Happy Birthday to me! …This trip is just the best present ever. (Not that I don’t intend to milk the occasion for all it’s worth anyway!!) Rick’s already talking about being married to” an older woman”! Three months I have to put up with this!
We started out again at 4:00am. I could get used to this. Who knew that sunrises looked like this?! After all the years of working a late shift…going to bed late and getting up late….I’m having an attitude change! It is a pleasant way to start…in the cool of the day. And watching the slowly lightening sky. There is a bright eastern star that lights our way. Rick always got up at 4:00am so he is raring to go anyway.
More desert and lava rock land. It’s funny that with such a severe drought here…that in places the cattle still stand in yellow wild flowers up to their belly. We drove to Albuquerque New Mexico and stopped at the American RV resort at 10:00am! Wanted to check out the ‘Old Plaza’. It’s very charming. I remember when I was here with my parents….the Indians were dressed in velvet tops and silver belts. Now they look just as sloppy as every one else! Teased hair and K- mart clothes. The rest is much as I remember it…they sit in the overhang of the plaza buildings…with their wares spread out on blankets. I love the dried peppers bunches hanging all over the place.
We ate lunch at a Mexican place there. It was so old that you really had to watch your step as the bricks in the floor had differing changes of altitude! And there was a tree growing in the middle of the room. Once upon a time it had been open but now had a light filtering cover high above. Great old beams and Mexican metal work.
This RV park had a modem for getting messages! And there were 5 waiting for us. What a nice surprise! This little portable Toshiba that Rick bought from the programmer at work was a stroke of genius! I would have pined for E-mail so much…..You get used to being in touch with the people you care about.
Amarillo, TX…..Aug. 18, 1998
We got up at 3:00 am today. That was either because we are turning into travel junkies or Rick is trying to kill me! Actually I got dressed quick so I didn’t fall back to sleep. But I promptly fall asleep in the co-pilot’s chair. (Some co-pilot).
The RV park was on a bluff overlooking the city. Albuquerque is in a valley and when we stopped for gas before leaving town, it was spread out at our feet, sparkling like jewels in a huge bowl.
The land is mostly scrub brush. It stretches the eyes…the only problem is…there’s nothing to see when they get there! I was starting to yearn for the sight of a tree….and even large bushes were getting the once over! (grin) There are sunflowers everywhere.. Saw one sad thing…there is nothing as far as the eye can see to spray paint on, so the local youth were writing on the roadway. Where there is a will there is a way!
We pulled off the road at a McDonald’s to get a coke and stretch our legs. Here we are sitting in the RV in perfect comfort, sipping on our cokes, and there is a homeless person upended in the dumpster. How easy it is to take our lives for granted. We are so lucky and so blessed.
We’ve found a KOA in Amarillo that also has a modem! It is much easier to handle E-mail on the road then we had realized. Had some replies…what a neat feeling! We stopped early to play catch up with the laundry and other housekeeping chores. The wind is picking up and the flags all around the park are standing straight out. We were sitting at the picnic table and Rick said ” turn around” and there was a rainbow! Grabbed the camera bag and started off…missed the rainbow but photographed a golden field and massive cumulus clouds. I can’t get over the skies they have in this area. It is so nice we have decided to stay an extra day.
Gas prices are UNDER a dollar…Yea!
Amarillo, TX…..Aug. 19, 1998
A busy day! We started out photographing the ‘CADILLAC RANCH’. It is ten Cadillacs buried nose down in a field at the same angle as the Cheops Pyramid. Weird!—-but interesting. The locals had ‘decorated’ them in wall to wall graffiti.
Took a short walk through the Amarillo Zoo. Cute but small. The fact that we frequent the San Diego and LA Zoos may affect that viewpoint. Pretty and well maintained park.
Drove to Canyon ,TX. to see the Panhandle -Plains Historical Museum. Outstanding! They have wonderful exhibits of cowboy and Indian Life. It includes a life-size reconstruction of a typical frontier town of the 1880’s.
Next a drive to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Looks like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon. You drive down into the canyon on a 10% grade. It’s only one of the reasons having the car is working out so well. NO way we would have taken the RV. They warn of flash floods and we could see storm clouds and rain coming down across the rim….so we didn’t linger overly long. I photographed wild turkeys crossing a stream. The streams run red from the cliffs all around them.
We are more tired tonight then the days we just drive! We had spent $300 to have a fantastic fan installed. That was money well spent. It sucks the hot air out of the RV and has an automatic cover that closes if it rains! So we can leave it on all the time…wonderful at night. It felt good to come *home*.
People really DO say Ya all! …..”Ya all come back now…hear?” Everyone is so friendly. Love to listen to them.