Cadillac Ranch | Amarillo | Texas

Since I had not been to the panhandle of Texas, I decided to hop the border from New Mexico to the Amarillo area.  I'd heard of the Cadillac Ranch, saw photos, but hadn't seen it in person.  There are 10 old Cadillacs buried nose down in the ground, muddy ground when I was there.  From the frontage road right by Interstate 40, there are corn fields.  This field had a wide path to this tribute to Cadillacs.

As I approached, I smelled spray paint, people were spraying names, sayings and designs on these old cars.  There is so much paint on them that the surfaces are textured, big blobs of paint, some running down the sides.  For sure, if they were rusting before, they certainly are not rusting now!

Because people were leaving spray cans for other people to use, I picked up one and put my initial on one of the cars, just for fun.

Texas does it big,  like this 47' tall statue called Tex Randall, who was built by the owner of a curio shop in the 1950s to catch the attention of travelers.

And then Texas has some things that are over the top........

Another attention-getter is this dinosaur outside the steakhouse.

I'm not promoting this restaurant, I didn't even go inside.  Now that I think of it, there may have been some interesting things inside also.  The big draw here is that if you can consume a 72 ounce steak for dinner - then the dinner is free.  Of course, there's a time limit  - 1 hour!  The thought makes me a little queasy......  There were all sorts of cars and limos on the property with the restaurant name - check out the steer horns on these.....

  

The restaurant and the signs were moved from Route 66 when the interstate came through.

The sidewalks around this steakhouse had branding marks pressed into the concrete.

How many people have a zebra along with donkeys and cows??  I saw this one while I was driving along....

Yes, Texas is a little bit different...... 

Palo Duro Canyon State Park | Texas

Palo Duro Canyon has been compared to the Grand Canyon by some people.  The big difference is that you're down among the rock formations, instead of standing on the rim.  There isn't really a rim. 

 

The spire in the photo above is at the very end of the formation in the first photo, but it doesn't show on the first photo because it's so massive.

 

Unfortunately, it was mostly very overcast the day I went, so the photos don't seem to be as striking as they usually are.  Light quality does make a difference!

 

 

Toward the late afternoon, the sunny skies appeared, finally.

 

 

 

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was here in the 1930s and helped build the roads through the park.  This chimney is a remnant of the village where the workers lived.

 

 

In the visitor center, a room is set aside for exhibits on the CCC, this jukebox got my attention!

 

Since this is Texas, they do things in a big way.  These flood gauges were all through the park.  It must have rained quite a bit the previous day, because I had to drive through some wet spots in the road.  This area is all red rock and soil, so the standing water was all reddish.  Unfortunately, it got on the truck and caked on before I got a chance to hose it down.  It took me well over an hour to get all the mud of.  The wheel wells were the worst and I was a bit soggy when I finished.

 

 

Jack Sizemore | RV Museum | Amarillo | Texas

 

This is the RV that was in the Robin Williams' movie "RV" and it was made in 1948 it's called a Flxible.  And that's the way the spelled it on the sign.

 

 

Probably the oldest one in the collection is this car camper - the back opens up as you'll see in the photo following.

 

 

Family Motor Coach of 1976.

 

 

Jack is the man who purchased these vehicles and restored them.  His business is, of course, selling RVs and parts.  I got a few parts from him and the price wasn't outrageous like some places are.

 

 

Whoever owned this rig certainly did lots of traveling - in many areas of the world. 

 

From 1936.

 

They had pop-ups back in the 1930s.

 

VW vans really got some camping experience.

 

Truck campers are quite popular now, and this is one of the last of these made in 1970.

 

I have seen something similar to this next one - the entire top half of the trailer slides down (see the wheel in the front) so it's half the height while traveling.

I didn't get inside this one, but they say it's the oldest Airstream, called the Torpedo, from the 1930s.

 

A cute little trailer, and they're starting the make new "retro" ones similar to this.

 

Everyone knows airstream.

 

 

 

For the bike enthusiast, there were some shiny models of all kinds and ages.

 

 

 

 

 

Including this one from the early 1900s - with a sidecar on the left side.  The sign says it's one of two that were known to exist, so obviously quite rare.

 

 

Harley Davidson from 1942, used in World War II.

 

 

Just for fun, they had some nostalgia items that weren't RV related.

 

 

 

 

Arriving in New Mexico

Yesterday I drove from Fort Stockton, Texas to the "town" of Whites City.  In town is one large store consisting of about 3 large rooms consisting of a few groceries, T shirts and other souvenirs.  Across the street is a large restaurant and some motel-looking rooms.  There is a post office, an over-priced gas station and a tiny museum.  And the RV park that is just outside the gateway to Carlsbad Caverns. 

On the way over, the rest of west Texas was what I expected it to look like, flat dry land with some bushes trying to grow, lots of oil drilling rigs, and in some places, huge round storage tanks for the oil coming out of those wells.  It was a two lane highway with a speed limit of about 70, nothing fancy.  The state line was nothing fancy, a few signs that had been used for target practice - Welcome to New Mexico, Mountin Time,  State Law, use seat belts. 

For some reason, the terrain became a little more hilly right after passing into New Mexico, and the oil rigs were still in evidence.  I found the RV Park, expensive not because it was an oasis in the desert and luxurious.  No, it was expensive because it was the only game in town, the only game for miles around!  I set up camp and had lunch, then drove up to the Caverns.  The photo above is from one of the roadside lookouts. 

I'm not going to bore anyone with details of the formations in the caves, since I've done that in a few other blogs.  But, I will mention one fact I probably didn't - these places are very far underground.  In this instance, if you don't take the steep, winding path of the natural trail for about an hour, you take the elevator.  Being the adventurous sort of person, I took the path on the first day and the elevator on the second day.  The elevator takes you down 850', be sure to clear your ears on the way.  That's not the bottom either, there are caves under these caves and they all continue for miles. 

The adventure continues tomorrow as I move north in New Mexico.

West Texas

 

West Texas is very sparsely populated compared to east Texas.  I traveled Interstate 10 from Sonora to Fort Stockton yesterday and  loved the fact that there was so very little traffic.  Speed limit is 80, but I don’t feel comfortable towing at that speed, so I average about 50-60.  Obviously, everyone else was passing me.  But that’s fine, the scenery was all new to me and I wanted to enjoy it. Texas drivers are accustomed to going fast, some of their less-populated country 2 lane roads have speed limits of 70 or 75.  Yes, little skinny country roads.

I expected the area to be pretty much flat, but most of the road was hilly with long grades.  Sometimes it was so gradual I didn’t notice it, but I could feel my truck reacting to it.  Texas people were smart, instead of having steep grades, they just cut through most of the bigger hills and mesas.  That made for an interesting trip, you can check it out with the link at the end of this article.

The first part of the trip was on a basic four-lane highway through a few towns, green fields.  After about 50 miles, the road curved and I saw mesas up ahead, as far as I could see.  These rocky hills were all the same height, flat at the top, and continued for the next 100 miles, and probably beyond.  A few of them were smaller and came to a cone-shaped point.  In one area, there were windmill farms on top of the mesas.  All the vegetation was sparse, scrubby little bushes that were trying to grow out of what looked like mostly rock. 

I got to Fort Stockton about noon and checked into the campground.  There are very few trees in this area, so there was no shade.  I set up camp and then headed for the museum and fort.  It was a bright blue-sky, clear day with no clouds.  As I went into the fort visitor center, I mentioned that Texas had not been that hot back east a few miles.  The woman there told me it was 100 degrees out.   Oh, well, that sure explains it – that’s about 10 degrees more than where I was the day before.  At least the humidity is lots lower than Florida.  But it still feels like August in Florida. 

I’m not sure if it’s always this way, but the winds here are very strong, they were constantly 25-30 mph yesterday and into the night, with the same predicted for today.  It seems like the temperature and winds don’t reach their full impact until mid-afternoon, unlike Florida. 

If all goes well, I’ll be headed north to Carlsbad, New Mexico in the early morning.  Early, to escape the worst of the heat, it’s probably a 3 hour trip.  And when I pass the state line, I’ll be in the Mountain Time zone!

Click the link below to see one of the more interesting minutes of the trip.
http://youtu.be/d5XlAeL3YTc