Friday, 12 October 2012
Amarillo - Lubbock
Friday 12 October – Amarillo – Lubbock
Today we drove parts of the Texas Plains Trail. The northern part of
Texas is called the Panhandle and that is where we were. “The stars at night
are big and bright ……” and that is especially true about the Panhandle but we
have had cloudy weather since we arrived in Texas and tonight there is a tornado
alert in the western part of Texas and a severe thunderstorm warning for
Lubbock.
From Amarillo we drove to Canyon and the Palo Duro Canyon State Park
– said to be the most beautiful in Texas. It features some majestic scenery and
we drove through the floor of the canyon 1000 feet lower than the table-top
expanse of the Texas High Plains. A branch of the Red River has carved out the
valley. Went to a bird hide and managed to shoot a male and female
Cardinal.
We then drove to Claude and south to Silverton. We passed over the
plains, and they are as flat. This is a huge farming area – maize and acres and
acres of cotton. We again passed through the Palo Duro Canyon before reaching
Lake Mackenzie. While we were at Lake Mackenzie a flock of geese flew overhead.
Our next stop was Quitaque. Just outside this town is the Caprock
Canyon State Park. Again this canyon was created by the down-cutting action of
the Little Red River. The exposed layers are often referred to as “red beds”
because of the red colouration of the stones and rocks.
The park is the home to the Texas State Bison Herd. As we entered, I asked the ranger where
the herd was and he told us so we drove there and sure enough we found the herd
of buffalo with many baby buffalo.
This area was the home of the Apache people until 1700’s when the
Comanche and Kiowa pushed them out.
These people were pushed out of their homes and onto reservations in the
1870’s.
Our goal for the day was to reach Lubbock, so we set out and thanks
to “Karen”, our GPS, we found the shortest route.
Just past Floydada, we saw pumpkins in the fields and then saw this
barn with pumpkins all along the driveway. In we went!!! We ended up meeting
the owner and he must have every type of pumpkin ever developed on show in the
shop. People were all buying ready for Halloween.
Route 66
11th October Albuquerque – Amarillo on Route 66
Left Albuquerque on Route 40 but soon found the old Route 66 which
runs alongside it. To our surprise it was a well maintained road as good as
many of our highways!!!
En-route we passed through Santa Rosa (where I posted a parcel to
Cash and India). Marg ended up coming in to see what had happened to me as it
took soooooooooo long.
Passed through Newkirk, Montaya, Tucumcari in New Mexico. These were
virtually ghost towns and I felt really depressed to see how the building of a
new highway can have such a negative effect on the community.
After visiting Russell’s Tourist Centre, we crossed into Texas. Our
first ghost town was Glen Rio. When I was planning the trip, I had us staying
here until I checked the internet!!!
Our destination for the day was Amarillo. Quite a big town. We found
accommodation at the Fifth Season Motel. It cost us $63 with breakfast. Lovely
old motel with a huge atrium.
For dinner we booked at The Big Texan Steak Ranch in the Beef
Capital of the World. They came and collected us in a limo with huge cattle long
horns on the front of the vehicle. If you can eat a 72oz steak and the sides
inside one hour, it is free. Apparently 9000 have achieved the goal.
The place was huge and done up as an old saloon with animal heads all
around. We sat next to 6 guys who
had just been hunting elk. They had killed 2 and they said that once you had
eaten elk meat, you would never eat steak. When we finished dinner, a limo took
us home.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Old Route 66 from Albuquerque NM - Amarillo Texas
Today we drove from Albuquerque New Mexico to Amarillo in Texas. We followed the old Route 66 which runs almost parallel with Interstate 40. Passed through a number of ghost towns or very small towns which included: Santa Rosa, Newkirk, Montoya, Tucumcari, Glen Rio to Amarillo. In Amarillo they called Route 66 the Mother Road.
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