The Ray Adventures: Amarillo, Tx., to Casper, Wy. April 17

Our ninth stop since leaving Rockport April 2nd. We dawdled through Texas for over 2 weeks, now we have to get serious about getting to Spokane. The further North we go the later it gets dark. Yea! No more Texas wildflowers along the road.

Wednesday, April 17th, Our final destination in Texas, a 211 mile drive, Amarillo, in the Panhandle has a population of 190,000 and elevation of 3,672. What a trip!!! About 30 miles out of town we ran into a hail storm, nickel sized hail smacked our already cracked windshield so hard it scared the dickens out of Luci. No further damage though. We pulled to the side of the road until it passed, about 10 minutes. We pulled into the Big Texan RV park about 2:30. A real well run park, you are escorted to your site and best of all, free doughnuts and coffee every morning.

Thursday, April 18th If you're into old cars Bills Backyard has a large collection of cars and trucks from the 20's to a 2012 street rod. The owner, Bill Pratt grew his fortune in the feed yard business, starting his collection just a car or two a year, now I can only guess but probably over 200 all beautifully restored. It's amazing what will draw tourists attention. The Cadillac Ranch has 10 Cadillacs 1949-1963 buried nose down in a field west of the city limits. You are urged to bring some spray paint to add your name or design on the cars. The day before we got to Amarillo it rained heavily so unless we wanted to take off our shoes to wade, we just took pictures. You can't go to or through Amarillo without stopping at the Big Texan Steakhouse, home of the free 72 ounce steak, all you have to do is eat all the steak and the sides for a freebie. Gary had BBQ combo and I had prime rib, we had 3 meals out of our dinner. A limo with longhorns on the front picked us up at the RV park for dinner then returned us back home after.

Friday, April 19th. Amarillo is the largest city on the old Route 66 in Texas, quirky shops, motels and restaurants line the street. After touring "66" Gary took me to 2 quilt shops, he got lucky, I didn't buy anything. We had lunch at a (surprise) brew pub.

Saturday, April 20th. We left Amarillo (and Texas) about 8:30 for Denver, 420 miles. Our longest drive day in almost 6 years on the road. We drove North from Amarillo through a tiny piece of the Oklahoma Panhandle into Colorado. Buckley AFB is SW of Denver International in Aurora, it's assigned to Air Force Space Command supporting air operations, space based missile warning capabilities, space surveillance and communications operations. The Fam Camp is adjacent to the air field. One night 2 VERY large planes (from the sounds) took off about 3AM, shaking the coach and scaring Luci.

Easter Sunday April 21st. The Protestant Service at Buckley Chapel began at 11, it was a gorgeous morning, we'd planned to ride our bikes around the jogging trail after, well! A nasty thunderstorm blew in cold and windy, the temperature dropped 15 degrees in an hour. So we spent our Easter Sunday hunkering down. I made a ham dinner even making deviled eggs just for me. I tried to get Gary to hide some eggs for himself - he's old enough to do that!

Monday, April 22nd. We left Buckley AFB about 10 for our 110 mile drive to Cheyenne, Wy., population 60,000 elevation 6060. We didn't stay at F.E. Warren AFB located there because the RV park was still winterized, we wouldn't have had water or sewer. Too bad, the price is usually half of RV parks. After lunch we drove into Cheyenne to see the Historic Governor's mansion - closed Mondays, oh well, we'll go check out the Capitol building, it's under a $299 million dollar renovation won't reopen for a while. We got lucky, the Cheyenne Depot Museum was open, the exhibits focused on the impact the railroad had on the area. A wood model of the Big Boy (what they called the engine) was amazing, Wilbur Craig spent 1 1/2 years carving it. The 2nd floor houses the Union Central and Northern Model Railroad layout, that took 30 years to complete.

Tuesday, April 23rd. Cheyenne has been hosting Frontier Days for 123 years, a 10 day rodeo and western celebration. We visited the Cheyenne Frontier Days Museum, it has 60,000 artifacts and more than 150 horse drawn carriages and wagons and classic western folk art. After lunch at the historic Albany restaurant downtown we drove out to the AFB, it opened in 1867, beautiful old buildings still are in use. One tid bit of information, Neil Diamond grew up on the base. Who knew! We enjoyed happy hour with our neighbors Vanessa and Kevin, (from the Fresno area)they are new to the full-time RV lifestyle, less than a year. Such fun sharing silly mistakes we've all made.

Wednesday, April 24th. Our 9th stop since we left Rockport. We left Cheyenne about 8:45 for our 181 mile drive to Casper, Wy. Population 55,000 elevation 5123. I had some business to take care of so Gary went out to Ft. Casper Museum and historic site located on the Oregon, California, Mormon and Pony Express trails.

That's it for this week, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam