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On the road again, all the way to Jersey

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(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of columns on former Publisher Alan Cruikshank’s cross country tour this summer.)

We made a commitment to the New Jersey grandkids that we would be back to see them again this year.

We left our Henderson, Nev., condo on July 9th. This year on our cross-country car tour, we committed to limiting ourselves to six hours max of driving each day.

Now that we are getting older we are conscious of possible blood clots and other harm to your body from sitting for long periods of time.

Well, we exceeded that by a half hour on our first day. But we only topped that goal one other time during our most recent trip across the country. We went from Las Vegas, Nev. to Gallup, N.M. that first day. Those sandstone rock formations in that area close to Gallup are very attractive.

We encountered our first rain as we approached Williams, Ariz. A full-blown thunderstorm with hail and lots of blowing rain was occurring in Flagstaff when we passed through the northern Arizona community.

The second night we stopped in Raton, N.M., just below the New Mexico-Colorado border.

The town seemed less prosperous than we had anticipated.

We stayed at a Quality Inn that was about a block off the freeway. We checked in and I asked the front desk clerk, “Where is the best place in town for dinner?”

He reached under the counter and pulled out a piece of paper with a list of area restaurants. ea aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaHe hhhH:He

He then said. “The Mexican restaurant just down this street is probably the best, and if you mention we sent you they will probably give you a discount.”

As we drove toward the restaurant, we passed at least three of the restaurants on the list; they were all closed. And I don’t mean just for the day. The Mexican place did turn out to be pretty good but they didn’t give us any discount.

We headed out the next morning, and in a short time came upon a town that appeared be a lot more prosperous. Trinidad, Colo., must be the place of choice to stop in this area.

There was a wide selection of hotels in the medium price range, and there were many restaurants to choose from.

Our first goal of the day was to see Pueblo West by noon. That is a sister community, if you will, to Fountain Hills. It shares a common master development company that started both of them, McCulloch Properties.

My interest in seeing Pueblo West was I worked on the newspaper that was done each month and mailed to property owners to keep them informed of new development activities, new businesses opening and interviewing new families.

The Colorado community is over twice as large as Fountain Hills. It was laid out on 29,000 acres of prairie land in southeastern Colorado. When I was last there some 30 years ago, I remember that there were hardly any businesses and the homes were literally miles apart.

Today, the homes look like typical neighborhoods, there is a high school and what appeared to be a thriving business community. There is even a weekly newspaper, The Pueblo West View.

Our next stopwas in the Denver suburb of Aurora. That is where our good friends Bob and Gerri Sweeney live. They publish The Villager newspaper which serves a number of Denver area suburb communities.

We met at a National Newspaper Association (NNA) meeting in Washington, D.C. Over the years, we both served multiple terms on the association board of directors, and Bob and I received the association’s top honor, the James O. Amos Award.

He was serving as president of the NNA and attended my induction into the Arizona Newspapers Association Hall of Fame in 2003.

Thanks, Bob and Gerri, for your generous hospitality, and your home is beautiful.

Our next destination, which I will talk about in my next column, is Mount Rushmore.