Week 3 - Amarillo Texas to Arlington Texas

Our general travel route for this week...

We've also added some more pics to our photo album.

Left Amarillo in a chilly drizzle on Monday morning. Took secondary highways through much flat farming country. This area is so flat it makes Saskatchewan and Manitoba look downright mountainous. Passed through a place named Hereford which proclaims itself to be the "beef capital of the world". There are so many feedlots along the way that you'd have to think the ground water must be contaminated for many miles... the air certainly is... just a tad malodorous! Stopped at many historical markers; very interesting. For example, one identified a spot where more than 7,000 Italian war prisoners were held in a prisoner of war camp during the second world war. Who knew? Arrived in Lubbock Texas where we stayed the night. As all the interesting stuff is closed on Monday and we wanted to see the Buddy Holly Center we stayed an extra night and left Wednesday.

Since we were entering Texas BBQ country (they don't raise all those beeves as pets, you know) it seemed a good time to look for authentic BBQ pits. Normally I have a theory that any place with the word Pit in its name should be avoided, but for BBQ an exception is made. A good website called Full Gospel BBQ indicated that while one local pit had made the Top 50 BBQ Joints in Texas for Texas Monthly, it was not as good as another place. After drivin up and down to scout the location and finding it suitably authentic, we planned to go for lunch on Tuesday. Many BBQ places are 'lunch only' or until they run out of whatever was smoked the night before. Late Tuesday morning set out to Eddie's Texas BBQ shack and were not disappointed. The staff were super friendly, the food excellent and they gave us a sample of sausage and beef that was as large as Kris' meat order. It was a real treat.

After lunch went to the Buddy Holly Center. What a well done museum. Exellent chronological time line of his short career and the phenomenal impact Buddy had on the beginnings of the Rock and Roll music industry. Did you know that the first 40 Beatles songs were based on Buddy Holly's music legacy? and the Beatles chose their name in response to Holly's band's name The Crickets.

Later Tuesday we went to the Silent Wings Museum. Very interesting story of the use of glider planes during the second world war both in Europe and in the South Pacific.

Wednesday we went to Abilene. Mostly a travel day with some rest in the evening. Abilene is a fairly typical western town. Drove around the old downtown part. Some western heritage areas but not much to see here.

Thursday we hit the hill country to fulfil a primary objective of our overall trip. We drove through the Texas hill country to just north west of Austin. OMG...The Texas Blue Bonnets and many other flowers are out in full bloom. What a sight! And never ending it seems. All along the highways and many large fields were just covered with beautiful colorful flowers. Pictures do not tell the story. It was like driving through a Monet painting.

Stopped at the Hard Eight BBQ pit in Brady. They have an excellent strategy of making you line up beside the BBQ pit to place your order and of course everything looks and smells like it belongs on your plate. Apparently it is dove hunting season (as if anyone needs to hunt doves - I mean, what on earth do you do with a dead dove?? sounds like 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie, just like the nursery rhyme). The men ahead of us in line were on a hunting trip, but they indicated " they ain't kilt nothin yit. Just a big ol' snake". seriously. One of the fellows was wearing an FBI Swat team tee shirt; it seems this was not just a gift shop item. He was talking on his cell phone while getting iced tea at the drinks area .... just a point of etiquette, if you work in law enforcement try to avoid shop talk in public places. I don't want to know where they found the skull even if you do.

Stayed at the Leander/North Austin KOA and had our first swimming pool encounter...wonderful.

Friday was another freeway day as we drove back north to Arlington/Dallas.

On the way, We stopped at Baylor University campus to stretch our legs by walking around the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. A lot of people I have never heard of have given their old football jerseys for display - would have been very interesting for anyone who cared.

Drove past Clem Mikeska's BBQ place (may have to correct that mistake later in this trip). The Mikeskas are several brothers who have BBQ places in Texas and are generally listed among the Kings of BBQ. We did stop at another place which was OK, but not spectacular (see how picky we are getting already??). It was however, at this place where we found just how friendly (maybe sharing is a better word) Texans can be... to wit the following dialogue/script...

• Brian enters the men's washroom and uses the urinal. Upon finishing turns to use the sink when a stranger (and I mean total stranger) emerges from a toilet stall...
• Stranger: "That is the smallest gol'darn poopin room I have ever been in".
• Brian: "Uh-huh".
• Stranger: "I swear, if you turn the wrong way you'll get stuck in there"
• Brian: "Really"
• Stranger (after washing up): "Well, I emptied 'er out from that end; I guess I'll go fill 'er up from the other end now"
• Brian (pretty much at a loss for words): "ok"

Arlington was one of our baseball stops so we spent a few days vegging out at the Treetop RV Resort. Went to the Sunday afternoon Detroit @ Texas game. We called the Rangers ticket office to get our tickets. They gave us a 2 for 1 since we were out of towners. Sat up fairly high looking straight down the third base line. A fine ball park. This time the home team came out on top by a score of 8-4. Two homeruns and lots of other hits.

Thus ends week 3.

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Back to Week 2

On to Week 4

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