Armadillo, or Amarillo

 After we dumped tanks, and before we headed west, we stopped at the little café outside of the park. The food was good, the walls were better.

The café is a mom and pop style eatery that caters to the camper, fishermen and hunters.

After breakfast we were on the road again, for a 3 1/2 hour drive. Our run took us through some rain, and hoping for no rain when we get to Amarillo.

Here is a sign we have seen several times during our journey. Our stay is at a campground off the original Route 66. We arrived in Amarillo on the high winds of the day, with a bit of light rain. God was helping during setup, keeping the rain at bay.

Our first full day was a nice day, but a little chilly, the wind was still participating... just not as hard. After walking through the park's gift shop we headed out to the Cadillac Ranch. 

The ranch is about five miles from our campground. For those that may not remember, it is the ranch that was created in 1974, on a whim.

We did leave our mark too... can you find the MC, it probably will not last long. It was amazing to see these cars, and imagine how much paint has been sprayed on them the last 48 years. If visitors forget their own can of spray paint, they can buy some from the mobile Cadillac Ranch trailer. We had to make that long four mile drive to see them. The spray paint fun isn't just for the cars:

This is the "K" rail alongside the road.

Tomorrow we will find a new adventure.

Our new adventure is... Palo Duro Canyon. 

These views are from the lookout just before the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center has exhibits that speak to the evolution of the canyon.

I am going to jump to the days of depression in the United States. Some of you remember some of Roosevelt's programs, one of which was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC was designed to provide work for the younger men, however it later incorporated WWI veterans. How  does this apply to the canyon you may be asking, let me tell you. 

Texas had just acquired the 15,000 acre canyon, and the CCC was enlisted to help turn the canyon into a state park. Their first task was to build a road from the rim of the canyon to floor of the canyon.

This project was one of the few projects that incorporated all three CCC groups, veterans, African-Americans, and juveniles. The project lasted 1933 to 1937. Why was this project important to Texas.

Part of the history of the canyon is the Red River War between the U.S. Army, and the Comanche, Kiowa, and Cheyenne nations. The families that were living in the canyon fled up the canyon leaving everything they owned. The military in the infinite wisdom burned all the tepees, took all their horses, and destroyed all their winter supplies. These actions forced the families to return to the reservation. 

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/red-river-war.

Before the Red River War, there was the Adobe Wall Battle, where the Cheyenne, Comanche, and Kiowa attacked a buffalo hunter's camp. The battle continued for five days, the Indians finally gave up. For more on the story, visit: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/adobe-walls-second-battle-of

The canyon was used to graze cattle. A former Texas Ranger named Charles Goodnight drove 1,600 head of Longhorn into the canyon. He and his partner John Adair, established the JA Ranch in 1877. Besides the canyon, they grazed their cattle on other panhandle land totaling more than 1.3 Million acres. Most of the canyon was owned by the JA Ranch until 1890. Adair descendants still operate the JA Ranch today.

To learn more about this park go to:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/palo-duro-canyon.

Once we left the Visitor Center we headed down to the floor of the canyon. It is neat that there is camping at the bottom. On the way we stopped at a lone chimney.

This chimney is all that is left of  the CCC recreation hall. The recreation hall was the community meeting place for all the workers. 

Continuing down that road built by the CCC, we drove through a couple of the campgrounds, with a goal of hiking to one of the natural sculptures, the one called Lighthouse. On the hike we met a couple from the Netherlands. 

The white throughout the hills is gypsum. The round trip distance for the hike to the Lighthouse was over five mile.

The rock sculpture on the left in the photo was the goal... you noticed I said was the goal, we all decided not to continue on, we did get about half way there before turning around.

 After the hike we stopped in to the trading post/gift shop for lunch. After lunch we headed back home. Even though it is a small canyon, there is a lot to see and do within the canyon.

ON AN ARMADILLO HUNT... BE BACK SOON.

Today we visited the Panhandle-Plains Historic Museum.

 Visit it at: https://www.panhandleplains.org.

The museum is located on the community college in Canyon, TX. The name of the museum tells a lot... if you understand the region. Panhandle-Plains  refers to the region of the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, as well as the plains in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

The museum provides a timeline of the region, ranging from the dinosaurs to ranchers, to oil men, to today, in no specific order.

Entering the exhibit area, we headed to the farming section. Remember, the area had been farmed by the indigenous natives for thousands of years, but we will look at 19th century technology first.

What visitors are looking at is the method in which they harvested crops with power.

This tractor was powered using coal to create the steam. The region grew a variety of crops like wheat, corn, sorghum, and alfalfa... to name a few.

The original owners of the land probably grew similar crops, just called them by different names. Unfortunately, one of the found communities is no more... meet Antelope Creek.

This is a model of the village known as Antelope Creek Ruins 22, and was located about 50 miles northeast of Amarillo. During the archeological dig between 1938 and 1941, twenty-nine attached rooms were discovered, all had low entrances.

It is not totally understood why the entrances were so low. It is thought that it may have been a way to control temperatures in the room, or protection from enemies or predators. Some of the entrances were as long as twelve feet.

This is a photograph of the excavation during the 1930s. Thanks to vandalism in the 1960s, and building of the oil pipeline in the 1990s, the ruins were destroyed.

Another area in the museum is the town representative of what the communities could have looked like. 

This cabin was built by Charles Goodnight in 1881, as a line camp. One or two cowboys would live in it while they were assigned to ride the fence line, or troubleshoot part of the ranch.

Town buildings looked like what we are use to. Some of the more recognizable establishments were the hotel, livery, land office, saloon, sheriff's office, and possibly a laundry.

The Chinese had the market on providing clean clothes to residents in the small towns, and by 1889 Amarillo had their first Chinese owned and operated laundry service. Some of the owners actually had multiple locations in other towns.

Venturing into another exhibit provided a look into transportation in the early 20th century. Today we use Garmin to help us get lost, back in the day, they only had paper maps.

This map may be hard to read, and maybe harder to understand. Those roads vary in their makeup, and there is a legend to help drivers figure out which road to take.
Roads were not anywhere near what they are today... although I think some may have been better than a couple of roads we have been on. 

This sign looks familiar, however, it is made of wood, vice metal.

Traveling into the next area, we ended up in fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson. His stories always had some type of theme.

This is an example of a fairy tale.

Out the door from this exhibit the visitor steps into the oil fields. The rig on display was delivered to the museum via three tractor trailers in 1983.

This oil rig is made mostly of wood, with very little metal. How did the horse head go up and down:

If I remember correctly, this cable tool rig was used until the 1950s.

We wandered back into the land of windmills next. 

Real windmills are still being used on some ranches in the area today. In the Southern Great Plains, the Eclipse windmill was the most popular, here in the Panhandle-Plains, it was the Original Star.

In 1887, this ten-foot diameter windmill sold for $90.00. These windmills did not just get put up and forgotten... the weather usually had something to do with that. Because these were considered equipment, it was important to maintain them. In comes the Windmiller. It was his job to maintain, and repair windmills.

This Windmiller's camp was typical, and this one is currently working on erecting a 22 1/2 foot diameter windmill that was damaged by a heavy windstorm. The Windmiller's job was a full-time job on most Panhandle ranches. The wagon seen here was used on the XIT Ranch for many years as the miller's wagon, but also functioned as a small-time blacksmith and woodworking shop, and hauled commissary items too. They even had one of the first electric windmills on display. But what intrigued Carol and I was the way some of the windmills were assembled... like this one:

This windmill was put together, then secured using rawhide strapping. You need to keep in mind that these devices were/are very important to the rancher and farmer... they supplied/supply water to the stock and crops, where surface water was not readily available. Driving around the countryside, we still see windmills in operation.

Down a short set of stairs we entered another area exhibiting modes of transportation, and one was particularly familiar to me.

I owned one of these, exact color, in high school. My fond memory of it is the day I had to fight a bikejacker. Unfortunately he got it... but only for a short while. A lady driving by saw me fighting to keep my bicycle, and gave me a ride to the police station. When we arrived at the police station to report the theft, the desk sargent informed me that the thief was on his way in... with and escort. Other modes of transportation included:

MOTORIZED BICYCLE

1916 ELECTRIC CAR (48 batteries)

1933 PIERCE-ARROW

Passing through this section we came upon a section containing a lot of cases containing minerals and gemstones.

This rock looks like some one painted on it, but it is the natural cavities filled with minerals.

This is a Thunder-egg Agate. They are formed similar to geodes, but in volcanic ash. The name of the formation comes from Indian legend.

Up to the second floor we go. On this floor we can find an art gallery of paintings and sculptures from local artists, and guns.

The gun collection was very diversified.  One family donated some of their gun collection.

The first photo is panoramic. This rifle is an English made grenade launcher. The cup-type launcher is detachable. When used as a launcher, it will lob the Mill's bomb (grenade) approximately 200 yards. For those wondering when the grenade is activated... after it leaves the launcher.

Some of us have thought that only Americans made pretty looking weapons... we would be wrong.

These are just some of the ornate rifles from countries around the world. These rifles displayed here are from Japan, India, and Morocco.

This rifle is from eastern India, c. 1600, and is a matchlock style firing mechanism. It is believed that the rifle was enameled and painted by temple priests.

Here we have a Moroccan Snaphaunce Jezail. A jezail is defined as a long-barreled, crooked stocked Afghan gun. Originally they were matchlock, but later converted to flintlock. Many of the guns were also rifled, making them more accurate than the British guns they were fighting against.

Other weapons on display include:

The last exhibit we passed documented some of the products generated from petroleum itself... have you used any of them?

Carol and I spent four hours in there, and could have spent more time too.

After the museum we decided, because it was after 3:00p, we would head over to another tourist trap... Big Texan Steakhouse. 

Some of you may recognize this restaurant, it is the home of the FREE 72 oz steak. It was featured on an episode of Man vs Food. While we were there, two guys made their attempts at the challenge... and failed. NO! we did not take the challenge. The challenge entails the 72 oz steak, a baked potato, salad, and a roll. Contestants get to pay their $72.00 up front, but get it back if they finish the entire meal in the allotted 60 minutes. Should your day find you with nothing to do... you can go online and watch contestants eat...live on YouTube.

We settled for beer tasting, rack of ribs, and a ribeye. Something we didn't know until we got here, Big Texan has its own brewery. This flight here is a two-sided flight. We did find three brews we liked. The food was good too. After we ate, we headed over to the gift shop, remember I said this was a tourist trap. Of course we spent money in the gift shop too... a T-shirt, a pin, and those three favorite brews. There is another free attraction in the gift shop:

This guy is an oldie if one counts the rattles... NINE + the nub.

I hope you enjoyed your meal too.

The next day we headed to a small RV museum that is only open a couple of days a week.

Getting to the museum was the first challenge of the morning, Garmin said one direction, and Google said another... Google won the bout. The story to the two addresses stemmed from a move the museum made the year prior.

We are now at the museum, and the cost is acceptable... free.

The first RV we entered was once owned by the founder of a big name cosmetic company. In it's time it was probably a luxury land yacht, but some things don't change... like the bathroom.

This is a spacious 4' x 4' facility containing the toilet, sink, and shower. It reminded us of our first trailer... size the same, materials a little different.

The next Winnebago was made in 1973, and could be rented... for a price.

If you are interested in renting this RV, understand that it is not rentable anymore. When it was for rent, the owner was asking $175 for 3 days + $. 10 a mile. It was also available on a weekly basis for $250 + $ .10 a mile. We still see these Winnebago's on the road today.

They have several Airstreams in their collection, but this is the oldest, a 1935, which was owned by the same family for 81 years.

The next trailer was originally known as a "Tow Low", later it was also known as a "High Low". 

What makes these trailers unique, is both top and bottom are metal, unlike their cousin "pop-up" tent trailer. During the manufacturing of this trailer, in it's era, it required a little humanoid interaction:

You may notice the steering wheel on the front of the trailer... it isn't for steering the trailer... it is to raise and lower the top portion. 

For our friends out there... you are not alone, this one just doesn't travel anymore.

There is a slight difference in this one from our friend's version... theirs has a bathroom.

Lets talk about that cousin, the "pop-up" tent.

This is a 1937 Kozy Kamp, one of the first tent trailers built. Kozy Kamp began building their trailers in 1936, in Oregon. The original trailers were a dark green. This trailer was owned by one family, who painted it blue in the 50's, to match their Cadillac.  During its lifetime this trailer lived in a garage when not traveling.

Westcraft trailers in the 40's were associated with the WWII war effort. 

This particular 1941 Westcraft was owned by a defense worker who lived in it during the entire time of the war. He was parked at one of the special workers camps located in the western United States. This trailer is one of the rarer models, it has the trolley roof. What do I mean by trolley roof? Look at the first photo, notice the window to the left of the radio, over the cabinet and drawers. The center of the main area was raised. That photo over the radio is special as well:

The picture is the USS Sigourney, which fought in both WWI and WWII, but what makes it special is the signatures of 17 of our presidents.

I found this 1936 a bit intriguing, mainly because of its body style.

Notice the sweeping design at the bottom rear of the trailer.

Have you seen a theme in the trailers that were manufactured in the 40's and 50's, they used a lot of plywood, and not that much of the fancy woods either, those woods were reserved for the luxury trailers and motor coaches. In other words, they were built for function.

How many of you out there saw the Robin Williams movie "RV"? If you saw the movie, do you remember any of the RVs?

This was the RV driven by the Gornike family.

The passenger seat was removed so that visitors could climb onto the RV. The seat is stored in the back of the RV, behind the drape that is behind Carol.

This little treasure was worth the challenge to find it... and the donation we gave.

It was a short stay in Texas, we're off to New Mexico.