Wild West and Wild Weather

Today we headed for Amarillo, Texas! I knew we were on the right track as we passed a sign to the ‘Cowboy Museum’, and encountered a wild buffalo head on display next to an elk antler chandelier and a display saddle at the Oklahoma City Information Centre.

We stopped for lunch at Wholefoods and discovered online that fires and smoke in New Mexico may thwart our plans to shoot the Transit of Venus in Tucson on 5 June. 

Check out the flames and black spot on the screen covering Tucson! In fact, we may have to re-route half our trip! 

After about two seconds of disappointment,  and in the spirit of adventure, we decided to take the journey as it comes and hope for safe, clear skies ‘somewhere’ on the fifth.

We stayed on Route 66 for most of the journey and visited a couple of kitsch Route 66 museums, moved through the nation of the Kickapoo tribe (!) and shared some pretty bad 45c coffee (well, it was 45c). 

I sensed a transition into the gun slinging wild west as we passed through towns like Elk City, where a huge drilling rig towers over the town, opposite a giant statue of two cowboys on horses shaking on a deal, and where shops have names like ‘Outlaw Designs’.

I snapped some cute diners and stumbled across an amazing museum that recreated a pioneer era town called ‘Cowtown’. I took some pictures of the beautiful flowers there. 

I also noticed more country music on the radio, many with inspired lyrics such as:

“In my junior year I swore I loved sweet Miss Sherrie-Ann,
One night I put some everclear in her Dr. Pepper can.
I thought it'd make her easy, but she took it pretty hard,
I took her home and rang her doorbell, left her lyin' in the yard.

Tequila dries me out, and beer just makes me fat.
Whiskey makes me nauseous, tell me who the hell needs that?
If you're thinkin' about drinkin', then the answer's crystal clear,
Its the invisible intoxicant....its called everclear.”

Yep.

Later on the road, not long after we had finished congratulating ourselves on how we had missed all the bad weather, surrounded as we were on three sides by ominous looking clouds, we heard a scratchy severe weather warning on the radio. 

This announcement included words like ‘supercell’, ‘tornado’, ‘dangerous situation’ and ‘seek immediate shelter’. It was in Texas and so were we. Slight panic ensued...

"What counties did it mention?"

"What county are we in?!"

"But which way is the wind blowing??"

"Is that a funnel forming over there?!!"

In fact faced with this situation, one starts to see funnels everywhere, and I rather think the driver should be watching the road!

I found out later that the warning didn’t apply to the county we were in, but the storm certainly wasn’t far way and I witnessed some spectacular clouds and lightning. It was all just a bit exciting.

I got to Amarillo a wee bit wired and hungry, but that didn’t stop me enjoying the ‘how y’all doin’ native dialect of the hotel receptionist, soon followed by amazing pizza complete with a blue grass band!

Tomorrow, cowboy churches, rodeos and all things Texas, and onto Roswell, New Mexico!