Blog #22

April 22-25

Gallup, NM (no polls, no horse gaits) – Is this the Dust Bowl?

You might remember that we stayed an extra day in Las Vegas because the winds were gusting in a dangerous-to-drive kind of way.  We left early the next morning and drove to Gallup, NM. It’s a 6-hour drive, but with stops that length usually takes us about 8 hours. As anticipated, we were able to stop around 3pm and not a moment too soon.  The last 30 minutes of our drive were complete dust storms, something I never experienced before. The sky was a yellowish gray and you couldn’t see further than 100 feet by the time we parked.  The winds were so strong, we saw a gas station sign fall over.  You know the kind: it was 100 feet high or taller so you can see it from the highway a mile away.  The huge pole to the sign stayed erect, but the sign itself, which is the size of a small car, fell off.  It clipped the front of someone’s UHaul. Wow.

We parked behind a Cracker Barrel. The kitschy, Southern style restaurant is a family tradition, so we had to go and get some grilled catfish, grilled chicken on a salad and biscuits. When we came back to the Airstream, there was a thin film of dust inside from the one vent we left open.  The RV was swaying with the wind.  I guess this is what it’s like to be on a boat? We kept our truck hitched to the trailer for added stability, and so we could get an early start in the morning.

Amarillo, NM – Yellow in Spanish, not a Mammal with a Hard Back

The next day we drove to Amarillo. To the left (north), there are cliffs, maybe palisades, that are blue gray shadows in the distance. I thought the landscape was boring, but then I looked over my shoulder. When the sun hit the rocks, they were a beautiful red, and looked like a ledge with many footings that held it up. The cliffs’ majestic beauty was dwarfed by the sky, a blue that was an incredible counterpoint to the red, shadowed topography. It went on that way for miles.

Then New Mexico got flat. The kind of flat where you are sure the horizon will never end. The sky is huge and as the sun makes its ascent, the sky gets lighter and bluer at the same time. If you ever doubt this area of the country was once under the ocean, come drive it. It is flat flat flat. The grass is yellow and dried, dotted with some bushes. Nothing seems to be here, but that is always the mirage of the desert. We know it’s teeming with life, it’s just that we don’t slow down enough to see it. And we were going the 75mph speed limit.

Eventually New Mexico turns into Texas. I guess the idea of the Texas Panhandle is the same as what you might imagine. More horizontal landscape.

We decided to stay at a Route 66 icon, the Big Texan RV Ranch which is affiliated with the Big Texan Steak Restaurant.  Both are roadside attractions with the latter appealing to tourists in myriad ways.  Our dogs got to run at their multitude of dog areas. Rey wanted to play with others, but some dogs were weirded out by her cone-of-shame. 

How could we miss something called the Big Texan Steak House? It was a couple miles down the road, and while we could have arrived in style in the complimentary limo complete with longhorn hood ornament, we didn’t want to have to wait for the drop off or pick up times.

We’re lucky we didn’t. It was a 45 minute wait at the kitschiest place we’ve been to in a while. We enjoyed getting our picture taken with the 20-foot high steer, taking a picture of the 3 story lizard and the colorful attached hotel. Inside there was a shooting gallery, a haunted photo gallery of olde tyme photos (for purchase at the gift shoppe) and their own brews. We tried the bourbon stout because we always do. Nothing to write home about. We realized that we were not interested in trying to eat the 72 oz steak within an hour so it was free. We aren’t even that in love with red meat. Judging by the high-class décor (sarcasm intended) we thought the steak might be the same quality level and finally decided to skip it. I made some Trader Joe’s Indian food at the RV and a salad – a much more satifying choice.

Decatur, TX – Dust Bowl to Rain Bowl to Real Cowboys

The next day, we knew we had a shorter drive so we took our time getting going. The topography could be called — supine? While it was more or less unbroken flatness, it was interesting in its own way. Every time you saw something, it stuck out like a sore thumb. We started listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and it was a great conversation starter. Our journey started changing from east/west to gradually heading south.

We expected clouds today. The sky changed from blue to gray.  But then, the Weinstein reputation as rainmakers came through and we got a deluge of rain. It was raining buckets when we reached our Harvest Host destination: NRS Supply store and Arena. 

Harvest Host is a program whereby RVers can stay across the country at farms, wineries, breweries, museums, etc. that have extra parking space.  We joined this network, knowing that you patronize whatever place you stay at.  We had no idea what NRS was, just that it was 45 minutes away from our next stop in Ft. Worth. 

NRS – Real Cowboy Store/Real Cowboys

What does the NRS acronym represent? National Ropers Supply store. You’ve watched Yellowstone? You know that rodeo challenges represent real life skills cowboys need. One of them is roping calves or steers. Other talents might include “cutting” or bronco busting. Bullriding just seems stupid.

Anyway, NRS is the largest cowboy store I’ve ever seen, with ropes for wrangling cattle; hundreds of saddles; a section for cowboy boots that was bigger than my first, second and third apartments combined; and more cowboy hats than the cast of Yellowstone could wear if they tried on a different one every day for 3 years. Not kidding. There were things I’d never seen before, like plastic steers on sleds and wheels for roping practice. Do I have pictures of this? No. Why not? Because an hour before we got there, they lost electricity. Everything was dark. They didn’t even let us in for 15 minutes and only allowed limited shopping because they couldn’t process credit cards. There was a mini museum for Trevor Brazile, a cowboy who has won more saddles and buckles since 2002 than he has a right, and they were all on display. Amazing. You’ll have to take my word for it, it was a Texas sized cowboy store.

After our visit to the store, we drove to where they wanted us to park.  It was next to a field with cattle but there was also a nationally acclaimed Ropers’ Indoor Arena.  And there was a competition that day.  We saw dozens of cowboys astride, working in teams each to rope a calf. Cowboy hats and boots were de riguer – they weren’t wearing this for a Halloween costume. We looked ridiculous in rainboots and baseball caps.  I think they were staring at us as much as we were at them.  One side of the ring had bleachers like at a soccer field for the spectators. The other side was reserved for horses and riders prepping or coming out of the ring.  In this part of the country, it is like lacrosse, soccer, field hockey or any other sport.

I thought I’d include a video so you can see how it’s done.

And the parking lot was filled with horse trailers. These are not the horse trailers of my youth. They held more horses on a diagonal, but they also had a front section that was an RV for the handlers. So smart – and also crazy to me. You sleep mere feet away from the horses! It is a good use of space, and if you have a dually (pickup truck with four wheels on the rear axel to haul heavy loads) for the farm anyway, why not trailer people and animals? We had a ball watching all the goings on. It was a great stay.

Airstream Repair and Arkansas Secret

We headed out early to get to the Airstream dealer. We purchased our trailer at the Airstream of DFW for many reasons, one being they have a great service department. We didn’t have that much to get fixed, and it didn’t take them more than half a day. A few switches, the water pump, a special cover for our vent fan, warranty check of a faulty electrical cable and we were done by 1pm.

We need to be in Memphis by Wednesday, and now we were ahead of schedule. To get a jump on our drive and have time to enjoy a little, we decided to pick some place between Ft. Worth and Memphis and came up with a great state park in Arkansas. 

I don’t want to wax eloquent about Arkansas because I don’t really want the secret to get out. Not that I would live here because it doesn’t check my mountains box and it is hotter than hell in the summer. It does have amazing lakes, rivers, streams. The country side is lush and green and fertile. They have pecan trees by the side of the road. There are lots of horses and cattle. The natural beauty is overwhelming. It is beautiful country this time of year. Don’t come (more sarcasm).

Millwood State Park, AR boasts Millwood Lake one of the best places to fish for black bass fishing. It’s the kind of place that tv shows about fishing flock to (sorry for the mixed metaphor). We talked to a guy fishing at the shore and he explained that at this time of year you don’t need a boat. The females come in to the grasses near the shore to create nests for their eggs. He didn’t like to get too close to the edge of the lake because, well, snakes. The bad kind. Cottonmouth and water moccasins are the prevailing breeds, all venomous and water moccasins are poisonous if you eat them. The things I don’t even begin to know…

The sunset over the marshes flowing into the lake was beautiful. David and I had dinner outside at the picnic table after a walk around the marina. In the morning we took a bike ride and saw some vultures scouting some road kill. Someone drove over an armadillo. Wasn’t I just talking about that? I didn’t even know they were native to here!