A quick trip

On Monday morning, we prepared to leave Oklahoma. All was made ready, the trailer hitched up and we headed out. Before we even got out of town, an announcer came on the radio to say that TXDOT advised all roads in the Texas panhandle impassable due to blizzard/whiteout conditions. We went back to the house and thought we'll check on it tomorrow.

Tuesday morning I checked weather and road conditions. The weather was promising, either sunny or overcast and the roads apparently clear. We set off and did well until about 3-4 hours  east of Lawton when we encountered compact snow and some icy sections.

Before we started to get ourselves into the thick of it we saw this fixer upper about an hour from home.

Having been here for several months, I have become used to the Oklahoma way of doing things....in a relaxed fashion. Even some of the buildings are relaxed as we can see from this next picture.

We set off and did well until about 3-4 hours  east of Lawton when we encountered compact snow and some icy sections.No problem thought I, I'm Canadian. This is a light and momentary affliction. The road conditions continued to deteriorate.

Here is a picture of Scooterchick celebrating our departure. as you can see there is no approaching traffic, nor was there any trailing traffic. As a matter of fact, in the next 6 hours we might have passed 7 vehicles and 4 of those were either tractors, or graders working on the road.

This is a picture of roadside snow in Texas. An unwelcome novelty for them. Altogether Amarillo got a record breaking 16 inches of snow and it paralyzed the area for about 36 hours.

This is a side canyon leading up tot the Caprock. The last time we passed through westward it was about 70 F. and the day after this it was probably 70F. as well.

This is the Caprock itself. The rocks are very red in this area, and they look to be sandstone, although I am not a geologist so this is a guess.

When chunks cleave off the open face is a creamy color and then I suppose it darkens to red over time....unusual?....I think so.

We stopped briefly in Muleshoe TX to get a bite to eat. Yeah, that's right Muleshoe. As I came into the restaurant, I saw this little vaquero wearing his boots with spurs, and jingling them with obvious glee. I held the door open for him and said "go ahead cowboy!" He was one proud little caballero.

Scooterchick got a burger with mushrooms and onions, and is observed here consuming it with a great deal of satisfaction. Beef, it's what's for lunch....to paraphrase Sam Elliot.

We finally arrived at Las Cruces NM around 9:00 after pushing ourselves to the limit of our endurance. A hot shower awaited us, but not he car which had left Oklahoma pristine and now looked as though we drove it through the mud all the way there.

Here we have a picture of the sun rising in the desert the following morning. I was unable to get a sunset picture upon which to sign off last night so this will have to do. The slipping, sliding slush fiasco now behind us, we push off westward.

Tally ho says I....until next time.