Driven by a bit of nostalgia and a desire to check out the Paint Mines, Dad and I drove that Jeep down roads I haven’t seen since March of 2020, which was the last time I stayed at Clarke’s house.

I remember it so well, because that was when the first Covid lockdowns were being imposed, and the news had stirred up people into a panic-buying frenzy. But while Walmart and Tractor Supply were as chaotic as could be in downtown Elizabeth, as soon as I got east of the ponderosas guarding the rangelands from town, it was desolate. Nothing but the sound of the wind and the occasional passing truck or sneezing horse, interrupted the ambience of the mini ranch. 

Oh, how I miss the ambience of the wide open prairie. 

Unfortunately, it’s not so wide open anymore. 

Last weekend, while driving down once-familiar roads, I scowled at all of the new neighborhoods that have infested the land since I left Elizabeth in 2020. Those houses are huge and packed in like sardines, blocking the views of Pikes Peak to the west, and rolling, golden hills to the east. The Elizabeth Walmart parking lot was somehow busier than it was when people were panic-buying in 2020. And a few more chain restaurants had cropped up on once-empty fields where the county fair was held. 

As we broke through the ponderosa forest east of Elizabeth and the old mini ranch was visible from the highway, a huge sign on the pasture by the road read “DEVELOPMENT LAND FOR SALE: SOLD”, and construction equipment was already being piled up near the barbed-wire fence. 

Five years ago, that pasture had beef cattle on it. One time, a black angus cow had escaped from that pasture while Clarke was driving us to Southlands Mall to see a movie. He rolled down his window and asked that cow, “Hey! Do you want to go to the mooooovies?!” while me, Hannah, Ryder, and Jack howled with laughter.

Five years from now, that land will be yet another cheaply-built, cookie-cutter neighborhood, blocking the mini ranch's view of Colorado's picturesque prairie. Worse, people from all over the country (but not Colorado) will lap that shit right up, and swallow Elizabeth up along with it. Elizabeth will lose its small-town charm, and become yet another yuppified suburb of Denver. 

Damn… that makes me sad. Really sad, actually.