The Road Trip, part 3

Day 2 -- Shamrock to Monument, by way of Amarillo

Way back in 1977, my family took a long vacation, drove our new RV from Connecticut to Yellowstone and back. We got used to campgrounds, pull in, plug in, eat dinner, hit the sack, get up and back on the road. And we had our cairn terrier, Candy, with us. As with most dogs, she was adaptable to this way of life -- as long as she got fed and her humans were about, all was well.

One morning, about an hour along the road from where we had stayed the night before, someone asked where Candy was? Not back here! Not here. Not up behind the pedals, where she liked to sleep. Oops.

We turned back, and at the campground, she was sitting underneath the picnic table at the site we'd stayed. Good dog; we're sorry. I picked her up, climbed back in the RV, and we were on our way again. And after that, we always made sure to check for Candy before leaving. Never again left her behind.

The art-deco former Conoco station in the daylight.

Ramone's House of Body Art (note the Cadillac Range in the background).

Leaving Shamrock yesterday, about five miles along the highway, Carson realized he didn't have his plush dinosaur. Oh dear. No one could recall specifically packing it. We exited and pulled over, but a quick search of the cab and trunk found no dino. I called the hotel and asked them to check, and we turned back. Arrived in Shamrock -- Ramone's again! -- and the clerk immediately handed me the key to our room. I rummaged the bed Carson had slept in, removed the coverlet, the blanket -- and at this point, the crumpled sheet looked a bit lumpy -- and yes, tangled in the sheet, the dinosaur. Reunited, we were back on the road.

Heading toward Amarillo, we sighted a wind farm far to the north, though none of the turbines were in motion.

In Amarillo, we pulled off for lunch, gas, and a quick trip to Wal-mart. As with McDonald's, this is never a preferred stop for me, but it provides a mostly reliable product mix (you know what you'll find) and it's right off the highway. Carson wrangled four Hot Wheels cars, Amalie got a new game for her Leapster (which was well worth the cost), and I got what I wanted -- spray paint, two cans. Lunch was so disappointing I will not name the establishment (a regional chain). And then we were off again to the day's only scheduled stop.

A few miles west of Amarillo is a unique work of art, unmarked but easy to find -- Cadillac Ranch. Park along the I-40 frontage road, enter a field through a gate, and about 100 yards in is the sculpture, ten 1950s-vintage Cadillacs buried near-upright in the ground, tails (most with fins) held high. And all of them covered, inside and out, with glorious layers and layers and layers and layers of spray paint. Folks visit Cadillac Ranch armed with cameras and paint, and I made sure we had both.

Cadillac Ranch -- ten 1950s-vintage Caddies, upright in the soil, spectacularly adorned.

Carson had been drowsy in the car after our lunch stop, but I told him to stay awake, that he would like our next stop. Cadillac Ranch, as with the U-Drop Inn, is commemorated in Cars, as part of the mountain range around the town of Radiator Springs. Sure enough, once out of the car and on the path, he perked up all the way, broke into a run to get to the cars. It was very windy, so I told him he had to be sure to spray the paint downwind. We still got some on our hands.

Carson checks out one of the cars.

The author tags a car, progeny within.

Love those olde-tyme tailfins!

I tagged at least four cars with Amalie's name, several with Carson's, and added random graphic elements here and there. Cadillac Ranch is what you make of it. We all took turns with red and green spray cans. The grounds around the cars are littered with empties (we discarded ours in the dumpster near the gate). Paint cans empty, pictures and video taken, we departed, well-satisfied with our visit.

Tag!

You're it!

Tag team.

Val got in on the fun too.

Cadillac Ranch as we left it.

We headed back into Amarillo to turn north, and so didn't really get on the road until after 3:00. Oof. Not what I was hoping for, as with the addition of the Shamrock to Amarillo stretch, this was to be a slightly longer drive than day one, which I had not anticipated.

The final Texas stretch through the panhandle brought three sights -- operating oil pumps, huge corn fields, and another wind farm, this one close by our route, 16 huge turbine towers, several rotating. Energy is a key issue in our world, and if anyone thinks we don't have room for more wind farms or massive solar arrays, they are wrong. Wind farms of course need to be placed where the wind is, but sunlight falls everywhere, and some of the regions in west Texas could easily be adapted for such uses, because there's a lot of west Texas and much of it isn't doing anything that wouldn't be better converted to energy uses.

We knew New Mexico was approaching, but the first indication was a sign informing us we were entering Mountain Time Zone. New Mexico started out flat but soon got a little hilly, but the drive was easy. Most of the way it was very cloudy -- not just a lot of clouds, but they were stuck, hardly moved at all. Our travel westward ended at the town of Raton, up against the early edge of the Rocky Mountains. We stopped for dinner, then turned north onto I-25 for the climb into Colorado.

Driving up the Raton Pass, I told Amalie to look at the mountains on either side, and to be ready to see BIG mountains as these were rather small. She was incredulous -- "but Daddy, these are huge!" That's just inexperience talking, though she has seen the Rockies before, just too young to remember well. And sure enough, after we cleared the pass, the few mountains to the east fell away but the ones to the west got bigger. The sun was setting, and a tiny crescent moon sometimes peeked through the clouds, but it too soon set.

We motored on, stopping once in Pueblo (and getting briefly lost in a truly dismally designed exit and re-entry), but finally arrived in Monument just as the clock displayed 11:00. Carson had dozed off many miles back, but woke up for a few hours of fun time, lasting into the early morning. I think I was the last awake, finally dropping off at 1:30 am. And this is not so unusual, road trip or no.

Surprisingly, our cell phones picked up the time zone change without having to cycle power. That's a feature the older phones did not do. Nice.

(There will be pictures added a bit later, but I need to get a cable -- forgot to bring it, curse me.)

(Update: it's November, but pictures and links are being added, at last.)