Fuckin' A this. I look forward to the Amarillo to Crested Butte stretch every summer. Getting to Amarillo sucks, though.
The one town we've been driving through for 20 years that I never understood is Trinidad. It always struck me as a town that has a lot of potential, but the population has been between 9-10k for the past 60 years. It sits at the base of a really cool mountain. From the highway it looks like it should have a historic downtown with breweries, restaurants, an art district, etc. It has fairly mild winters by Colorado mountain standards and hot summer days/cool summer nights. Access to fishing. I never understood why it wasn't more of an outdoors destination town. Then I found out that much of the land around Fisher's Peak was privately owned. That changed in 2019 apparently.
https://www.singletracks.com/mtb-trails/colorados-next-great-mtb-destination-plans-to-build-up-to-100-miles-of-singletrack/
May need to start looking at property.