GoofyMom's Great American Road Trip to Florida - Page 14 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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We knew we wanted to get to Amarillo tonight. But we looked at the TripTik, and they had us taking a stupid round-about route through Fort Worth. If you look on a map of Texas, that looks like it's a fair bit out of the way since Fort Worth is northeast of San Antonio. So we plotted a different route that didn't follow interstates the whole way, but looked more direct. We took the I-10 to Junction, then struck out northwest towards Lubbock and ultimately Amarillo. We decided this at breakfast time!
We climbed into the van and were leaving San Antonio by 8:15. The odometer read 78340 km, so we had only put on 305 km (183 miles) yesterday. It was 73º.
A waterfall!
We discovered our ears started popping. San Antonio is in Hill Country. And now that we've been there we know why it's called Hill Country!
By 9:20 we were at 2000' according to the GPS.
Distance to Amarillo 436 miles, elevation 2062', speed 85 mph, ETA 4:34 (if we didn't make any stops)
We were driving through either rocks or pasture land. Not a whole lot of in between.
We got to Junction at 10:00 and we needed to fill up with gas. $2.999 gallon! We were used to paying $2.60 - $2.70 by now. Well how expensive the gas was would have been the main story in Junction, if it wasn't for this:
Ew. What IS that?
Crickets!!
Trust me. Nobody used that door. Fortunately you could get to the McDonalds through the gas station if you wanted McD's. Which was cool in itself that a gas station and McDonalds were connected like that. And the insided of the whole building was spotless. It was just the outside that was so ooky.
Buzzards? Vultures? Whatever. Ugly.
We had left the interstate and were joking about driving on the "cow trails". The reason this is such a joke is because even the secondary highways in the States are head and shoulder above some of Western Canada's main highways. (Drive the Trans-Canada or the Yellowhead and you'll see what I'm talking about). We were enjoying driving on the "cow trails" believe me!!
We came upon a little town called Eden and ...
Oh geez. We got hosed in Junction. (For those not familiar with Canadian slang, that means we paid too much)
My computer's been giving me fits lately, so I'm going to post this, reboot, and start a new post.
Great update - San Antonio looked great! I was supposed to go there this summer, but it did not work out - now I know what I really missed! When my sister was there last fall, her favorite part was that you could drink and shop at the same time along the Riverwalk (around here, you can have alcohol out on the streets/sidewalks, so this was novelty to her ).
We stopped at a McDonalds in Lamesa for lunch. My stomach was kind of upset and I couldn't stomach the thought of eating McD's, so I ordered a vanilla shake. I think Dan ordered a shake too. Good lunch, eh?
You can take the girl outta the farm, but you can't take the farm outta the girl. So I was looking at all the "unusual" crops and farm equipment.
Never seen a harvester like this before!
And we never did decide what crop this was!
Looks like we're in flash flood country. "Watch for water on road" We were in Lubbock.
This looks so much like where I grew up in Saskatchewan.
Seriously. Are we still in Texas???
I really liked the names of some of the towns we drove past!!
It started looking like the GPS was right and we'd be hitting Amarillo fairly early. So I looked in my trusty AAA guidebook to see if there was anything worth touring in Amarillo in the evening. And something jumped out at me! Palo Duro Canyon.
Have you ever heard of Palo Duro Canyon? It's the 2nd largest canyon in the USA! Well, I read that there were hiking trails, horse trails and a self-guided driving tour. My tummy still wasn't feeling really happy so the hiking and horses were out, but we thought it'd be cool to drive in the canyon a little. We got there a little after 4:00.
It's a State Park. Admission was $4 per person. We had $8 between the 2 of us but it was four $1 bills and $4 in change, mostly quarters. I also had travellers cheques. But Dan wanted to get rid of the coins. So he pulled up and handed a big handful of money to the guy who promptly handed Dan back all the coins and said he would charge us the Seniors rate of $2 each. He said something about the coins were too much trouble. Boy, I tell ya...one thing I noticed a lot in the States is that coins do not carry much importance here. If you are supposed to get 73 cents back in change you'll more than likely get 3 quarters. In Canada they will count out every penny and if you happen to short them one, they will stand with their hand out waiting for you to come up with it. I like the American way. Anyway, Seniors rate paid, we were handed a map showing where we could drive. Part of the road was closed because it was flooded out.
We drove to the Visitor Centre/Gift Shop
Plaques showing the names and locations of some of the formations.
Starting down....
At the bottom of the canyon there were water crossings. The first 2 were passable, but the last few were not and so the road was closed further on.
Dan spotted a cave just a little ways off the road, so he pulled over and hiked up to it.
The inside of the small cave
Here's where the road was closed. So we turned around and backtracked our route to the top.
By this time, I was really not feeling well. So we hightailed it the 15 or 20 miles to Amarillo, planning to stay in our favourite hotel chain - Drury Inn. When we got there, we got bad news. No room. Some musical group had come in and booked up every available room. So we headed across the street to the Comfort Inn.
They were nearly full too, and all they had were two Double Bed Suites. Dan had a government ID, so we got the government/military rate and booked one. It cost us $125.
At first glance it looked niced enough. Then I noticed the back of the couch was sliced open and the foam and fluff was sticking out - you can kind of see it in this picture. And something I do in every hotel (stemming back to a nasty incident as a child when my family was drving to Disneyland) is throw back the blankets on the beds to check for bugs. Uh. The first bed failed! It was just a creepy crawly though, not a bedbug or anything, so I checked the other bed really well and it was clean. If I had been feeling better, we would have left and found a different place to stay the night. But I was getting more nauseated every minute, and we decided it would do. Later we found soap or something sticking to the door knob on the inside of the bathroom door. Ick. Dan did make a complaint about the room, but we haven't heard anything back.
He ended up going to Subway for dinner and brought back a turkey sub for me, while I just stayed in the room and let everybody know where we were for the night.
Yeah. Me too. Trust me. I didn't even post the worst pictures! It was really creepy walking into the gas station, trying really hard not to step on any!
Just like yesterday, we had a choice to make about which way to go. Dan wanted to drive through a town called Forgan, Oklahoma because he was raised near Forgan, Saskatchewan. If we went that way, we'd have gone through Kansas. But we decided at breakfast time to go through Colorado instead. That meant no Forgan but Dan was ok with that.
Comfort Inn provides a free breakfast, so we took advantage of it. At 8:00 we were in the van and leaving Amarillo. It was only 62º. The odometer read 79264 km, meaning we had gone 924 km (555 miles) yesterday.
We were amazed by how much the area we were driving through looked like the area where we grew up. We hadn't filled up with gas in Amarillo, so when we got to Dumas we stopped. $2.959/gallon so Dan only put in 8 gallons and figured we might find cheaper gas somewhere else.
I had to wear socks again! First time in weeks!
We entered Oklahoma at 9:40. It was 68º.
I was still not feeling quite right, so I nodded off to sleep.
Dan took this picture when we crossed into Colorado. I slept through it.
Dan stopped in Springfield, CO for some more gas. It was a little cheaper -- $2.899/gal. So he filled up. I woke up long enough to realize we were stopped, but went right back to sleep again. We continued on and got halted for some road construction. I woke up then. We had to sit for 10 minutes waiting our turn to use the only lane that was open. It was 12 km (7 miles) long.
We rolled through a town called Lamar around 10:45. I liked the way they had the street decorated -- they must be having a fall festival.
We kept climbing up and up in altitude and the temperature was dropping. Looks like I gotta start getting used to a chill in the air again.
We hit an interstate again as we neared Denver.
We stopped for some lunch at a Denny's in Thornton at about 2:00. I wish I had been able to contact another PassPorter that I know lives nearby, but we just didn't figure out our route in time to give her any notice. Sorry, Robin!
Back in the van and we hit the start of rush hour traffic as we were leaving.
It was too hazy to see the foothills very well.
Eventually we left the foothills behind and started getting into more "Wild West" type scenery.
Not a real bison -- somebody had made a large cutout of a bison and placed it on the hill.
We entered Wyoming just before 4:00.
We decided to chance another Comfort Inn for the night, so we checked in to one on the outskirts of Cheyenne.
This one was way cleaner and in much better shape. And it was basically a truck stop hotel, nothing fancy. We were so much happier with this room. I still wasn't feeling very well and I climbed straight into bed and had another nap. After I woke up again, we were hungry - it was after 7:00! So we cranked up the laptop with a mission -- we were looking for a Chili's to eat in because I wanted to eat in one at least one more time while we had the chance. that Grilled Caribbean Salad!! Luck was on our side and there was one about 10 minutes away. So we ate at Chilis -- I of course, had the Caribbean Salad and Dan ordered a Boneless Buffalo Salad.
Tummies full, we headed back to our room for the night.
Another bright and early morning today. Dan had filled the van up last night at the gas station right beside the hotel. $2.639/gal. We ate breakfast and were in the van by 7:15. The odometer said 80141 km so we had travelled 877 km (526 miles) yesterday. It was only 44º when we left! We were taking I-25 as far as we could, then heading over to US18/85. Our destination was Rapid City, SD.
Not a real horse and rider -- another large cutout.
Near Chugwater, WY, we started seeing these really cool cliffs and rocks..
And we started noticing the Laramie Mountains in the distance
There were huge herds of antelope scattered all over
Just out of the blue, here's this really big rock thing in the middle of a pasture.
Another antelope herd.
Entering the Black Hills of South Dakota:
One of the switchbacks we had just come down
Coming up.... Jewel Cave and more Black Hills attractions
Wow, you guys really know how to cover the territory. This part of the US (CO, WY, SC) are some of my favorite places to visit. Thanks for taking me down memory lane with your pictures. Hope the rest of the trip you were feeling better.
Great updates! Tom and I have got to explore the USA! Bless his heart for going to WDW all the time because I love it so much, but I think a major road trip has got to be planned for the future!
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We were used to paying $2.60 - $2.70 by now. Well how expensive the gas was would have been the main story in Junction, if it wasn't for this:
(For those not familiar with Canadian slang, that means we paid too much)
He said something about the coins were too much trouble. 
In Canada they will count out every penny and if you happen to short them one, they will stand with their hand out waiting for you to come up with it. 
How great you decided to go there 
Sorry, Robin!
that Grilled Caribbean Salad!! Luck was on our side and there was one about 10 minutes away. So we ate at Chilis -- I of course, had the Caribbean Salad and Dan ordered a Boneless Buffalo Salad. 
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