Texas, Oklahoma Loop

August 25, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

It is nice to enjoy the beautiful blue skies of Amarillo!

I cruised back into Amarillo this afternoon. I am looking forward to reconnecting with Charlene, Amy, and Neil. It will be wonderful to see them! It is amazing how big Texas is. This is a huge loop and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a large section of Oklahoma, the opportunity to spend time with John and Michelle, and the chance to spend time in Abilene and Lubbock. I am also glad I identified some nice RV parks for future trips around Oklahoma and Texas.

Now it is nice to get the coach setup and enjoy the beautiful blue skies of Amarillo. I am also grateful that it is only 88 degrees. I am loving the cooler weather!

Check out the huge driving loop I just completed!

Texas, Oklahoma, Texas drive map

Songs “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue”

August 22, 2015August 22, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

The songs “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” were written in this bedroom in Lubbock, Texas!

Today was amazing! I stood in the bedroom where the songs “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” were written! All over the world people have tapped their toes to those two songs, and they were written in Lubbock, Texas, in Drummer Jerry (JI) Allison’s house and made famous by Buddy Holly. I had no idea that all occurred in Lubbock!

Buddy Holly was famous for his glasses

When I was looking at things I wanted to see in Lubbock, the Buddy Holly Center quickly rose to the top of my list. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about Buddy Holly and The Crickets. Previously, all I knew was that Buddy Holly died tragically in a plane crash when he was very young. Today I learned that Buddy Holly had an enormous impact on music around the world. Buddy was a key rock and roll innovator. He was the first to set up the structure of a rock and roll band (2 guitars, bass, and drums), changed the way many chords were used in songs, and he wanted to have artistic control of his songs. There was a recorded interview with Paul McCartney at the Buddy Holly Center and Paul McCartney credits Buddy Holly’s trip to England as setting the stage for the Beatles getting started. Paul McCartney said the first 40 Beatles songs were strongly influenced by Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly also influenced the songs by the Rolling Stones. In fact, the Rolling Stones first hit (“Not Fade Away”) was actually written by Buddy Holly. Elton John wore unnecessary glasses to be more like Buddy Holly because Buddy was famous with his black horn-rimmed glasses. Buddy’s glasses were found after the plane crash and are on display in the Center.

Buddy Holly had a short career, but made a large impact on music!

Buddy Holly was born in Lubbock in 1936 during the Great Depression and he came from a musical family. However, what really got his creative juices flowing was seeing Elvis Presley play in Lubbock in 1955. After that, Buddy and his fellow musicians went full force to unleash their creativity. “That’ll Be the Day” was released in 1957. His career only lasted for around 18 months, but he had 25 hit records in that short time period. He died in a plane crash in Iowa in 1959. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper (JP Richardson who is famous for “Chantilly Lace”), and the pilot were all killed in the crash.

Buffalo Gap

August 21, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

The judge used this actual table and court room!

After working on projects and flights in the morning, I went to Buffalo Gap in the afternoon. This is a small community southwest of Abilene. They have a well-known historic village of old buildings converted into an amazing museum.

Help! the jail is gross.

Although the town is called Buffalo Gap, the animals are really bison. They had a courtroom and actual table that used to be used by their judge in the 1870s! I sat in their chair and banged the gavel. Upstairs was the jail.

The train station had one waiting room for whites and a colored waiting room.

For some reason, I was drawn to the textures of this door.

Abilene, Texas

August 20, 2015August 21, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Wow! This was an impressive museum!

Abilene is a very nice community.

After a wonderful visit with John and Michelle, I left Georgetown (suburb northeast of Austin) and drove to Abilene. There was no rain in Georgetown or in Abilene, but I was in a huge downpour about half way through the trip. The Abilene RV park is amazing because it has 100 foot pull through sites in the whole park. There is also tons of space between sites. Having elbow room is always nice to enjoy!

This was a great place.

There are many beautiful things in Texas.

As soon as I got the coach setup, I ate lunch and headed to Frontier Texas! It is a very impressive museum that is filled with videos of people playing different historic characters. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the whole afternoon looking at everything. The videos really brought the history to life. The whole museum was extremely well done.

Buffalo had a huge impact in this area of the country.

Buffalo (i.e., bison) had a huge impact in this area of the country.

Everything is big in Texas, including the skulls.

I next drove to another historic site that was a fort back when there were wars between the Comanches, buffalo (bison) hunters (they specifically said buffalo, not bison, although I think they are bison), white settlers, and US soldiers. I then found a restaurant that had a Tex-Mex version of Mexican food. Very yummy indeed!

Gorgeous flags

Breakfast Tacos in Austin!

August 15, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Wow! These breakfast tacos were fantastic!

After a wonderful bike ride where I saw 2 deer, I met John and Michelle at Tacodeli for breakfast tacos. Apparently, this is a very popular thing to do in Austin, Texas. The line was out the door when we arrived, but seemed to move fairly quickly. I do not think I have ever had breakfast tacos. These are not your standard tacos with beef and cheese, but an entire menu of different combinations of ingredients. Two tacos was a full meal and they were absolutely wonderful! Lots of yummy flavors to savor and enjoy.

Austin has been hot and humid (105 yesterday), but today there was rain at the motorhome in the morning, some cloud cover, and a nice breeze. The temperature is heating up, but it is much more comfortable compared to the previous few days. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to visit with John and Michelle!

Balcones Distillery

August 11, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Balcones Distillery was a jewel to find!

Several years ago there was an article in Forbes about a distillery in Texas that made fantastic whiskey. The article joked that they made the whiskey in a tiny location under a bridge in a not so great area of town. Since they both live in Texas, I told Amy and John if they ever found a whiskey by Balcones Distillery to buy it and I would repay them. Last Christmas they surprised me by giving me a bottle.

As I was reading about Waco today, I saw a brief mention of the Balcones Distillery and I immediately recognized the name. I looked up their address and entered it into the Jeep GPS and headed off to find them. However, they are a very difficult company to find. I drove all around with the Jeep GPS telling me I had reaching my location and it was an old tire shop. I finally pulled into a parking lot and started walking all around the area. I walked down an alley next to an old cement and steel bridge when all of a sudden I could smell something tangy. I walked a little farther and I saw a steaming still sitting right under the bridge. Literally, there were cars driving over it just a few feet above the still. I walked a little farther and I found some wooden barrels sitting outside a metal storage bin. I knew I had found the place, but I still could not find their building. Very strange! As I was walking around the barrels, a women on the telephone walked out of a small grubby building and asked if she could help me. I told her I was looking for Balcones Distillery and she laughed. The building where she works IS the Balcones Distillery. I told her I had been driving and walking all around trying to find her building. She laughed again and said she hears that all the time. Inside, there was a tiny rack of a few bottles available for sale. She told me I could buy a maximum of 2 bottles. However, at $70 per bottle for their classic single malt whiskey, I figured one bottle would last me a long time. She was gracious enough to take my picture in front of the whiskeys available for purchase. I asked if they had tours and she said they only have tours on Fridays and that all the tours are booked from now through October. Wow! Traveling to new places is so much fun and it is especially fun to find a business like the Balcones Distillery. They are not much to look at, but boy, they sure do make some wonderful whiskey!

Waco, Texas

August 10, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Beautiful flowers and Homestead Heritage!

I cruised through Oklahoma after leaving Elk City. I was going to stop at the south end of the state, but decided to keep going and pass through the Dallas – Fort Worth metroplex since it was Sunday and there would be less traffic. I decided to stop in Waco at an RV park with huge pull-through sites. After getting the motorhome set up, it was really nice to enjoy their pool and cool off. It is well over 100 degrees here, so the pool was especially refreshing. Note to self, reconsider visiting some parts of Texas in August.

A classic Texas scene at Homestead Heritage

Another discover is that there is a very impressive community called the Homestead Heritage Traditional Craft Village. This is a Christian community that creates all kinds of products from handmade furniture, to quilts, to cheese, to crafts, to grains, to pottery. Many of the items created are used internally by the group, but they also sell all kinds of items. It was wonderful walking from building to building seeing so many things. The quilts and furniture were quite impressive! I also enjoyed seeing the flowers they were growing outside. They had a nice video summarizing their activities and all the kids and tours they host each year. It was very impressive.

Colorful yarn used to make all kinds of things

These butterflies were really moving!

I learned several new things today. One is that Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco, Texas. I enjoy drinking Dr. Pepper, so this was a fun discovery. There is a Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco and I had fun going through the exhibits and remembering some of the commercials highlighting Dr. Pepper.

I never knew that Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco, Texas!

Oklahoma!

August 7, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

These guys are huge and powerful!

He has his eye on you!

Charlene is planning to join Amy and Neil on a trip to Denver for a medical visit and I headed east to explore new frontiers. I stopped in Elk City, Oklahoma and had a chance to visit some fun places. It was smoking hot here today; Google says the high was 105. Fortunately, the RV park has many trees to shade the coach. It makes me grateful that we have 3 air conditioners. They are noisy, but it is nice to be cool.

After setting up the RV, I headed to nearby sites. Right next to the RV park is Clinton Lake and it was overflowing at the dam. It was an interesting contrast that Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana were so dry and here, Amarillo, Texas and Elk City, Oklahoma had water everywhere.

I next went to Foss State Park. It is an Oklahoma state park and it has full hookup sites for RVs. They had a heard of bison and I enjoyed the opportunity to take pictures of these huge animals. I definitely would not want them to be angry with me because they are immense and powerful.

My, my you have a big tongue.

This guy was doing a jig!

Afterwards I went to the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma. Growing up in Flagstaff, I relate deeply to Route 66. However, here, I saw the Oklahoma perspective. There was emphasis on John Steinbeck and the Grapes of Wrath as people used Route 66 to migrate to California (and back). It was fun to watch how people celebrated traveling to the Big Texan in Amarillo and the Painted Desert and Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Amarillo!

August 6, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Cadillac Ranch is a famous tourist site in Amarillo.

Today I went to a couple of the classic places to see in Amarillo. Cadillac Ranch is a place where these crazy cars are sticking in the ground next to I-40. It is only a couple of minutes away from my RV park. The fun thing is to buy spray paint and then cover the cars with new colors, write your name, or create a crazy design. I have been to Cadillac Ranch several times, but it did not feel right to leave Amarillo without stopping by again. A lady and her son (both from Germany) were laughing and taking pictures of all the cars. She was gracious and took a picture of me with my cell phone.

The Big Texan is extremely famous. People from around the world eat here.

Probably one of the most famous restaurants in the entire state of Texas is the Big Texan in Amarillo. It is famous for offering to give someone a free steak if they can finish eating the whole meal within one hour. They have all the rules highlighted on their website. I have seen people try to earn the free steak, but I have never seen anyone able to finish the meal.

The Big Texan

Walking Dead Marathon

August 2, 2015August 2, 2015 / Ed Armstrong

Ed, Charlene, Amy, and Neil all enjoyed watching the Walking Dead marathon.

Charlene had the fun idea of watching the Walking Dead marathon. I have never seen the program, but it is quite popular. To create the right atmosphere, Charlene created a skeleton out of vegetables. She also found a ZOMBIE drink and BLOODY Mary mix. Charlene also bought some pork ribs that were quite messy to continue the blood theme. The food was absolutely wonderful and fun to all be together!