Ice Cream Social!

September 13, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

I LOVE ice cream!

Today was a special treat! Literally. After a day on the road, it was nice to check into a nice RV park and learn that they just started an ice cream social. I love ice cream. I really love ice cream. They had chocolate and vanilla. I saw the strawberries and chocolate syrup and other toppings. I decided to order vanilla ice cream smothered in strawberries. I cannot think of anything I would have rather eaten after dinner. It was absolutely wonderful!

The RV park had a local artist that made all these fun bears that were for sale. I liked their expressions!

Palo Duro Canyon

September 10, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

I made it to the lighthouse!

The lighthouse was an impressive structure

Today I went on a beautiful hike with Neil and John. It rained last night, so it was nice and cool in the morning. The color of the red rocks within the Texas state park remind me of southern Utah. We went on a 6 mile round trip hike to Lighthouse. The scenery was spectacular. Quite a few people rode mountain bikes along the trail too. I will need to try that in the future.

The area is so beautiful!

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Neil was leading the way and well prepared with water and snacks!

Palo Duro Canyon is a very beautiful area!

Wonderful Barbeque!

September 3, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

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It has been a while since I have been able to enjoy some fantastic Texas barbeque, so I looked for some of the best places in Amarillo. I first tried going to my favorite place, Spicy Mikes. However, Spicy Mikes had a fire and has not yet reopened. I looked on Google Maps and picked Tyler’s Barbeque. It is highly regarded by the “barbeque experts” and I have really enjoyed it on previous visits.

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As I entered the door at 6:00 pm on Friday evening, a family of four came in right behind me. The owner came out and said “You folks are the last ones to eat. We have sold out of our food.” He put a big sign on the door that said “Sold Out.” I was quite amazed. It was barely early evening on a Friday night and they were out of meat. When I ordered, the nice lady told me they had pulled pork and brisket remaining, but there were completely out of ribs and sausage. That was okay by me as pulled pork is my favorite barbequed meat.

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The meat was perfect and their barbecue sauce was fantastic! I loved it! Their beans were also great too! It was a wonderful meal that I enjoyed tremendously! I took my time eating and was the last customer to leave the restaurant. I love Texas barbeque!

American Girl

August 28, 2016August 28, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

Charlene was show casing the American Girl dolls. Quite impressive!

I learned about the American Girl store today. I had never heard of it before, but they have some very impressive, and expensive, dolls. I was quite impressed with the details available in all the accessories. John showed me that you could buy outfights for the girl that matched the outfits for the dolls.

I was impressed with the detail of the tent trailer!

I knew it was a high class operation when I saw that the prominently displayed a tent trailer. I loved our tent trailer growing up and we certainly enjoyed another tent trailer while our kids were young.

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I also saw a group of girls having a birthday party and I talked with a lady who was styling a dolls hair. I had never seen that before. We saw a young girl smile ear to ear when she told us it was her doll that was having her hair styled.

Dallas World Aquarium

August 28, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

Charlene and I enjoyed the Dallas World Aquarium

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We met John and Michelle in Dallas and visited the Dallas World Aquarium. I was not sure what to expect since the reviews noted that it was not a typical aquarium. I came away quite impressed with the range of animals they had.

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This sign was at the exhibit of the cute playful otters!

I think the otters, monkeys, manatee, and turtles were my favorites. The crocodiles were absolutely enormous. For me, the highlight of the aquarium was the shark tank tunnel. We were inside a glass tube and the sharks swam over and around us. It was absolutely incredible!

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I absolutely loved the shark tank tunnel. I could have spent hours watching the sharks swim all around us. It was quite impressive!

Galleria Area of Dallas

August 27, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

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We had a nice time walking around the Galleria mall and I ordered my first Dos Equis beer. It was served with lime and tasted great after a day of driving. The Grand Lux Café was superb and we ordered two different pasta dishes. I had a chicken pasta with tomatoes and mozzarella. It was fantastic, but I could not eat the whole portion. John and Michelle will be driving her later this evening and we are looking forward to seeing them!

Fantastic Mexican Food!

August 27, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

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We stopped in Wichita Falls, Texas yesterday for lunch. One of the most wonderful aspects about traveling is getting to try new places to eat. Our typical criteria is to find an independent restaurant that is highly rated on an Internet website. We first found a barbecue place that we thought we would try, but they did not take credit cards. Too bad for them as they lost our business. We next found a Mexican restaurant that was highly recommended.

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The restaurant did not look super fantastic from the outside, but we knew we had found a wonderful place because there were many people inside with Spanish as their primary language and a table filled with local police. We figured if those two groups came to this restaurant, we knew we had stumbled upon a great spot. We were not disappointed.

The food was not the typical Sonoran Mexican food we loved in Arizona, but it was fantastic. Charlene and I both ordered pork burros in red sauce. The restaurant also had a wonderful salsa served with homemade chips. Soooo good!

Jake takes on the Big Texan!

July 24, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

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One of the famous landmarks in Amarillo is the Big Texan restaurant. There are signs promoting if for hundreds of miles in different directions. It is a busy place and serves nice food.

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Today, Jake visited the Big Texan and saw the many aspects to the restaurant. We had a chance to take photos all around.

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Jake Experiences Cadillac Ranch!

July 23, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

We enjoyed being with Jake at Cadillac Ranch.

Today we were able to buy some spray paint and take Jake to Cadillac Ranch, one of the strange, but quite famous landmarks in Amarillo.

Jake had fun writing his name, and it was perfectly okay to use spray paint on someone’s car!

Jake had fun writing his name and other key people in his life!

Jake certainly loves his Mom!

Jake loved sending a message to his Dad too!

Jake loved sending a hello to sister Macy!

Jake sent a hello to brother Ben too!

In true Cadillac Ranch fashion, when finished spray painting on the cars, you pass your remaining spray paint to other visitors who did know to bring any paint. It brings out the playfulness in everyone when you are able to legitimately paint cars with whatever colors or saying your heart desires.

Jake and I had a fun disagreement about which way the sign was pointing!

Newport Beach, California

July 23, 2016 / Ed Armstrong

We had s’mores on the beach and they were terrific!

I had to fly to Newport Beach to help with some training programs. It is a very beautiful area and I identified a RV park in a very beautiful area for a future trip.

Beautiful area of the country

We had an evening on the beach eating dinner and then making s’mores after dinner. The scenery and weather were beautiful.

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