Antonito

At the southern end of the San Luis Valley is the remains of a small town named Antonito.  Sitting on the New Mexico border and near nothing, it has not much going for it in a traditional sense.  So, why is Kris there?

Well, Swede came down here last year to ride a steam train and that sounded good to me!
But, in the process, I found out that the house used as Indiana Jone's home in The Last Crusade, is located there!
Yup, I stayed there!

The home is actually a small farm house from 1884.  Of course Hollywood made it look much different and with mobile room sets, make a small room much bigger!

I liked it as a bed and breakfast.  Great food, comfortable bed.  But ... not amputee friendly, but what is?  And Antonito has nothing going for it!  Population of about 750 and 4 pot shops.  Yeah nestled in the armpit of Mormonism sits a tiny community of pot shops!  Apparently no conflict there ......

And the Marijuana industry is expected to save the county and many of the small communities in rural Colorado!  Hence why it is tolerated!  And the companies behind them are already acting much like criminal organizations, the State Patrol I talked with is a bit flummoxed as what to do.  You have a cooperative of drug producers, behaving in a borderline criminal manner and yet the money is expected to be so good in taxes - NO politician will back a move against them!  Yeah, no one remembers history so the lessons of the earlier 1900's and again in the 1960's must be relearned yet again.

You would expect that with the availability of pot, that it would be the plague of Colorado ... Nope!  It seems that meth is the winner there!  Yeah, lots of skeletons stumbling around, teeth chattering - what teeth remain!  How my mind wished to turn my eyes off!  Like all addicts, they do not have a problem - until they need their next fix.  Sigh.  Apparently heroin has a strong foothold as well.  So sad.  But, hey, just so someone is paying the taxes, right?

And as with all addict situations, a working population is not possible!  They will just long enough to get their fix and then they are stoned or in the hospital - or dead.  Yeah, and the evacuation of the Hispanic population has not helped an agricultural  area at all!  Young Americans will not work.  In a state where the minimum wage is $8 per hour, I saw plenty of jobs at $16 and $20 per hour for UNSKILLED labor ..... and no takers!  NONE!!!!!  If I could only breathe up there!

There are two places to eat in Antonito: Dos Hernandos and the Dutch Mill.  If you like Tex-Mex, Dos Hernandos is for you - the food was in-editable!  The Dutch Mill was slightly better but Tex-Mex is just death to me!

Better have some good books with you if you come down here, there is nothing to do within 30 miles of Antonito!