2022-05-29 up and out of our hotel room by 8:00 a.m., ready to head home. We were really hoping that we could turn the 25 hour drive into a two-day trip and that was our goal. We drove through New Mexico and Texas, and after a few hours, we got to Amarillo. We had several stops planned here, the first one being Cadillac Ranch.
What a fun place, it didn't disappoint! It was so interesting, someone took a field and stuck Cadillacs into the ground, buried halfway up. We stopped at the Dollar General before we got there and bought spray paint, and everyone got to spray paint whatever they wanted on to the cars. The paint was so thick on those cars from all of the spray over the years, and the most interesting was the gift shop :-) we found t-shirts, stickers and all kinds of interesting memorabilia there :-) You will probably recognize this spot from past publicity, singer videos, and other marketing that famous people have done here.
Then on to The Big Texan! This is the home of the 72 oz steak. They have a deal that if you can eat the steak and all the trimmings that go with it in 1 hour, you get it for free. It's regular $72. Of course none of us thought that we could eat it and didn't even try but we had made the comment that it was probably not good if it was big enough to be 72 oz. We were pleasantly surprised when someone did try it while we were there, to find out it was a series of smaller steaks all on the same plate, not one big 72 oz steak. The guy that tried it had to sit up on the stage at the table and they put the timer on, so that everyone could see. We soon discovered he really had no intention of trying to eat it in 60 minutes, and he probably had a huge doggy bag of leftovers to take home, but he had a good time lol. We all did too, watching him! The food was good and there was an entertainer coming by each table, who would sing any artist you asked him. We asked him to do something by George Strait, and not surprisingly, since that's where we were, he sang Amarillo By Morning, one of my very favorites! There are a couple of songs that make me very emotional when I hear them, and this is one of them. I can't explain but it just tugs me a certain way. This one, and Into The Mystic by Van Morrison, and Seattle by Perry Como. Any of those are just about guaranteed to hit me and make my eyes water :-) and he was a good singer, and didn't butcher it, so that was very nice.
After we ate, we got on the road again. By this time it was about 2:30 and we had spent about 2 hours in Amarillo. As we were getting into the car Kevin looked up and saw the dust coming in, a huge wall cloud of dust and we very quickly got into the car. Poor Micki Jo drove for several hours through one of the worst dust storms I have ever seen, with straight line winds at about 35 to 40 mph. At one point I had my camera ready because I was sure there was a truck in front of us that was about to blow over. Cars were all over the road, and Kevin had already shown us some YouTube videos of trucks on Route 66 being blown over. But it was really cool to travel Route 66 and say we had done it! Wind turbines were everywhere along the route and Kevin saw an article talking about how much people were paid to place those on their property. I could be a wind tunnel farmer very easily and be set for life if those prices were right!
We finally made it into the Dallas area about 9:00 p.m. We had full intentions of pressing on, and trying to make it home. That would have put us getting in about 4:00 a.m. Apparently God had other plans for us, because as soon as Kevin started driving, he felt a funny feeling on the front drivers tire. We stopped at Buckee's in Terrell TX for him to look at it, and it was a very clear that the tread was separating. We have put 4,000 miles on those tires in a very short amount of time, and they've gone from 30° to 105° in a very short span of time, and while the treads still looked very good, it was definitely time to change the tire so that we didn't have a blowout along a lonely stretch of road in Texas in the early morning hours. So we're at a hotel tonight, and we'll replace it at Walmart early tomorrow morning then back on the road and home tomorrow afternoon. We're thankful for God's watchful hand over us as we travel, and for getting us safely to the Tetons and back this far again.
So tomorrow will be my last blog about this trip. I know that my dogs and my cat are looking forward to seeing me again, as are other family members. This has been an amazing vacation and I can't wait to do it again, as it is already in the talks for another time!