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Published: June 24th 2015
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Well with all the good intentions in the world, our early start didn't happen! We were all dressed, packed, had breakfast and ready to go by half 8 and just as we were checking out there was an error on our reservation. There was some cock up with the system that our travel agents third party had used and the payment for the room wouldn't go through. We had to get hold of the office in uk and try and sort it out with them and the hotel manager who I was starting to get a bit frustrated with. After a long time a decision was reached and we begrudgingly paid out of our own pocket in the promise that the agents would refund us, which involved scanning documents and sending emails etc.
We finally got out and just as we were about to leave I noticed a leak from the engine. Coolant was pouring out from the car and we knew it would have to be replaced. We had the option to get breakdown recovery to come out or just drive to the local rental depot at the airport in Oklahoma. We decided to go to the airport and
to cut a long story short, after not being able to find it for a long time, we eventually got the Jeep Patriot changed out for a Jeep Compass. It is essentially the same but with slightly less power (probably better for fuel consumption as we are getting through a tank a day!).
By now it was nearly 1pm so we had to cut out a few spots on the route. We started with the old bridge that runs across the Canadian river just outside of Oklahoma which is twice the length of the Tamar Bridge and pretty impressive. Unfortunately we didn't manage to get a decent picture of this.
In a small place a few miles on called Erick, we stopped at a Windmill fence. Sound odd? You have to see the pics to explain it.
Getting deeper into the Bible belt, right on the edge of the Texas state we visited a very creepy "1 man jail" in a pretty off the track location. There was a couple of old derelict building s that we could imagine was housing some inbred hillbillies waiting for some naïve tourist to capture. Maybe we have seen "The Hills
Have Eyes" too many times but we didn't hang about. I did get a good scary picture of the house but I've had difficulty uploading my pictures with this hotels WIFI so I will add them to tomorrows blog.
Next we drove a bit further down the road to Mclean, which has the 1927 first Phillips Gas station which looks actually comical now. It originated back when you hand to hand pump the fuel! This place is now a total ghost town with many abandoned houses and run down buildings just left to rot. Its such a sharp contract to the UK where these places would at least be knocked down and developed on. And as you can imagine, the newest clean building was the local church, their upmost priority.
After all this we were ready to crack on for the last hour down the I40 to our hotel in Amarillo with the dulcet tones of that stupid song circling our brains, as we had run out of time again. The Interstate is not where we want to be as we both find it frustratingly boring but it had to be done to make up time.
So
now it was just 70 odd miles past Texan fields and wind turbines. My observation of Texas as a state? Very, vey flat and very religious.....Enough said.
P.s Father, It isn't my tarmac riddled over caffeinated brain producing bad grammar, it was a test to catch out if you were reading it! And no, we haven't had a chance to experience any local live music yet apart from the horribly country rubbish as we scan the local radio stations. Might be possible further on the trip though.
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Tony Austin
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Tony Christie (singer of "Amarillo") shoulda been hung out to dry. . .
. . .along with Gene Pitney. On the contrary, I've been impressed by your English skills! Lots better than the usual emails anyways. And the descriptions show "consistent focus" and "clear structure" (two criteria from the grade C band of my Cambridge exam I'm marking haha). Sorry to hear about your hotel and Jeep troubles; but they are the kind of hiccups that'll be some of the best stories later on - honest, you'll laugh like drains. Well, I think I'm just about caught up with the blog now. I'm gazing at the atlas and - is it Albuquerque next? You're making very good progress!!