Amarillo By Mornin'

Amarillo's on my mind, Amarillo by mornin', Amarillo's where I'll be  (words and song by George Strait, country western star who recorded the hit in 1982).  We had been talking all summer about heading to Texas to get our driver's licenses updated with the Federal mandate, and we thought - hey, why not make Amarillo our destination to do that?

First time seeing Amarillo on a sign (still in Oklahoma City)

Skyline of Oklahoma City

Weird structure, this is a walkway over I40 in Oklahoma City

Not sure about this since Garth was born in Tulsa, not Oklahoma City

Crossed the Chisholm Trail, a major cattle thorofare from Texas to Kansas

The day started out yesterday morning, leaving Oklahoma City by 9am.  It was touchy at first if we were going to leave, I think I had a kidney stone the night before, and I think I passed it by 5am.  What a painful experience!!!  By 5am we were showered and thinking, lets head to the ER to see what's going on and wham - once I said it out loud, the pain subsided.  Did a little googling and I really think that's what happened.  Ouch, did that hurt, awful experience. We took a quick nap (I had been awake since 2am with it) and when we woke at 7am, I said life is good, let's go.  Drugged up Buddy and had to wait for 2 hours which gave me time to make sure I could go, and I told Dave that even if it came back while driving, we were heading to a bigger city (Amarillo) so let's do it.

Many oil refineries  

Cherokee Nation really did up this rest area, billboards for miles

Long lonely road

Made it to Texas - our 17th state this summer

The drive was very hard on Dave.  Winds battered us all the way, we were heading almost due west and the winds were gusting to 35 miles an hour from the south (hitting our left side of the RV) and made the RV and car rock/swerve.  At least no rain, thank goodness.  Passed through Oklahoma City, then out on lonely roads until hitting the Texas border.

Wind farms mean high winds - higher winds here than elsewhere, great

We could tell we were getting closer to Amarillo when the traffic picked up.  Saw lots and lots of wind farms, and oil fields, and long stretches of land without any homes/ranches.  Desolate.  The wind was just awful.  We drove along Interstate 40 all the way, this is the original route of the Old Route 66 from the mid 1960's.

Sad, abandoned

Got into the campground by 2:30pm, set up and just went - phew, that was awful.  This morning was an amazing sunrise, and again, gusty winds.  We did make it to the license bureau, did not have all the paperwork so had to bee-line back to the RV, dig up our passports, then headed back and got our licenses renewed.  And we also got our car inspected this afternoon, will take the RV to the inspection station tomorrow morning to get that done. Learned that high winds is the norm for Amarillo - always is blowing.  Something we are not used to.

Route 66 signage all along Interstate 40

And our exit to the campground - 262 miles later

So, 3 out of 4 things done just on day one.  Hopefully tomorrow will go smoothly, then we have 2 days to do some shopping to resupply.  We leave here Friday for New Mexico.

Howdy yourself!

Sunrise this morning