SH 194. No time to check for End signs, really running out of daylight.
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Next up, SH 266. Complete with an improperly placed Jct banner.
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Shooting into the sun gives us a nice backlit effect. Tough to see the reassuarance shield, but trust me: this is the BEGIN!ning of SH 266.
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Out of the blue, SH 109 takes a hard right...
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... and ends in beautiful downtown Crenshaw. Downtown Crenshaw consists of a few houses and some commercial development. All that's open right now is the diner, which is doing a brisk business. Whew! Got all three ends!
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Coming back towards SH 266, I took this snap out of the right side of my car.
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One last shot from SH 266. This was quite a drive, wasn't it?
And the drive is not over yet! From here, I went west on SH 266 to its end at US 50, west on US 50/SH 71 until 71 turned north, then north on 71 to SH 94. I then turned west on SH 94 and headed home to Colorado Springs. Along the way, I saw something I had never seen before. On 94, a semi carrying half of a manufactured home started to lose its load. As I drove through the mess, which was being traffic controlled by reps of the moving company, they were trying to figure out how to push the load back onto the truck. What a mess. I only wish it was light enough to take a picture of that one.
I'll see you soon for our next random roadtrip!
- Where to next?
- Page 8
- This trip's Index
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with any of the orginizations listed within this site. I'm just a bored roadgeek with way too much time on his hands. All of the picts in this page are mine and mine alone unless otherwise noted. Remember, kids: stealing is bad, mmmm-k? I get quite pissy if things are taken without telling me. I don't like to be pissy. You won't like it either. If you want to link to this page, that's fine. Please shoot me an email beforehand so I can link to your page as well. K? Thanks. --Ryan
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