Blogs from Amarillo, Texas, United States, North America - page 3

We had gained an hour when we got to a little before Nashville yesterday, so woke up early naturally and were able to leave Howard Johnson (where we felt our van was safe overnight with umpteen State Trooper cars in the parking lot) at 7:30am. As we crossed the Mississippi River at Memphis, I thought of the pioneers who had crossed it going west looking for fortune and better land, and the Native Americans who had lived here before the whites came. In contrast to theirs, our crossing was easy, high over the water with a great view of the Pyramid ( where the Memphis Grizzlies play) and little islands, and egrets. With this we left Tennessee and were in Arkansas, driving by flat fields of soy beans, rice (yes!),corn, and sorghum. Soon we were driving ... read more

Bonjour à tous Amarillo était une des pages que j'avais marquée en préparant ce voyage au printemps dernier, mais comme la ville est pas mal excentrée dans l'état du Texas, je l'avais mis entre parenthèse, et c'est le guide touristique du Texas qui m'a convaincu de faire ce détour. Malgré son nom à consonance Espagnole, on pourrait croire que son histoire est lié aux confrontations avec le Mexique, pas du tout. Elle incarne tout le haut Texas, Le Texas Panhandle cowboy. 195 000 habitants, son économie repose principalement sur l'élevage, au Stockyards sont vendues plus de 100 000 têtes de bétail par an, 2000 par semaine. Elle est connue également pour sa production d'hélium et le site Pandex où sont démantelées une partie des armements nucléaires Américains. Elle est également traversée par la célèbre route 66. ... read more

…must mean we’re in Texas. Today was another 360+ mile day. Because the temperatures aren’t what they’ve been the past several days, we decided to save a few bucks and dry camp in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Amarillo. This is only the second time we’ve not stayed in an RV park. I think our original plan was to do the opposite of what we’re doing. There wasn’t much to see out either of our windows today. We crossed the Rio Grande. It’s very red; at least this section was, and not very grande. Drove past where the Albuquerque Isotopes minor league baseball team plays. The freeway color scheme through Albuquerque is reddish brown and dark green. Much nicer to look at than the gray at home. Mike saw a truck (like ours) towing a fifth ... read more

Jeez! I thought Oklahoma was sposed to be a dust bowl? We stayed in a forgettable little town Friday night called Elk City, Oklahoma (apologies any Elkians reading this), still westbound along the 66 but we didn't see any elks...well, not live ones anyway, we did see a few dead roadkill ones but what we did see was a shitload of rain! Saturday AM headed west & checked out the Route 66 museum here, which was awesome. Lucky it was cos we got stranded in that building for 4 hours cos the heavens opened & we got stuck! Flash flooding everywhere, we couldn't escape! Finally sailed out around 3pm. What a day. Headed off to Amarillo, Texas through tornado alley, saw some great 66 Highway memorabilia. So much history!... read more

Today was a little bit of a diversion, and one I'm completely thrilled to have taken. Last night, while typing up yesterday's version of this blog, I was suddenly overcome with an urge to do something precipitous. Change the game up a little bit and do the unexpected. Sitting as I was in Elk City, Oklahoma I happened to notice that Abilene Texas was only about 250 miles due south. Kennedy and I had originally planned to push all the way through Texas today and get partway to Albuquerque before stopping for the night, but I suddenly had something very important to do in Texas. There's a lady living in Abilene who has been one of the dearest friends my wife Eileen, our good friend Dana Robinson and I have had for the last fifteen years. ... read more