There's no place like home

Another typical start to the day, we wake up, get packed, and head over to the Durango Dough Works for breakfast. After we finish the delicious meal, we pile back into the car to head back home.
As we go over the continental divide, mum and dad recite to me the troubles of 'me and Earl' as they hauled chickens per Wolfcreek Pass. It begins to cloud up as we drop altitude.
With the mountains well behind is, we embark on the most scenically boring park of our trip: The High Plains. Entering the central time zone, an hour of our travel is successfully drained away.
Even though Kansas is big sky country, not a glimmer of a star is to be found as the sun dips below the horizon.
Turning onto 160, we are enthralled by an enigma of lots I red lights flashing simultaneously in the distance. Mum theorizes that they send signals into space and the lights form a gigantic arrow, saying,"don't land here! New York's that way!" Upon further observation, we discover that it is in fact an enormous wind farm, their turbines still silently turning in the night.
We continue on in the darkness and pass through a town wishing everyone a Merry Christm. The odd thing was that is was like that on two different signs.
Since there is a snowstorm coming in, we decide to drive further than we intended, all the way to Topeka. I napped through most of that leg of the journey and we arrive at the hotel a bit after midnight.