The Day We Dropped Off Our Election 2016 Ballots

...was a very pretty day. We were stoked for the 15-mile ride to Del Norte to drop our mail-in ballots off at the county office, so we got in the van and drove west down US 160. 

The general flatter-than-flippin’ Kansas nature of the San Luis Valley changes immediately west of Monte Vista along US 160. After some mild up-and-down, with many curious, conical hills popping from the valley floor south of the highway, you gain 200 feet in elevation between Del Norte and Monte Vista.

I wish every state could be as practical as Colorado, where one can receive one’s ballot at home through the mail and fill it out at leisure before the computer, researching each issue thoroughly before filling in the boxes. It seems so backward and unnecessary to make people stand in line to step into a flimsy curtained booth, hoping they don’t make mistakes and that the machine doesn’t screw them over.

I love some variety in my terrain.

What gets me is my wife shamed me into getting my ballot done on October 26. I’d already had it for a week. I’d procrastinated that long, yet I still voted two weeks ahead of what will prove to be a tedious time in line for too many people.

If this is your situation, do not let it discourage you. Do what you have to do.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Internet, this is probably the best, most gorgeous photo I’ve ever taken, or will take. I had the strap of the camera wrapped around my wrist and the camera held over the roof of the van, with the lens on zoom to make the San Juan Mountains pop. This is why I had to make this post, and I’m not sorry.

And if not voting is your bag, do that, too. I’m not in the habit of telling people what to do, let alone how to vote. I had some pretty photos of driving along Colorado’s lower central San Luis Valley and an excuse to run them, that’s all.

I remind myself that I would be that much further away from my grown children in Colorado Springs if I lived out here. Also, satellite Internet is all you’re likely to have out here.

Whatever happens, don’t let someone else’s hype ruin your day. Not telling you what to do, of course. Just saying.

There’s always a sunny day.