We’ve officially begun the last few parts of the trip. Heading east after Santa Fe, New Mexico, felt strange. We’ve been going south and west for so long. Even the little jump through Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado felt right. Something about the desert, elevation, and mountains offset the northward direction’s oddness.
As you may recall, part of how we pick destinations is lyrics from country songs. We made stops in Chatahoochie and Abilene almost 100% because of the song lyrics. Plus, they fit within our 3.5-4 hour driving ability before the kids are done. So the perfect place for us after Santa Fe was Amarillo, Texas. George Strait and “Amarillo by Morning”. Jason Aldean and “Amarillo Sky”. It was a “big black dot on the map” and just about 4 hours from Santa Fe. Perfect!
We left without a reservation and lucked into a great place with an indoor pool, clean showers, cable, WiFi, and friendly folks. We paid for two nights so we’d have a full day to explore Amarillo. We had a ball!
The first thing we did was visit Jack Sisemore’s RV Museum. It had great reviews and seemed fun. Pulling up, it was at an RV dealer and we almost left. Boy, we’re glad we didn’t! We told the lady at the front desk we were just there to see the museum and she happily walked us back there. It was astounding! Jack restores RVs out of pure love and puts them in his museum, which is free to visit. Unlike any other museum, he lets you walk into the RVs and feel how RV life has (and hasn’t) changed. We all loved it.
In the afternoon, we decided to go onto Historic Route 66 for lunch and antiquing. It was a hoot to walk the most famous road in the world and browse the collectibles.
To cap off the day, we went to Cadillac Ranch, an art installation consisting of 10 half-buried Cadillacs on a field outside of town. Spray painting is encouraged. We found a half-full can in the dumpster and made our marks. It was pretty cool. Very Americana. Very fun.
We considered staying another day because we had so much fun. We feel like there’s a lot more to see and do in Amarillo and hope to return someday to finish the fun. Eastward ho!
