25. Apr, 2016
FRIDAY 13-06-08
We were awake early and so showered, had breakfast and got ready to make a nice early start on our journey to Amarillo, Texas.
We’d only been on the road for a short time before coming across road works; we were down to a single lane which was pretty narrow. I felt the urgent need to blow my nose and whilst doing so, driving one-handed through some roadworks, noticed a piece of kerbstone jutting sharply out in to the lane on our right with lots of tyre marks on it. A second later there was a big jolt and a ‘BANG’. Luckily just down the road was the Trinidad branch of Wal-Mart (GPS: N37.138526 W104.522587) which was also on our side of the road. We pulled in to their car park to check what had happened to the vehicle. After pulling up, there it was – a destroyed rear outer tyre. I wasn’t too pleased, but luckily Wal-Mart also sell tyres. They had the size in stock but not a Michelin brand, only Goodyear. I thought the price was pretty good, but there was a further complication – their ramps were not able to cope with the vehicles' weight as they normally only do cars. They were prepared to let me use their jacks if I wanted to change the wheel myself - yeah right! They kindly contacted a company just down the road who agreed that if I purchased the tyre from Wal-Mart they would fit it on for me.
With the new Goodyear tyre in the back we slowly drove down the road to 'Big O Tyres'. The guys there were really helpful. As requested they put the spare, which is stored right under the vehicle on a cradle and has to be cranked down, on the axle and then fitted the Goodyear to the ‘damaged’ wheel and relocate it underneath as the spare. They also checked all of my tyre pressures. This work took 90 minutes and I was charged $32, which I thought was pretty good, so I gave them a decent tip with which to buy donuts all round at coffee break. I can’t help feeling that we wouldn’t have enjoyed such helpful, friendly and efficient service from all concerned back home in the UK. I paid for all of this myself as I was driving; I was about $200 out of pocket and it wasn’t even 09:00 yet - unlucky Friday 13th? It’s just superstition.
We moved away from the mountains after crossing in to the top right hand corner of New Mexico, where the landscape became markedly drier and barren. There were a number of small herds of deer who looked as if they were acclimatised to the conditions. Near the border with Texas we passed several huge holding areas for cattle, there were thousands of them in pens. I’m not too sure what they were doing there as we couldn’t see any sign of an abattoir or railroad. Over in to Texas we went, the final leg. We were at last in the state from which we would fly home before hopefully returning for our second leg of the trip in September. I felt the pressure was off a bit now that we were getting closer. There was a large sign at the side of the road telling us we were crossing in to Central Time which meant we had just lost an hour of the day. We pulled in to a long picnic area for a late lunch and sat outside the RV on our folding chairs eating off our laps and watching the world go by.
We had programmed the Satnav to take us to our preferred campground at Amarillo, but as we got closer I felt it was too close to the busy I40, fortunately we hadn’t made a reservation. It was however just down the road from the famous Cadillac Ranch (GPS: N35.189107 W101.987370) where 10 Cadillac cars were partly buried in a line at the same angle as the sides of the Great Pyramid at Giza, but they have since been relocated further away from the growing town and that may no longer be the case. These days the cars are covered in graffiti, and they are being constantly repainted by ‘artists’. Back home we’d call it vandalism, but here I guess its art.
After taking a few pictures of the cars and ‘artists’ at work we went looking for an alternative campground which wasn’t easy as so many of them here are right next to the I40. I can get that kind of night time noise in a Rest Area without having to pay for it. In the end we made for the KOA campground as it was two or three miles out of town and seemed to fit the bill. After three nights of dry camping since leaving Custer, South Dakota it will give us the opportunity to dump our dirty water and restock, as well as get some internet access and outside space to relax.
We had a barbecue this evening whilst enjoying the company of our neighbours – a herd of cows and lots of jack rabbits the size of dogs. Later we watched a huge electrical storm many miles away, during which I made a start putting everything away in case it came in our direction.
I was surprised to learn that Amarillo, the name comes from the Spanish for ‘yellow’ the predominant colour of the soil, sits on 90% of the worlds helium, why I’ve no idea, neither have I any idea how it is extracted from the ground. Do you call them Helium Farms, Helium Mines, or Helium Wells? And since helium is lighter than air how do you make sure that you have no leaks which would result in the gas rising up and floating away? Perhaps the answer is to have security staff sat at the top of the well continually sniffing the air, and if they start to talk with a high squeaky voice - raise the alarm.
LOCATION TONIGHT: KOA Campground Folsom Road, Amarillo, Texas (GPS: 35.224676 W101.724425)
25. Apr, 2016
THURSDAY 12-06-08
We had a surprisingly good night’s sleep last night. We didn’t have to endure the wind, trucks with their engines running half the night, freight trains carrying yet more cheap Chinese consumer goods, or the noise from nearby interstate highways. I must write to Wal-Mart and suggest they build more supermarkets up in the mountains.
The morning was a little cool but running the generator for half an hour or so to power the heating system made everything right again. I even had a nice hot shower, it’s not every day you get to do that in a car park.
We were away in good time and were soon at the top of Lookout Mountain (GPS: N39.733372 W105.239378). We took several photographs of the view from the top before making our way to Buffalo Bill’s grave www.buffalobill.org . It was a quiet, pleasant spot and because we were so early had it all to ourselves.
William 'Buffalo Bill' Cody died of kidney failure whilst in Denver visiting his sister. Whilst on his deathbed he expressed his wish to be buried on Lookout Mountain, overlooking the plains, the exact spot being chosen later by his sister. ‘Wild Bill' died on January 10th 1917 but because the ground on Lookout Mountain was frozen solid due to the winter weather, his grave could not be dug and so he wasn’t buried until 3rd June.
Afterwards we visited the museum on site. It wasn’t very big but was well laid out and very interesting. It seems one reason William Cody was so successful as a buffalo hunter was because he trained his horses to ride down the side of individual buffalos within a stampeding herd enabling him to shoot them with his rifle at point blank range.
William Cody was considered to be something of a logistics expert, using adapted wagons to move his 'Wild West Show' around on the railways. There was a book in the museum which listed the locations he took his Wild West Show to during his European tour. Among the many UK locations were Ely on September 15th 1903 and Cambridge on June 24th 1904. He didn’t visit Wisbech which demonstrates the man had integrity.
I was keen to crack on after our visit as I wanted to start moving south again. I was getting really hacked off with the crosswinds, and more dangerously, the gusts, which we had endured since joining I25 many miles ago. We eventually cleared the Denver area and made good progress on a less than ideal road surface.
We had planned to visit Colorado Springs on the way down, but we agreed we weren’t fussed about doing the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, we only popped in to one of their local Wal-Marts for some shopping.
Just before turning off the interstate to do so, we passed the USAF Academy at the base of Cheyenne Mountain. Part of this complex, or next to it, was the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) I think it's called. It was, and perhaps still is, the Command Centre for launching those lovely Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s) mounted in underground concrete silos around the country. NORAD is buried deep inside Cheyenne Mountain and is nuclear bomb proof; even the floors are sprung to avoid damage to the computer functions etc in the event of a direct hit. This operation is so sophisticated it even tracks the progress of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, publishing his progress on its website.
‘She’ in the Satnav successfully delivered us to one of the 5 local Wal-Mart stores for our shopping. On leaving the vehicle The Chef slipped on the doormat and came a cropper falling from the RV’s top step and landing in the car park. Luckily she didn’t hurt herself apart from a bit of bruising but was very lucky not to have done so. People just don’t realise how dangerous being a tourist can be!
We pushed on south finally settling for a Rest Area just off the I25 at Trinidad just inside the Colorado state line.
Tonight we will be living dangerously, as the Rest Area we are staying at bans overnight parking - and we’re defying them. We’ve also got chilli beans and rice for dinner tonight, having bought such food at the start of our trip as standby meals. So if somebody knocks on the door to move us on, I’ll just explain that I had chilli beans for dinner and I can’t move on, I’m sure they’ll understand.
LOCATION TONIGHT: Rest Area El Moro, off I25 near Trinidad, Colorado (GPS: N37.226566 W104.494454).