HiJenx

Day 102: The Texas Panhandle

We woke up extremely early for our standards, in that we managed to see our first sunriseĀ of the tripĀ in Shamrock:

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After a quick breakfast as the hotel didn’t even make coffee (despite still having all the stuff out on display – I believe the hotel had changed hands recently), we headed to McDonalds, which is honestly the best way to definitely get a good coffee without being ripped off in the US. Whatever people want to say about their food, their black coffee, cappuccinos and mochas are cheaper and better than the other major coffee providers.

We had a look at the other Route 66 relic and Chris chatted to a man who was clearly annoyed he barely knew what Route 66 was:

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We carried on to further oddities, including the Museum of Barbed Wire:

2015-09-17 09.10.16The largest cross in the Western Hemisphere:

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And its stations of the cross and angel on top of an empty tomb:
2015-09-17 10.10.15 This one isn’t an oddity, but these flowers have been all over Texas. Usually they were by the side of a fast road in the middle of nowhere, but I was finally able to get a snap of them at the shrine:

2015-09-17 10.17.02We carried on into the biggest city in panhandle, Amarillo. We didn’t stay long as it was quite dusty and full of heavy industry, but we were able to chat to our waiter at a lovely little diner called Furrbie’s. He said it was a good place to raise a family, but he was looking to leave as soon as he could as it was pretty dull. The food was pretty good at this diner, though I think it may have been the least healthy turkey sandwich I’ve ever had, as I’m pretty sure they fried it. I also tried something a bit southern or possibly Texan, which is half iced tea, half lemonade. They called it Texan tea, though I think I saw it on menus in the South too. I think I enjoyed it more than iced tea, which though I’m a big tea drinker, has just not been for me.

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Amarillo has a weird free attraction just as you’re heading out of town, these upturned Cadillacs in a field that people are allowed to graffiti:

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Here’s the video:

We headed out deep into the middle of nowhere after that, even compared to where we’d been as rather than carrying on with Route 66, we headed down to Roswell. The route took us into cattle country where it was farms, beef production or nothing.

However remote this was, it was nothing compared to New Mexico.

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There was absolutely nothing there. The towns were tiny and extremely far apart. Even finding something like a gas station would have been a challenge had we needed it. Due to our early start though, we were able to get back to civilization by 3 PM, having done 300 miles, which I think is our best time in making that kind of distance.

We ended the night having a *very* cold swim and seeing this lovely rainbow in Roswell:

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