Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX, Wed. 10/5

I guess wireless internet access just was not meant to be for me on this trip. Tonight I’m staying at the KOA with my parents, in a “Kabin,” which is very Little House on the Prairie. It’s just a room with a bed--you have to provide the sleeping bag, and you use the campground’s common restroom and showers. How rustic.



But the campground promised free wireless internet, they allow pets, and they charge only $39, so I went for it. Plus, it’s only a couple hundred yards from my parents, so that’s nice. I did manage to get a connection briefly this afternoon, but it was very tenuous. I checked my email but could not post to my blog. Clicking on any link on a web page sends you into no man’s land, with the little globe spinning forever up in the corner, and a blank page. It’s very frustrating.

Amarillo is a pretty big city, at least compared to some that we’ve been driving through. It is very cold and windy here, like we skipped several months and headed directly into the dead of winter. Here in the Kabin, I can hear the wind whistling outside, and the door isn’t exactly weatherproofed, so the front desk gave me a towel to stuff into the gap between the door and the floor to help keep out the biting gusts of wind. Comet is quite unsettled. He does not know what to make of this place. It’s fine for tonight, but tomorrow I’m back in a hotel with all the comforts of home, thank you very much.

As we entered Texas, the quality of the roads greatly deteriorated, but then they switched from worn out asphalt to pristine concrete. I don’t believe I’d seen a single cop since we left Santa Clarita, but today we saw at least three Texas State Troopers on highway 40.

The land is basically flat and grassy. Not much to take pictures of. The word wasteland comes to mind, but we've still got OK and AR to go through....



For dinner we went to Dyer’s Bar-B-Que, listed in the AAA book as Western style cooking. The plates of food were heaping and the prices were dirt cheap. I had the fried catfish, which came with coleslaw, beans, hushpuppies, and fries. It was quite tasty. The service was fast and friendly, and we even heard a few “y’alls.” Afterwards, in the ladies’ room, I was treated to a very fancy sink.



Everything here is all about the lone star and don’t mess with Texas. Need a keychain, bumper sticker, magnet, coffee mug, tshirt, pin, or hat with that slogan? They got ya covered.

Tomorrow it’s on to Oklahoma City.