Destination number: 84/164/22
The drive from Edgewood New Mexico to Amarillo was uneventful, which is always a good thing. I had kind of an emotional week before, so I welcomed the relaxing drive to Amarillo. The RV park in Amarillo was a little on the sketchy side. The name of the park is the "AOK Camper park". And it's name does it about justice. It is just "AOK". There was no one in the office and the pool was full of blown sand and weeds, and the couple living in the admin building were pretty scary looking. BUT, the 50 AMPS was solid, the water pressure was good, and the sewer worked, so what more could you ask for. As I was typing this, it dawned on me that I couldn't remember writing on an amount on the check that I dropped through the box to pay for the site, so I had a panic party and went to check it. Thankfully, I did write the correct amount. My fear was I had left it blank. Whew!
Interestingly enough, there was a long-term resident here in the park that has the same model Allegro bus that I do, and the year was the same too. The only difference is the paint job. In the months of February and March, the weather can get pretty schitzo here in Texas. It will be well into the seventies one day, and barely get into the 30's the next. One evening we had winds blowing at 45 miles an hour, gusting to 60. It really had the Allegro Rocking and Rolling, but the only thing damaged from the storm was the weather station.
It was supposed to get so windy and stormy that we had tornado warnings. I brought in the slides.
As I indicated. some days can be pretty cold and windy here in Amarillo - One morning I walked Remi when it was wind chill down to 2 degrees and my hands turned blue, and my face turned red. Brrr!
One morning wasn't too bad. Because of the two-hour time difference between Texas and California, I took Remi out one morning to a dog park that was about 20 minutes away so she could get some off-leash time. I was hoping we might find someone else there at the park where maybe Remi could get some play time, but unfortunately, no one else was around. Remi still had a great time exploring. She did get a bath when we got back to the motorhome because the lake water was pretty yucky.
I had an Internet outtage that started on Friday and ran through the entire weekend. (The issue even existed in my next stop in Sunset Texas, just north of Dallas). Supposedly this is due to AT&T doing maintenance on towers. However, in checking with local AT&T store resources, they had not heard of any reported problems. So, I went to the local Verizon store and asked that my capacity on my cell phone be increased just incase the issue persisted.
On Saturday morning, Remi and I set out to explore the Alibates Flint Quary National Monument. This is a little known and rarely visited National Monument, but it was very interesting. Though the visitors center is pretty small, it has some amazing displays and a couple of great videos and of course a souvenir shop. Remi and I enjoyed a couple of nice hikes around this national monument. It is very interesting how the history documented at the is monument dates back as far as 13,000 years ago when the mastodon's roamed the earth.
After we were done at the Alibates Flint Quary National Monument, we went to visit an overlook of the adjacent Lake Meredith National Recreation Area.
I am so enjoying every single National Monument/Park that we are visiting. Each and everyone are a truly rewarding experience.
After we were done exploring the Alibates Flint Quary National monument, went to check out the Cadillac Ranch, look at all the paint! As you enter into the Cadillac Ranch, you see a trailer where they sell refreshments, souvenirs and various different colors of spray paint that you can buy and use to put graffiti on the Cadillacs.
Our next stop was to go visit the Amarillo Train museum. Sadly, we found that it was closed. The Museum is way out of town, I'm sad to say that with it being so far out of the way, they will find a hard time making a go of it where it is located. :-(
Checked out the Kahwaka Indian museum. It was more about Indian art depicting indian life, moreso than having Indian artifacts. I will say however that they were some interesting displays, like one that showed how Indians built large buildings that had pitched roofs and no vertical beams.
One evening I had to go get some groceries. There are not many grocery stores in Amarillo, but there are an endless supply of convenience stores. None the less after doing I google search, I ended up shopping at Amigos, owned by Albertsons and carrying all of the old Safeway product lines! :-)
On Sunday, Remi and I went to check out Palo Duro Canyon State Park. This was a simply amazing place to visit. One could keep themselves busy for an entire week hiking all of the trails around here. However, if you don't want to leave your car, the ranger explained to me that you can drive the entire 16 miles loop in just under an hour. We took the hybrid approach where we did about 2 hours of hiking and drove the entire loop as well. Be sure to get to the park early. Come lunch time there is like a 2 hour wait to get in through the guard shack.
After visiting Palo Duro, I then went back to camp, packed everything up in preparation for the trip to Dallas on Monday morning. After the motorhome was all packed and with a load of laundry running in the motorhome, I set off for a dinner at the "Big Texan" Home of the free 72 Ounce steak... providing you can eat it and all the trimmings in an hour or less.
I didn't partake in the steak, but I did enjoy a very nice Filet! :-)
Here is the link to this weeks video.
Next week, we will recap our stay in the Dallas Texas Area.
Safe travels all!
Eric and Remi
