Amarillo, TX
We left Taos and headed southeast to Amarillo, TX. It would be a little too far to make it comfortably in one day, so we stopped overnight in Tucumcari, NM, at Cactus RV Park. Cactus RV is located on historic Route 66 close enough to I-40 to be convenient, but far enough away that there is no way you could hear the traffic.
Cactus RV is on the grounds of an old motel, and the old motel rooms still run down the eastern side and across the back of the campground. It feels a little bit like a piece of history. The campground has full hookups (no restrooms or showers, so self-contained RVs only), free Wi-Fi, and cable TV.
There are a few bigger shade trees, but mostly there are smaller trees (primarily junipers) between the sites for privacy. All sites are level and most are extra long pull-throughs so you don't have to unhook if you don't want to. Cactus RV is great for a one- or two-night stop, especially at the Passport America rate of $13 a night plus tax.
The sites at the front of the campground are all gravel and there are some in back that don't seem to get much use that are in an open, grassy field. The photo below shows our site at Cactus RV.
From Tucumcari, it was about a two-hour drive to Amarillo, although we lost an hour to the time change going from Mountain to Central time. We arrived at Ft. Amarillo RV Resort in the early afternoon. It was Sunday and the office was closed, but they had a little packet of information for us with our name and site number on it at the night registration desk.
Ft. Amarillo RV is located west of the city just off I-40. In fact, I-40 overlooks the campground and there is some traffic noise from the interstate. The roads and sites are gravel (it looks like some parts may have been paved at one time). They could use a little fresh gravel to reduce muddy spots when it rained and to cut down on dust when it was dry. The sites are mostly pull-throughs.
The campground has full hookups, free cable and Wi-Fi, an indoor pool, a hot tub, an exercise room (with two weight machines, a set of dumbbells, two treadmills, and a stationary bike), a putting green and a tennis court. Each site has a small, concrete patio. The spacing of the sites isn't too bad for a private campground, and they also have 3 foot high privacy fences between sites. The photo below shows our site at Ft. Amarillo RV.
Fort Amarillo RV Resort is also home to Lizzie Mae's Mercantile. It's a country gift shop much like we seen in Pennsylvania and Ohio but not in the Southwest, so it felt a lot like home. :) It's crammed with collectibles, Southwest home decor, jewelry, purses, locally-made jellies, and many more things. We were able to do a little Christmas shopping. :)
Last year we spent a good bit of time farther south in Texas, and we were curious about the northern panhandle. Since our route back east this year took us through the panhandle, we scheduled a week stopover to explore Amarillo. This got us a weekly rate at Ft. Amarillo RV Resort that averaged out to a little less than $21 a night.
We had previously researched Amarillo on the internet and found some sightseeing possibilities, but we also needed a stop near a little bigger city like Amarillo because Margery needed to do a little shopping and because Paul needed to find a Lowe's or Home Depot for a few supplies for some minor RV repairs.
Approaching Amarillo, we ran into something we haven't seen for a while - rain. Oh, we've seen a few thunder showers, especially in Taos; but we haven't seen several days of off and on rain. Well, a rainy day was a good time to get our shopping done.
Then on the second day of 80% chance of rain, we started out with a breakfast buffet at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. The Big Texan is famous for its 72 oz. steak dinner that's free if you can eat everything, including the shrimp cocktail, salad, baked potato, roll, AND the 72 oz. steak, in an hour or less. If you decide to try it, you get to sit on the stage so everyone can watch. About 8,000 people have successfully completed the feat since the restaurant opened in the '60s. If you don't make the one hour time limit, the meal will set you back $72.
The photo below shows the outside of the Big Texan. Even on the overcast, rainy day we were there, the bright yellow color almost hurt our eyes. They offer free limo service to and from nearby motels and campgrounds. The limos with the cattle horns on the hood are parked to the right.
That's Paul posing in the photo below, and that's about as close as he's going to get to a 72 oz. steak.
Maybe the Big Texan's steaks are better, but the breakfast buffet was mediocre at best. Even though they had made-to-order omelets and pancakes, we thought the buffet selection was rather limited and the food was pretty dried out. At a cost of $8.95, we were very disappointed; and we think the Der Dutchman breakfast buffets in Waynesville and Walnut Creek, OH, are much better and a couple of dollars cheaper.
After breakfast, went to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum about 15 miles south of Amarillo in Canyon, TX. The Texas Panhandle lies in the southern Great Plains, and the museum covers the history of the area from fossils of prehistoric animals, through the archeology and history the Plains Indians, all the way to modern times. There are also collections of American art, Native American art, and firearms.
In the photo below, Margery is checking out a model of an Indian pueblo.

Water has always been important to the plains. The Ogallala Aquifer underlies about 225,000 square miles of the Great Plains, including much of the Texas Panhandle. The museum has a collection of windmills, which were (and still are) used to pump water from this underground aquifer.
The museum has a lot of information on the history of oil in the Texas Panhandle. Oil was discovered in 1925 and the boom of oil discovery continued into the 1930s. The photo below shows a pump jack from that period.
As we left the museum, the rain had stopped, at least temporarily. We hit a few light showers on the way back to the motor home; but by late afternoon, it looked like the rain was pretty much over.
We gave the weather an extra day to clear, then headed back down toward Canyon, TX to visit Paol Duro Canyon State Park. The name Palo Duro translated from the Spanish means "hard wood" and came from the mesquite and juniper trees found in the canyon.
The canyon was cut into the soft, sedimentary layers of the Texas Panhandle by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River. Although the river isn't very big, we saw evidence of its power. The road through the park crosses the river several times and there was dried mud all over the roads at the crossings indicating the river had overflowed its banks during the recent rains. One branch of the road was still closed due to high water even though it had been two days since the rain had ended. The water in the river was red with mud indicating the river was still at work to deepening the canyon.
Palo Duro Canyon, which is called the Grand Canyon of Texas, is about 120 miles long, up to 20 miles wide, and a maximum of about 800 feet deep. The state park, which was opened in 1934, comprises 26,275 acres in the northernmost part of the canyon. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built most of the roads and buildings in the state park. The photo below is looking down the canyon from the visitor center.
In the closer view below, the flared formation to the lower right of center is called Spanish Skirt.
The Lighthouse is a famous formation in Palo Duro Canyon. The hike to the Lighthouse was 5.75 miles round trip with a vertical climb of over 800 feet. With the difficulty making the 3 mile hike with a 480 foot climb to Delicate Arch in Arches National Park recently, we decided to pass on the hike to the Lighthouse. We had to settle for a telephoto shot of the Lighthouse from about 3 miles away. The Lighthouse is just to the left of center in the photo below.
The visitor
center had a very good video about the history of the canyon. The first inhabitants
thousands of years ago were nomads who hunted mammoth and bison in the canyon.
A Spanish expedition came to the area by way of Taos in 1541. The Apache were living in the canyon at the time, but they were soon displaced by the Kiowa and Comanche. In 1874, the Native Americans were removed to reservations in Oklahoma.
In 1876,
Charles Goodnight came to the canyon and started JA Ranch. The ranch,
which still operates on a smaller scale today, had as many as 100,000
head of cattle at one time.
Beyond the visitor center, the road descended down into the canyon. As is did, we could see the brightly-colored layers of orange, yellow, red, and mauve in the canyon walls.
Down on the canyon floor, we stopped at a reproduction of the dugout shelter used by Charles Goodnight until he could build a proper house. It was pretty grim - dark, dank, and musty-smelling. We could only imagine what it must have been like mixed with animal smells, dust, and wood smoke.
But the location was beautiful. These rock layers were near the dugout.
And the formation shown below called Fortress Cliff was not too far away.

We passed the fellow in the photo below on the road and turned around to take another look. By the time we got back, he was off in the weeds, so this was the best photo Paul could get. He wasn't about to chase a 4+ foot diamondback rattlesnake into the tall grass.
The canyon is
also the home of Texas, an outdoor musical drama featuring fireworks, special
lighting, and a cast of 60 actors, singers, and dancers. Unfortunately,
the last show of the season was the day we arrived in Amarillo, so we
missed it.
After we left Palo Duro Canyon, we stopped at a roadside pull-off about a mile west of the campground called Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch is located in a field just off the frontage road that parallels east bound I-40. Cadillac Ranch was built in 1974 and was the brainchild of an art group called the Ant Farm and consists of 10 Cadillacs ranging from 1949 to 1963 models. The model years represent the "tail fin" Cadillacs.
The graffiti-covered cars are buried nose first at an the same angle as the sides of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. In 1997, the installation was quietly moved two miles west to be farther from the growing city. The public is encouraged to visit the site and to express themselves with spray paint. The vehicles are occasionally repainted various colors to commemorate special occasions or to simply provide the public with a fresh canvas. Are they junk cars or art? We'll leave that for you to decide.
As we like to do, we again left ourselves a day at the end of our stay to catch up on chores. We cleaned the inside of the motor home, Margery did several loads of wash, and Paul washed the car and finished washing the outside of the motor home.) On the day before we move on, we also like to do things like check the tire pressures and stow gear to prepare for departure, and to have a little time to relax. We are continuing our eastward migration.