What a country!

Her perspective

Amarillo for the night. Not exactly a highlight of any trip but a good chance to get off the road. For the last hour heading into Amarillo last night it was pretty icy. Not fun for Bob. Not fun for the Toaster. Both did great and we anticipated a much better start this morning.

Unfortunately, that was not to be. For the first hour or so heading out of Amarillo we were on total ice. Again, both Bob & the Toaster did great and we were soon on drier pavement with snow flying off of the Toaster in all directions!

It was a great trip and as always, so good to be home.

Thoughts on our very first ever in thirty three years road trip……….
First and foremost I am glad we can fly at will.
Second, this road trip was awesome. We saw things that we just would not have the opportunity to see had we flown.

The country, from the ground, travelling from city to city is gorgeous. Filled with wonderful people, all with stories and some who want to share them. The scenery we saw, the small towns we stopped in, the food we ate – all contributed to a very unique experience and a wonderful time.

Wonder how flights are looking to Europe…………

His perspective

In Arizona and New Mexico if it looked like snow, it was snow. In Texas if it looked like snow, it was ice. We hit, actually slid, the road after scraping the Toaster’s windows and filling him up. With as many times as we’ve seen Amarillo on the news for travel messes due to snow, I had thought they would clear the interstate and ramps. I mean, it only looked like 2-3”!

Wrong.

I-40 in Amarillo was 1 lane instead of what looked to be wide enough for 3. US287, the road we take to DFW, was 1 or 0 lanes. At one time I was down to 25, with the car sliding side to side, gripping, sliding, gripping, sliding, almost as frequently as you say the words. The roads cleared up about an hour out of Amarillo and it was smooth sailing from then on. The last of the snow flew off the Toaster (aerodynamic brick that it is) about 2 hours later.

We knew we were in Texas when we passed the “Chicken Express” semi with the word “Fish” in large letters on the back.

This is an amazing and beautiful country. It looks a lot different than from 40K feet and is well worth the view. Plains, deserts, forests, canyons, thriving towns, dying and deserted towns. And we saw just a fraction of what this country has to offer.

Some inane facts:
2530.4 miles door to door
In the last 3 days, we passed at least a couple of dozen snow plows. One was going in our direction. One.
The IPOD ended with Stairway to Heaven. A very nice finale to a great American road trip.
Thank God we got home in time for figure skating!