Kessel run part 2

So when we left off I was rolling on Rte 114 towards Rte 287 as per Google Maps but against the pleadings of my car.

You see, I had spoken to a sales lady at a store the day before who was from Santa Fe who had also recommended the route that I was taking. She did mention that one of the towns on the route had a certain history, and that's what caused me consternation, but we'll get to that in a bit.

One important thing to note about the route which I didn't appreciate prior to taking it is that it went _through_ towns rather than around them. I saw parts of America that had been left behind, like towns that used to be major stops before the interstates came into being.
Above is an example of one of those towns. Nothing particularly wrong with it, just basically bleak and deserted... There was another town I passed through, Chilicothe I think, that looked like a tornado had just ripped through it. There were people picking tree branches up off of the streets and there was a building whose side had partly collapsed leaving a pile of bricks. I was too busy threading my way through the rubble to take a pic.

It was pretty empty in between the towns. Here you have your archetypical picture of telephone poles leading to nowhere:
There was some cool looking agricultural infrastructure to see. I wish I knew more about what it does. I think this is a grain silo:

I'll get to the source of my consternation in the next post.