Kim is a small enclave of houses, a bar, a school, and a church. The route there is a 30-mile stretch of roller coaster hills, arroyos and thinning groves of juniper.
Between Walt's Corner and Kim, are a number of abandoned buildings; every couple miles, an abandoned homestead. Some show their skeletons as their shingles flap in the wind. Others are nothing more than a few stones resembling walls.
The largest ruin is what Bernal referred to as the "Old Archuleta Store," located near the Mesa de Maya ranch, a tract of land covering a mesa that extended west for almost thirty miles along the Colorado/New Mexico border.
It stands on a hill like four monoliths--pillars that once supported windows. It was made of reddish-brown limestone, although two or three white bricks stood out.
Once beyond the arroyos and Kim, the land flattens out into rolling prairie. The effect is like always climbing a hill but never reaching the top. The curvature of the earth makes it seem as if the highway is on an eternal incline.
The
first town beyond Kim is a prairie metropolis. Rising above the barren wheat
fields are three grain silos, all of them as tall as small skyscrapers. This
town is Pritchett, and on its main street stands a small cafecalled SheDazy.
(SheDazy is a Sioux word meaning three sisters.)
Inside, I watch as Trudy Van Ostrand moves from table to table, carrying plates full of homemade hamburgers, fresh-cut fries and chicken fried steak.
However, only two years ago, she was bookkeeper for a grocery store in the bustling (compared to Pritchett) city of Ithaca, New York.
She and her husband Jim moved here in 2000 after Jim had bought this small storefront they now call the SheDazy Cafe during a trip to Colorado.
"It's just so much more relaxed," Van Ostrand said. "When we first opened, we were so ignorant. People wouldn't get the right meal and not say anything."
However, in New York, Van Ostrand says, the people were much pickier. For example, where they lived, they were required to use clear trash bags. That way, the trash men could inspect their garbage and remove items that could be recycled. Everything that was recyclable had to be recycled.
Here, there's none of that, Van Ostrand says. As a matter of fact, she doesn't even have to mow her lawn. In New York, she said she had to mow three times a week.
The Van Ostrands' moving to Pritchett has affected more than just their family. It has also affected the town.
After collecting my plate, she went to the far wall of the cafe and removed a wooden plaque. It held a Denver Post article about her and her husband restoring life to this small prairie town.
According to the article, when Jim and Trudy first moved here, the only business was one employee operating three grain elevators. Now, there's the SheDazy Café and a gift shop next door.
The café has also become the center of town life. It has even restored relationships. Van Ostrand said that when she first moved here, there were people who hadn't talked in almost 25 years. But when they started coming to the café, they started talking again. They had no choice because there was no place else in town to go.
Before I go, I make sure to order some of her chicken fried steak. She served me the best I've ever had. And the pile of mashed potatoes she put on the plate is excellent, too.
NEXT: A passion for the canyons