Little Sister Adventures: roadside attractions

I got in to the Amarillo area in the afternoon and decided to make the short drive to Palo Duro Canyon State Park to take in the sights of "The Grand Canyon of Texas" and take the opportunity to dump Poppy's tanks.

It was a nice walk!

I was fascinated by the layers of satin spar gypsum that cut through the sandstone.

I stayed the night at the Amarillo Cracker Barrel, just two doors down from the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum, which I will have to visit next time through.

And of course, a stop at Buc-ee's before heading west to Albuquerque!

Here's an interesting roadside attraction. There is a large store of helium underneath Amarillo. This 1968 monument was built to honor that, as well as to make a time capsule. The columns were to be opened in the years 1993, 2018, 2068, and 2968.

The contents from columns so far opened are located in the nearby Discovery Center. A quick search did not tell me what the items are, except: "Items preserved in the capsule include stamps, documents, toy cars, and other miscellaneous effects." (from Wikipedia). The emptied columns were re-filled with more memorabilia to be opened in the more interim future than the 2068 and 2968 capsules. The monument also acts as a sundial, but it was cloudy that day.

I also stopped at Cadillac Ranch, which is literally a skeleton of its former self. It was damp and muddy and I did not go closer than the roadside to get a snapshot.

An interesting find at a rest stop! I again stopped at every rest area, as it was windy, windy, windy all the way into the Rio Grande Valley.

That night, I was lucky enough to visit my wonderful friend Lola at her home in Albuquerque. We had a nice dinner. Dang it that we didn't get a selfie!! Poppy and I had a good rest in her driveway.

After a huge day visiting Graceland, we settled in for the evening, and got ready for sleep. I was to take Trish to the Memphis airport very early in the morning before my planned adventure to Arkansas. I had planned to visit Crater of Diamonds State Park, where you can mine your own diamonds, and the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.

I checked my weather apps and what do you know? A huge record-breaking storm was set to hit the heartland and flood Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. And it was forming right now.

Ummmm.... no thanks.

Poppy, get me out of there!

I wish I took screen shots, but this is about what it looked like five days after I planned to be there. It doesn't look much different from the forecast picture I saw on April 1; the storm was going to park itself over America's heartland and flood the place. You probably saw the news about the flooding, tornados, and hailstorms. Awful.

I quickly decided I had to skip my planned days in Arkansas and get the heck out of Dodge. I contacted a Boondockers Welcome in Oklahoma that evening and asked to stay there the next night, as I was outrunning the storm. The kind people on the other end answered thusly:

😳

They continued to kindly text me as I figured out a plan, giving me their cell phone to continue the conversation the next day. Super nice people!

I thought of all scenarios, making a mongo driving day all the way to Amarillo (11 hours?!), making a wide U toward Dallas (adding time but not avoiding much weather), or what? Finally I decided to drive to Oklahoma City and hunker down in a motel.

The next morning, the alarm was early at 4:00 a.m., and time to get Trish to the airport. We said goodbye at about 5:00 a.m., and I headed west on I-40, my home for the rest of the way to California.

It was a little tough before dawn, on little sleep in the dark and the rain; my body said, "It's still night! What are you doing?!" but when the sun arose, I felt better.

Unfortunately, the incoming storm meant heavy winds coming from the southwest, which meant buffeting around the travel lane, cramped hands, and tight shoulders.

I made it to OKC early afternoon. Ahhhh! Such a nice shower! I hunkered down in the motel room for the duration, with a short foray out to grab some food and bring it back for dinner.

Like a true Boomer, I watched the weather channel intently. There was indeed a tornado watch for the area, and there had been reports of large hail in other communities in Oklahoma. I scoped out the escape path to a lower floor's interior hallway and waited and watched.

Luckily, no harm came to me or Poppy. The tornado watch was cancelled before I went to sleep for the night, and though a fierce thunderstorm hit at about 5 a.m., no hail came to pock Poppy. I had a good night's rest.

We were back into the wind the next day, traversing the tail end of the storm. Every rest stop between OKC and Amarillo was utilized as I tried to unwind my muscles and brain for a few minutes before getting back at it. I did also make a few roadside attractions, too!

It was a short drive on the back roads to El Reno, Oklahoma where I visited the marker for the 98th meridian line and learned a bit of U.S. history.

After the government stole land from the native tribes, they opened up the land for a land rush and thousands of people rushed to stake a claim on Oklahoma Land.

And a little farther down the road I stopped in Weatherford, Oklahoma, the place I was going to stay for a night if I hadn't left Arkansas early. I will have to visit the Stafford Air and Space Museum there next time.

Instead I made a short visit to the Wind Energy Park, with its painted windmill blade and scaled-down replica of the Vietnam War Memorial.

Those blades are big! I counted off 55 paces and later learned it is 121 feet long. It was painted with different scenes.

Later on that day and the next day, I noticed several turbine blades being trucked to their future homes. I had never seen them being trucked before.

A little further down the road was McLean, Texas where I visited another museum, The Devil's Rope: Barbed Wire. I spent a little more time there than I had planned! There was a lot of barbed wire to see!

Come with me on my devil's rope journey.