25. Apr, 2016

MONDAY 16-06-08 

We didn’t sleep at all well last night. It was so hot, the temperature in the RV was 85F and like it or not, we eventually had to fire up the generator in the early hours and turn on the air conditioning.

This morning we had a nice hot shower in the RV. After breakfast, and before setting off, I had to pop across to the Wal-Mart store and buy a replacement ‘Milky Way’. During the night, not being able to sleep I got up for a chocky bar and a glass of water, both of which were in the fridge. Unfortunately I ate The Chef's ‘Milky Way’ rather than my ‘Snicker’ bar, clearly the palate is dulled during the hours of darkness, either that, or all the chocky bars taste the same. 

Once on the road we made for Abilene. Originally we were going to go to the State Park there and camp overnight, but after last night’s experience we agreed that we needed to have hookup facilities which would allow us to run our air conditioning when required, using campground electricity rather than running our generator. 

The Chef trawled the campground guidebook and came up with a KOA campground www.texaskoa.com just off the main road in Abilene. So here’s where we ended up. The route here was again a mixture of farming and oil fields, and the inevitable side winds. 

We’ve spent much of the day sorting out the cupboards on the vehicle and trying to identify what needs to come home with us and what we can leave behind for the second leg of the trip hopefully starting in September visiting the eastern states. We also made time to sit out in our seldom-used reclining chairs soaking up the sun in the 100F temperatures. Fortunately we had been given a pitch which enjoyed shade from a large tree whenever we needed it. 

We had a barbecue this evening. I marinated and basted my steak in a concoction of ingredients we had left in the cupboards. It tasted ok actually. 

We’re going to stay here another night before moving to the Fort Worth area, where I want to revisit some of the sights we first saw 12 months ago when we came over to buy the RV. 

I went for a shower over in the bathroom block before going to bed, it was dark and late and in the distance I could see lots of electrical activity in the clouds on the horizon. On returning to the RV I bought in the slide-out unit to avoid damage to the awning above it in case we got a nasty storm with heavy rain or hail. 

LOCATION TONIGHT: KOA campground, 4851 W. Stamford St, Abilene, TX, 79603 (GPS: N32.478297 W99.783774).

25. Apr, 2016

SUNDAY 15-06-08 

We didn’t hurry too much this morning as we hadn’t got too far to go to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park www.palodurocanyon.com . Last night the campground was pretty busy, but this morning many had already moved on, and more were to follow including us, I guess it's used predominantly as a transit stopover. 

Shortly before moving off we discussed the options and at the last minute agreed to give the Palo Duro a miss, and instead go straight to Lubbock  www.visitlubbock.org . The route took us south down the I27 for about 120 miles. We were making for the Buddy Holly Center www.buddyhollycenter.org , Lubbock being where Buddy was born and grew up. Fortunately the Centre was very conveniently located near an exit off the Interstate highway, and easy to find. 

The admission prices were very reasonable, $3 for seniors (over 60) and $4 for adults. The Chef asked for one of each. The cashier eyed me up and down and then charged her $8 for two adults. Although it was an additional dollar we let it go as without realising it she’d paid one of us a compliment, though we weren’t sure which. The museum contained interesting memorabilia, including Buddy's spectacles, recovered from the wreckage. It's a shame he didn't loan them to the pilot. There was also a small theatre where visitors could watch a short video about Buddy’s life. 

That done we picked up a leaflet and went to find Buddy’s grave, as The Chef remarked “The only famous people we’ve visited have been dead ones”. The cemetery was on the outskirts of town and was large enough to take the RV in to. Buddy’s grave was next to the driveway and well signposted. Although Rosina had tossed quite a few’ pennies’ on to Buffalo Bill’s grave back in Golden, Colorado, we didn’t actually place any on Buddy’s. I don’t know why, maybe it was because Frank Sinatra already owed us 9 cents and in all honesty I couldn’t see Buddy squaring us up either. 

After a few pictures we climbed back in to the RV and made for the ‘Walk of Fame’ back in town. Fortunately parking wasn’t a problem as they had very thoughtfully built it near a local Wal-Mart supermarket, and so that’s where we parked the vehicle and walked the short distance. It was rather disappointing; they could have done so much more with it. There were lots of brass plaques commemorating other celebrities who are world famous in Lubbock, though a few of the names were familiar having visited the Buddy Holly Center including Roy  Orbison. 

Whilst standing there I was reminded of the book ‘Beginner’s Guide to Writing Country & Western Music’ by Hank ‘Sad’ B. Astard. In it he advises students: 

Circle one option on each line: 

He/She’s

Coming/Leaving

This old town/big city

On/In a

Jet plane/pickup/horse/freight train

He/She’s got

The blues/a pickup truck/horse/dog/problems/no money

He/She’s crying

All night long/in their sleep/in their beer

He/She’s leavin’

This ol’ town/big city with:

Pickup truck/ma horse/ma dog/ma guitar/ma best friend/ma woman/ma best friend’s dog. 

Having circled one from each line, there’s your story, now just write the lyrics and sing them in the bathtub preferably suffering from a heavy cold and having consumed lots of alcohol. 

I wonder how many famous Country & Western stars owe their fame to Hank. 

It didn’t take us as long as expected to cover the Buddy Holly connections, it was only about 16:00, very hot, and too early to settle in for the night on the Wal-Mart car park for another free night’s parking. So we pushed on towards Abilene, not a planned stop, but we’re a few days ahead of schedule and The Chef says there’s a small State Park there. We made it as far as Snyder about 100 miles down the road. We had passed numerous oil fields with their ‘nodding dog’ pumps, and had run neck and neck with a large thunderstorm over on our left side. The small local Wal-Mart at Snyder kindly gave us permission to dry camp in their car park for the night, and having popped down the road for some more wine we parked up, turned on the generator and air conditioning and settled down in a cooler environment whilst enjoying our evening meal. Hopefully this will be one of the quieter Wal-Mart car parks as we are so far off the beaten track. 

LOCATION TONIGHT: Wal-Mart car park, Snyder, TX

25. Apr, 2016

25. Apr, 2016

SATURDAY 14-06-08 

Despite the proximity of the airport and railroad we’ve decided to stay another day at this campground in Amarillo. The original plan was to make our way to the Palo Duro State Park which is not far out of town. The thinking was that we’d camp there for one night before moving on to Lubbock. Instead we spent a very pleasant day doing odd jobs, relaxing in our seldom-used reclining chairs soaking up a bit of sunshine, and cleaned all of the remaining green sticky leaf spots from the vehicle bodywork which we’d been carrying around since the night of the storm at Devils Tower, Wyoming, then, breaking all the rules, washing it with a brush and buckets of hot soapy water. Fortunately there were far fewer trains and planes passing or taking off today, I guess because it’s the weekend. 

We decided to visit Palo Duro State Park tomorrow, the thinking being that there may be an increased chance of us getting a space in the campground after weekend visitors had booked out. If successful we would stay there one night before moving on to Lubbock. 

This evening’s meal was bangers and mash with fried onions and gravy, very traditional. I think that may now be the last of the home made sausages. 

LOCATION TONIGHT: KOA Campground, Amarillo, TX

25. Apr, 2016