Thursday

Some where along the desolate stretch of interstate 70, past the turn off to Moab, past the sign warning of the last gas station, lies the ghost town of Cisco. A town that time forgot, abandoned since the uranium boom and left to the desert tumble weed. A town that for a brief moment in Hollywood history was put back on the map in the film “Vanishing Point” three decades ago. A town where the lone UPS truck drives a dusty road to deliver the mail to the last occupant in a dilapidated trailer home.

This is where we spent our time this afternoon, a stop along the barren four-lane highway and out of sign from the passing traffic. We listened to the wind blowing through the ruins of the former town, exploring what was left of the gas station, general store and post office. Floorboards rotted apart from age, an old mattress stained and discarded in the corner with broken whiskey bottles. One by one the tenants left long ago leaving little behind, except for the few signs advertising their existence.

We shot some pictures, walked the dog and moved on to Colorado. Taking in the impressions of what it might have looked like in its hay-day.

We are now at the Comfort Inn in Fruita. Tomorrow we will head up to the Colorado National Monument to do some fun mountain biking, or so we have heard. The check-in clerk at the hotel here seemed clueless about any kind of physical activity. Luckily we met somebody from Vail who filled us in on where to go tomorrow. He had come down to Fruita to do some mountain biking and seemed quite knowledgeable about it all.

Richard Boyer