Texas in Three Days - Day Three

Friday, September 18  -  Dallas to Amarillo

I woke up with those red boots on my mind.  Dan assured me that Port Townsend was not a red cowboy boot kind of town, but I think it could be.  Plus the fact that I'm still thinking about them must mean I was meant to have them.  Just ask Paul Rudnick.  The only library book my mother ever "lost" was a copy of his I'll Take It! (in all fairness it was impossible to buy a copy in Melbourne.)  Actually, Aunt Pola, one of the characters in this funny book would no doubt tell Mum that this meant she, too, was meant to have it.  My mother and I laughed so hard over this book it will always remind me of her (and yes, of course I have that lost copy in my bookshelf now.) 

"Sort of like what I imagine P.G. Wodehouse would have written after spending some time in Bloomingdale's ... For sheer enjoyment, this book is a bargain. Buy two. You can freeze one. You never know." Jeff Danzinger, The Boston Globe

Joe, his mother Hedy and Aunts Pola and Ida set out on an ostensible leaf peeping tour to Maine which turns out to be a thinly veiled excuse for a shopping spree (on their way out of New York they visit Bloomingdales and Loehmans, just to try a few things on)  and a ruse for Hedy's nefarious scheme.  They're all serious shoppers but in Joe's case he has a somewhat flexible approach to paying for things.  If he spies something he likes he will 'earn' it by thinking about it, visiting it again, letting it tease him a little, seeing if it really wants him to have it.  I'm feeling that way about those boots.  I hear them calling out to me.

The long drive to Amarillo was again not at all what I expected.  It was all green grassy plains and a barely perceptible climb to 3,600 feet.  Not a dry, dusty patch of red earth in sight, let alone a tumbleweed.

Along the way we passed another Cowboy Church (my kind of religion!)

The Cass County Cowboy Church

We drove through another wonderfully named town - Jolly, Texas (pop. 188) which got us speculating on whether or not those 188 people felt any pressure.

We saw a huge flock of buzzards circling.  Must have been 20 or 30 of them, which I'd never seen before. Usually you see one or two.  I learned some interesting facts about turkey buzzards.  For instance, they pee on their legs which serves two useful purposes: it cools them off in summer and kills any lingering bacteria.  Also, with a really big carcass the entire flock will remain aloft until enough buzzards show up to dispose of the carcass in a timely manner.  I wonder how they decide. Is there a buzzard maitre d'?  "I'm sorry, I can't let you descend until your entire party has arrived."

One other interesting fact that Dan shared with me which has nothing to do with buzzards or even Texas but is just so cool I wanted to pass it on in case I'm not the only one for whom this is big news.  You know how when you rent a car and you have to fill it up you're never sure which side the petrol tank is on? And invariably you pull up on the wrong side and have to go through all sorts of complicated maneuvers to get around to the other side of the pump?  Well, there's a tiny indicator arrow on the petrol gage that actually points to the side of the car where the tank is.  How cool is that?

Okay, it was a VERY long drive to Amarillo.

We also passed the town of Vernon, Texas, which had an official sign saying 'Peddler Ordinance Enforced' - looks like Dan's Great Grandpa would have had a hard time in this town. But you have to wonder how many peddlers there are today that the town feels it has to let them know that they are not allowed to ply their trade in THIS town, thank you very much.

Here's a little reader competition:  complete the missing letters of this sign.  Prize:  the bottle of Sauce For Sissies.

We finally made it to Amarillo and found this place, another Road Food recommendation, only to find it was closed for renovations. 

On the way to an indifferent barbecue place we actually passed another Cavender's!  It was a sign for sure. I couldn't believe it but they didn't have my red boots (Dan had to fetch my computer to show the salesman the picture) so now I really, really have to have them.

Those red boots are made of eel skin.

Okay, what's wrong with this picture?

Ropes in Post-Brokeback Mountain colors

Ya gotta love a man who is willing to look this ridiculous for the sake of his wife's blog.

Remember our neighbors in the fancy rig back in Memphis?  They recommended the Oasis RV Park on the far side of Amarillo.  It may well deserve its name when the wind blows in the right direction, but by the time we'd pulled in, very tired, very disappointed (me, the boots, Dan the dinner) and hooked up, the wind was blowing straight from hell.  Or, in this case, a stockyard.

It was so bad, in fact, that I did what I've avoided doing up until then. (WARNING: the following section will be considered TMI for many.)  I used the RV loo for the serious stuff rather than brave the outside for the trip to the park restrooms, which we'd been doing so far as the thought of carting around real "black water", especially in this heat, was kind of gross.  But it was more gross outside.  No kidding, these must have been a lot of cows with serious gastric disorders.

We couldn't wait to get out of there.  One other reason to cross Amarillo off our list of places to ever re-visit.  Or, three reasons, to be more accurate:

 

This trip was a great idea.

I am having lots of fun ......