Driving Amarillo

We went through our list with our fix-it technician here at Dickey Stout Motor Ranch in Amarillo this morning. Then we all piled into the car and took off, leaving the Castle in the hands of the professionals.

Breakfast at Cracker Barrel was first on the list. Then we got the car inspected so it's once again Texas legal. After that, we went out to Cadillac Ranch. Jim stayed in the car with the dogs while I walked the 200 or so yards from the road out to the 10 cadillacs buried in the prairie.

From a distance, the 10 cars, half buried in a field west of Amarillo, just south of I-40:

Over the years, people have delighted in spray painting them. There's so much paint on them, I think that's what is holding them together!

Once again on the road, we drove around local streets for a long time, seeking the strange signs of Amarillo. I think by now I have enough pictures to post a few each day for quite a while. We have a friend who, hopefully, will read our blog often in the coming days and weeks, as we believe he will enjoy seeing these signs. Come to think of it, I believe we have several friends who might identify with some of the expressions on these signs. I also know that we didn't get pictures of nearly all of them!

I also wanted to get some pictures of the painted horses around downtown Amarillo. Here are my two favorites:

Then it was time to go to the park. Thompson Park is the largest (I think) park in Amarillo. I know it's a very large park. Today we found they've fenced in a very spacious area for a dog park. Oh boy, those dogs didn't know what to do when I took the leashes off. Jazz kind of looked at me and trotted off. Mr. Bo Jangles immediately started claiming trees for his very own. In the center of the dog park is a tunnel. Mr. BJ is very familiar with this piece of equipment and went right through. He spent many months in our former lives attending agility classes, and actually competed in a couple of matches. Jazz has never had classes, so she's a little hesitant around the equipment. But she eventually got all the way through the tunnel.

After romping around for awhile, they visited the special doggie drinking fountain provided just for them:

We checked back in at the RV dealership to see how our work was coming along. They still hadn't solved the tv problem and needed to talk to someone at Tiffin in Red Bay, Alabama. The people they needed to contact were out, so we went back out on the roads again. I saw more of Amarillo today than I have in all the previous visits combined!

The skies started looking pretty ugly, and we decided to get back to the rig, finished or not. As we got here, the weather radio was going off with tornado warnings. The local tornado sirens started sounding as well. Scary stuff! As it turned out, we were just a little west of the worst of the storm. Just a few miles can make a big difference. We went in the shop and watched the local weather on tv with the staff here. They're very informal, so had no problem with us being in there with the dogs. A tornado touched down just east of Amarillo, at a Flying J Truck Stop along I-40. I'm glad we were still here, as that's close to the area we are going to be staying once we leave the dealership.

The storm moved south. We relaxed a few minutes before it was time to go visit the family. The next couple of days will be filled with family reunion activities!