Amarillo Stuff

A couple hour drive which seemed like a six hour drive got us to Amarillo, I forgot how flat, windy and lonely these roads are out here, if it wasn't for the 72 oz steak billboards I might have gone crazy.

After getting set up in the campground which is located right at the end of a runway for the local airport and I love it. The is nothing more fun for me then to watch the different type aircraft taking off and landing right over my head, anyhow after getting set up we drove across town to K&M Jewelers, it's located in a mall that house's over 50 artist of different crafts. Or reason for going there is a bit of a story. One of my big brothers lives in the US Virgin islands, he's been down there since the mid 60's but with the internet he's managed to stay in touch with all his old friends and make tons of new ones. So many that he probably knows more people in the main land then I do, so when we told him that we were going to be in Amarillo he emailed me the address for his friend who was born and raised on the USVI's and moved to Amarillo. Also the night before our grand daughter called and hinted that she would like some earrings for Christmas, so we figured we would kill two birds with one stone. Kurt and his wife, Michelle make some beautiful jewelry and we were totally shocked at how low there prices are.

K&M Custom Jewelry Click to see their work

Back at camp this morning I woke up with a Lear Jet buzzing our roof while making a landing, I got up grabbed a coffee and went outside to watch, about ten minutes later another came in and then a surprise, an Osprey came in. His engines were locked at about 45 degrees and he just floated across the sky until he got to the runway then he twisted his engines to a full 90 degrees and lowed it down behind the trees, I was so engrossed in watching him that I didn't think to grab my camera until he was almost on the ground. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll get another chance.

After my morning excitement we drove down to Palo Duro State Park and took the drive down trought the canyon, words can't describe the beauty and I don't think any picture will do it justice but I'll give it a try with a few here.

Click to enlarge then click again to be able to pan the entire picture

After having a picnic lunch and leaving the park I punched into the GPS Cadillac Ranch, I've seen pictures and read little things about this for years and just figured that If I'm this close I better see it while I can. It's just 10 Cadillac cars, mostly in the early 60's that are half buried in the ground along side the highway on some guys ranch. Sound stupid but it was one of those thing that I just had to do.

We then noticed on the way home that we were only a few miles from the Amarillo Botanical Gardens so that's where we went. It's a very small garden but is set up so that they use every little bit of it. A local lady made a donation so that it's free admission to everyone until the first of the year.