Best Western Adobe Inn Santa Rosa

... boards).<br><br>Two more days before arriving in our second home. The door to the propane tank decided to stay closed. We will have to do without propane until we land. We made an executive decision not to try opening it in case it would not close... The temperature is now warmer and we have electric heater. Time for cold water treatments.

... across at the Texas Steak house was great for dinner.<br><br>It has been quite amazing watching the landscape change from intense desert in Death Valley to the Mojave Desert of Nevada to the sagebrush and not much else across northern Arizona and New Mexico to now entering Texas to greenery and acres of cotton growing; plus plenty of Freision dairy herds in this area too, intense farming the way they were herded into pens and hay fed.<br><br ...

... still there?? Forgot to clarify the full reason for the co-pilots petulance, total mileage for the day, just short of 410 miles about 640 k's So thats where we are, in a Super Eight motel, missed the next downpour by about 15 minutes and very comfortable. Wandered across the road for a steak & chips and now settled in for the night. Hoping to get near Abilene Texas tomorrow and Austin on Thursday.

... today along I40 through the Texas panhandle. <br><br>Just a word of warning to anyone traveling along this route, stick close to the speed limit. 10 miles over will easily earn you a ticket. The state trooper was so overzealous, he even tried to wave over a light blue pick-up while in the process of soliciting my ticket. The truck did not stop. On the bright side, I did a favor for the van in front of me that I had been following.

So today I started by heading into downtown Amarillo to explore the section of 66 that they have ads up all over for. Boy was I disappointed. Most of the stores were just antique stores and every single one of them was closed. Then I went over to the Big Texan Steak Ranch. I was also disappointed in that. It was 23 dollars for my meal which was only an 8 ounce steak. Then it was onto the Cadillac Ranch. Which was ...

Leaving SR after a good night's sleep and breakfast. Hope to be in Amarillo later today. The room art coordinates with the rm colors and if you like dull, dead leaf skeletons, you are in for a treat. The Western on the other hand is across from the Tower Service Station and U-Drop Inn Cafe, a gem of Art Deco styling which has been turned into a museum. Its neon lighting at night takes you back to an era you never really knew, but wish you did!

... that I could ignore the rather large and dark clouds to the north that looked like rain for the territory under them. I stopped at the Flying C service area where weeks ago I'd met Gail and her husband from MA so fortuitously. Those clouds stayed far away until about half an hour out of SR a forerunner of them, dark but not raining covered the late afternoon sun and chilled us down.

... t sure. So we decided to see what time we woke up and if we were able to be on the road for 7am, we would go back. If it was later than that, then we wouldn't, as not being able to face spending another night at Wal-Mart, we wanted to be able to get back to Santa Rosa the same day. <br><br>Miles travelled: 0 <br><br>Total miles travelled: 7212 <br><br>Days on road: 60 <br><br>States visited: 11 <br><br>National Parks visited: 11

May 21st. 2008 As we drove out of Palo Duro Canyon Jodie read the forcasted weather at the rangers station. It predicted steady winds of 30 mph and gusts up to 50 mph, with late day thunderstorms. We drove on back roads for a couple of hours seeing the countryside before getting back onto I-40 where we experienced the 50 mph gusts. Normally we like to cruise at 55 mph to reduce the stress and get better mpg, but with the winds as they were, we had to ...

... at the Cattle Exchange in Canadian TX. Located in an old hotel, the restaurant successfully creates a sense of being in cattle country. However most of the trucks outside had indications of connections with oil companies! We were back on the Interstate 40 after lunch and I couldn't believe how much more stressful the drive became. Once again we were surrounded by large trucks, all effectively driven, but ...