Leaving Amarillo (Mon.)

After Lauren and Clint left, we got ready to go out to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park musical show.  We stopped off for dinner and headed out, arriving just about sunset at the Canyon.  The sides of the canyon were beautiful with the setting sun shining on them.

 The first parking lot was full, but we got lucky and Mazie, and the rest of us, got to ride in the wagon from the second parking lot.  There wasn't any hay in it, but it was a nice ride.

 Joe thinks I need to take a picture of all these pretty Texas girls.

This show, which is in its 48th year, is billed as "a musical romance of Panhandle History."  We actually knew very little about it, and we were just blown away.  It was absolutely wonderful, and the second half was even better than the first.  It had lots of cowboy and cowgirl singing and dancing, drama, special effects, horses, and fireworks.  Everything was amazing, and I would encourage anyone traveling through Amarillo in the summer time to make time to take it in.  The cast numbered close to 50, and there were lots of different sets.  It was all very well done, and they used the beautiful canyon walls behind the pavilion as a backdrop, with lights highlighting different colors during the show.  It ended with a beautiful patriotic tribute and a water show with fireworks.  We loved the whole thing.

However, it kept us out past our bedtime.  It didn't start until 8:30, and ended about 10:45, so it was almost 11:30 by the time we got back to our RVs.  But an early phone call (6:50 a.m. Texas time) got me out of bed this morning, and  I gently persuaded Joe that he might as well get up so we could get on the move, and we were on the road at 8:00 a.m.  Dave and Mazie were moving around but they were not ready to go yet, and we were heading out different ways, although our routes would eventually intersect, so we didn't wait on them.  It was a little windy, about 69 degrees when we started out, and we ran into light rain pretty quick.  It rained on us off and on all day, and the temperature ranged from 59 to about 76, depending on our elevation and the clouds.  We took I-40 across to Santa Rosa, NM, and hit the New Mexico state line just after 9:00 a.m..  Then we dropped down on US 54 to Vaughn, and picked up US 60 and took that all the way to ARIZONA!  Yes, we made it to Springerville; Joe drove 486 miles today - a real marathon.  About 9 hours in the saddle.  We saw a couple antelope just after we turned off I-40 at Santa Rosa, but that was all of today's wildlife.  We crossed 2 time zones, and hit the Arizona state line at 4:40 Texas time (2:40 AZ time). The mountains in this part of western New Mexico and eastern Arizona are really green.

We found a campground in Springerville and finally got parked -- the host had left suddenly because they had lost power right before we got here, so we had to wait around for a while to find someone to take care of us.  And by this time, we were ready to be taken care of and get settled.  We drove into town for dinner, then settled in for the night.
Meanwhile, our buddies, Dave and Mazie, didn't fare so well today.  They had problems with their Dodge just before they got to Vaughn, and had to wait for a tow out of Roswell.  I think that was about a 5 hour wait, and when the guy showed up, he thought he figured out what was wrong (the wire connection behind the fuel filter was loose), so he didn't think he was going to have to tow them afterall.  He was going to follow them into the next town (Vaughn, NM).  We were a couple hours ahead of them when they called us and said they had not made it to Vaughn, but they didn't want us to turn around and come back, so we continued on.  We will check on them again tomorrow.

So the plan for us now that we are in Arizona is to leave our RV in Springerville in the morning, and drive home in the car (about 4 hours).  We will load the quads into our box trailer, hook it up to the truck, leave the car at home, and drive back up to Springerville on Wed. morning probably, if all goes well and no disasters await us at home.  We will then pick up the RV and go find a place out in the Apache Forest to dry camp and ride quads for several days, then move over to the campground at Big Lake on the 21st and spend another 5 days camping there (maybe do a little trout fishing).  Our friends Jeff and Brenda, Collins and Marilyn and Danny and Sherry are all going to meet us later this week for the dry camping/quad riding, and then Big Lake.  Assuming all goes well with everyone.

So this will probably be my last blog of this trip, because we don't expect to have an internet signal for the rest of our stay.  I'll probably do a recap of the trip sometime after we finally get home at the end of the month, mostly for my own records.  This has been a great trip; we've seen and done a lot of wonderful things, but it's been a lot of days (117) and miles (6,518) since we left on April 18, and we are ready to be home.

Amarillo Flea Market (Sat./Sun.)

We decided to go to the other flea market here in town this morning, but it was a disappointment.  It was plenty big, but more of their wares were really directed toward the Mexican population.  Joe did buy a new cell phone holder, but that was our only purchase.  Lauren went with us, and she bought a candle.  In addition to the inside booths, they had several tents set up outside.  Out here, there were several pens of pit bull puppies for sale, chickens, birds, and they even offered pony rides.
 
It warmed up quite a bit today, but the humidity is low so it wasn't that uncomfortable.  But we all concurred that this was a waste of time, so we left and headed to Whataburger for lunch (Joe got to pick, of course).  From there, Lauren headed home to get ready for this evening (they invited us to dinner), and we headed back to the RV.  However, we decided to drive on past to check out gas prices on down the road, and we drove past the "cadillac ranch" just outside of town.  We had seen this many years ago, but it had been a while, before the graffiti hit.  Now they are works of art, I guess.

We went over to Clint and Laurens for dinner.  Clint played us some country music on his guitar, then grilled us some excellent steaks.  Unfortunately, he was so tired he didn't join us for dinner, but we sure enjoyed his cooking.

Sunday we woke up to clouds and wind, still in the 60s, but it was a lovely day, felt like fall weather.  I did laundry, then Joe crawled under the RV and greased some of its parts.  We are getting ready to head out in the morning.  Tonight we are going to the Palo Duro Canyon musical show, and it doesn't start until 8:30, so we just had a restful day resting up for our late night. Mazie brought her laptop over in the afternoon, and we messed with that for a while.  Clint and Lauren stopped by for a while to visit.   Lauren has a very nice new car, which she is very proud of.

We hope to get an early start tomorrow and make some good progress toward Arizona.  We'll have to see what time we get to bed after our late outing this evening.

Friday in Amarillo (Fri.)

Today we did a little touring of Amarillo.  We decided to go out for breakfast, and Mazie found an ad on the campground brochure for the Calico County restaurant, so we went looking for that.  The food was very good, and they served us with small, homemade cinnamon rolls when we sat down.  I had found a couple flea markets on the internet, so thought we would check them out.  The first one was closed, but the second one was open.  It was full of old, antique, mostly junk, but we spent an hour or so walking through their various buildings.  Joe found a couple of hats he thought Mazie and I needed, but we all managed to get out of there without spending any money.

Next we stopped at the Jack Sisemore RV Museum, a museum behind an RV service center that has on display a variety of restored campers from the early days of RVing.  I would guess there was a dozen, plus a pretty nice display of historic motorcycles mounted on the wall.  Since both the Johnsons and we have been RVing most of our adult lives, we could relate to some of these models.

 This converted bus was the original camper used in the movie "RV" starring Robin Williams.

This is one of the original pop-ups, and when it was brought in, all they did to it was polish it.  This is the way most people started RVing back in the early 60s, and there was a time Joe and I really wanted one of these.  We started our RVing in the back of a Dodge van.










From here, we headed back to the campground to rest up for our evening out with Clint and Lauren.  Since we never get an early start, the day gets away from us pretty quickly.  Before long, it was time for Clint and Lauren to come by, in Lauren's new Buick, and after a short visit/happy hour, we headed out to the Big Texan Steakhouse, where they offer the free 72-ounce steak to anyone who can eat it.  None of us opted for that, but they did have one on display.

 This is one of the limos they use to bring people here.  When we stayed in Amarillo 2 years ago at a campground which was only about 1 mile from this steakhouse, one of these limos came through that campground and picked up customers for the steakhouse.

 I guess this is the entire meal for the 72-ounce deal.  There's a salad, roll and baked potato to accompany the main dish.

This is what a 72-ounce steak looks like.

We had to wait a few minutes, so our group found seats at the bar while Mazie and I checked out the gift shop.

So here's Joe, Clint with his head turned, Lauren is the blonde next to him, and then Dave.  We probably waited 20 minutes to get seated.

 While I was checking out the gift shop, Joe was checking out the cute cowgirls at the hostess station.

 This place is huge, and noisy, and crowded.  Unfortunately our steaks were not that great. I, of the well-done filet mignon, had to send my steak back twice before they got the red out, and by then it was nearly charcoaled.  Our group bravely ordered "mountain oysters" as an appetizer, along with jalapeno poppers.  The jalapenos were good, but Mazie and I chickened out on the "oysters."

 I've been on the hunt for an armadillo to add to our traveling zoo for 2 years, since we saw the one and only in Louisiana.  Finally, I was successful.

So this is our newest addition to the front dash.  His "back" is plastic or vinyl, and he's brownish/gray. 











Clint has to work Saturday, and Lauren said she has to go in to work for a little while, so they headed on home while we finished up.  They are having us for dinner at their house tomorrow night, so we are looking forward to that.  Clint used to have a band, so we are hoping to be serenaded by him sometime tomorrow evening. 

It was beautiful here today, in the low 60s in the morning and it stayed in the 70s all afternoon.  Was cloudy but didn't rain.  

Palo Duro Canyon (Thurs.)

Today we headed out to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, which is where the show that we came to see will be held.  It's about 30 miles out of town.  Our first stop was at the visitor center, and they have a nice CCC exhibit.  We didn't know there was a CCC flag or a hat.

"The Canyon is 120 miles long, as much as 20 miles wide, and has a maximum depth of more than 800 feet. Its elevation at the rim is 3,500 feet above sea level. It is often claimed that Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States. The largest, the Grand Canyon, is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and 6,000 ft. deep."  I am particularly partial to the Grand Canyon, and I don't think this one eis anywhere near as beautiful, but the main difference is that you can drive to the bottom of this one.  However, it is pretty and has some wonderful colors and rock formations.

We checked out the amphitheatre where the shows are held.  Looks like it will be comfortable, weather permitting.  They offer a chuckwagon steak dinner before the show but I don't think we are going to do that.  We prefer eating inside in air conditioning and without bugs.

Apparently they offer hayrides too, and Mazie was ready for that. I was really surprised Joe didn't hop on the tractor and take her for a spin.

As we continued our drive, Dave told Joe to stop and back up.  He had spotted a little tent, with an air conditioner in the window.  None of us had ever seen that before, but it made good sense.  The campgrounds here in this state park have electric and water at the sites, and it looks like these campers  figured out how to make camping a little more comfortable.

There are also cabins to rent here, in the cow camp.  Looked like they had electricity, but no A/C.

We finished our tour and headed back to town.  Joe stopped at McDonalds for ice cream cones but their machine had broken just as we got to the window, so we left without anything.  It rained during the evening, a little thunderstorm (it rained the night before as well).  We are in tornado territory so we are keeping any eye on the news.  We are hoping that the show at the canyon doesn't get rained out.

Arriving Amarillo (Wed.)

We got a later start this morning than we had planned.  By the time we had breakfast, had a couple of phone calls, and got decamped and fueled ($3.499)  it was 10:30.  Joe drove 292 miles, but it was all interstate and we made good time.  We crossed the Texas state line about 1:30 and got to the campground about 3:30 where we met up with Dave and Mazie.

We saw some wind damage as we drove across I-40 through Oklahoma and this part of the Texas Panhandle.  In Groom, Texas, we saw a water tower that had a severe lean to it.  Right across the road was a white cross, however, that was standing straight and proud.

 

We are staying at the Fort Amarillo Resort, which is on the west edge of Amarillo.  We had a nice visit with Dave, Mazie and Ar'gent, then went to dinner together.  Joe was pretty tired, so we had an early night.  The clouds were moving in when we got back from dinner, and we had some light evening showers.  They told us when we checked in that there might be some "weather" coming through late tonight, so it sounds like we might get a thunderstorm during the night.  We seem to bring stormy weather with us wherever we go.

Our grandkids started back to school today in Arizona.  I talked to Kaylee about her first day of 7th Grade, and she said she made it to all her classes on time.  I think she was a bit worried about that.  Cody had football practice but I talked to him briefly just before we went to bed.  His first day of Senior Year went well.  His first football game is Aug. 30, so we will be home for that.  I think they are both glad to be back in school.

On to Oklahoma (Tues.)

We pulled out of Branson about 9:15, leaving the forests and rolling hills of Missouri behind.  We took 65 south to 412 into Springdale and picked up I-540 there (which originates in Bentonville [home of Walmart], so I'm assuming Walmart had something to do with the building of this short interstate, or maybe converting what looks like US 71 into an interstate from Bentonville to Ft. Smith).  We connected with I-40 in Ft. Smith, and headed west.  It was cloudy when we started out, in the 70s, and we were able to drive with the windows open for a while, but the temperature kept creeping up, so we had to turn on the A/C. 

Joe found a convenience store to pull off at for his soda, and there was a pick-up selling melons next to it, so I walked over and picked us up a cantaloupe and a little watermelon.  Across the street was a chain-saw carving shop, so while Joe was still inside making friends, I walked over there.  It reminded me of the town in Canada, Chetwynd, where they hold the Chetwynd International Chainsaw Carving Championship every year.  This shop had a wonderful mushroom carving, as well as a few other interesting ones. 

 And beside it was a concrete art shop (for lack of a better word).

We are in Razorback country here, and there is a little one on top of this birdbath (I guess that makes it a hog-bath).









We stopped in Salisaw, OK to fuel ($3.339), next to Walmart, so I picked up some groceries while Joe had a little rest.  It has really heated up now, and we are missing that beautiful Ft. Wayne weather we enjoyed there. 

We saw lots of dead armadillos along the highways in Missouri, which surprised me.  I didn't know they were that far north, so I looked it up.  Apparently they have invaded Missouri.  We saw some dead ones in Oklahoma too, so they are spreading out all over, probably heading to Arizona for our dry heat.  As many as we have seen, though, I don't think they are doing too well up here.

I have added a new animal to our traveling zoo, in honor of our hitchhiking frog in Tampa.  I've named this one "Camaro" because a camaro exactly this color passed us today, and it was so bright it caught my attention.  We haven't added to our zoo for quite a while and we are a little behind.  We really need an armadillo because we finally did see a live one in Louisiana two years ago, but I haven't found a good one yet (I saw a nice one in the gift shop at Big Bend National Park in Texas (same trip but before we got to Louisiana, but I didn't buy it because we had not yet seen a live armadillo at that time). 

We stayed in Shawnee, OK at the Grand Casino, about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City.  This campground offers free camping (20 spaces), and has electric and water hook-ups.  We had stayed here before, so we were hoping we could get in (their sites are first-come, first-served).  We got off the road about 3:30; Joe put in another hard day, 309 miles.  It was about 100 degrees when we stopped, so we were happy to call it a day.  Of course, I went over and checked out the casino while Joe rested for a while, then I came back and fixed dinner.  We finished off our Indiana corn-on-the cob, which was delicious.  After dinner, I persuaded Joe to go back with me to the casino, and he was the lucky one.  No big wins but he came out ahead enough to cover my losses and still be up $15.  This casino has Mazie's favorite machines, Bombs Away, so I told her to tell Dave to start driving.  They are already in Amarillo and we will hook up with them today (Wed.).

Last day in Branson (Mon.)

After our day of rest yesterday, we thought we would drive up to Silver Dollar City today, which is sort of on the northwest end of Branson.  We didn't really know what Silver Dollar City was about, but after hunting down the post office on the east end of town, we headed across town.  However, when we got to Silver Dollar City, got parked and waited for the shuttle, it started to rain.  When we got to the ticket booth, we learned it was $56 each, and it was still raining.  We could see a roller coaster, but nothing else -- we think it is a miniature Six Flags type place, and lots of shops, and a 90-minute show, but we decided not to spend the money to enter.  Joe needed Cody for the roller coaster, and he wasn't sure how much walking he could do, so we left there and drove on past it out to Indian Point, where there is another marina and campground.  We learned the campground is federal (U.S. Corp of Engineers), so it would have cost us $11/night there, but they only had electric and water at the sites, and it is further from downtown where we spend most of our time because that's where most of the shows are.  However, it's something to think about next time we are here, and we will probably come here again.

On our trip to town, we came past a great overlook of the town, the valley, the river and in the distance, the dam.  It's very hilly in this part of Missouri, but also very pretty.  But when the sun bursts through the clouds, it heats up in a hurry.

On our way back to camp, we stopped at a little restaurant for lunch, and Joe had one of the best breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches he ever had.  It quit raining about the time we got back to the RV, so I decided to do some laundry.  This campground is really nice, we are in a full hook-up spot, we have wifi (but the signal isn't very strong), and it even has a couple of laundry buildings.  State campgrounds have come a long way over the last 10 years.  There is only one washer and one dryer in the one beside us, but I did make use of it.  And I got to use my laundry cart for the first time!  It was perfect, exactly what I needed.

Tonight's show was the Rankin Bros., the show we came for.  And it was wonderful.  Of all the shows we've seen here both times, the Rankins are my favorite.  It was quite a bit different from the show we saw 2 years ago, but it was excellent, and they are very talented singers.  I spoke to one of them after the show and told him they need to come to Arizona. 

Hitting the road in the a.m.  Tomorrow night we should be somewhere in Oklahoma.