Journey to California, Day 2
Jul. 3rd, 2007 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragoness_eI woke up early--too early, and couldn't sleep, so I checked out of my hotel, partook of their very nice "continental" breakfast, and hit the road by 6am. ("Continental" breakfast doesn't usually mean "cereal, cook-it-yourself waffles, and hard-boiled eggs in addition to the customary pastry, juice and coffee")
Dallas-Ft.Worth is a megalopolis. The highway system is a freaking labyrinth--I kept wondering where Judge Dredd was, it's that crowded and huge and confused. The unseasonal heavy thunderstorms in East Texas continued while I drove the width and length of the metroplex. (I-20 approaches from the SE side of Dallas. The road to Amarillo leaves from the NW side of Ft. Worth). Finally I got through that nerve-wracking mess and was on US 287 toward Amarillo. US 287 is four-lane, but not limited access--mostly it's 70mph, but every now and then there's a town in the middle of it. That got me in trouble later.
The drive to Amarillo, Texas took me across the prairie country of Texas up into the Panhandle plains. It's mostly cattle country, though up toward Amarillo they irrigate and raise crops of some kind--I think cotton, but I'm not sure, since the fields were empty and being plowed. I kept wondering what the trees I saw were, since I'd read about this country, but western novels don't have pictures that show you just what mesquite and sagebrush are.
Somewhere up near Goodnight, I talked with Ravyn on the cellphone while I stopped at a rest stop and got out to examine the wildflowers. Thanks to the unseasonable heavy rains, a lot of the late spring wildflowers are still blooming, and are very pretty. I had a nice little pamphlet on Texas wildflowers that I matched several of the flowers against: Indian blanket, Texas thistle, agave or yucca, various daisies, fleabane... and something that looked awfully familiar but wasn't in the pamphlet. A low-growing scrubby weed with tiny silvery leaves. I plucked some leaves and crushed them between my fingers and inhaled the spicy scent; it was wild thyme. (Curiously, some web searching says that thyme is a native of the Old World. Was this something a lot like thyme, or has it gotten loose in the Great Plains?)
Ravyn looked up mesquite on the web and confirmed my suspicions of the thicket of gnarly thornbushes growing near the overlook. Very dark, smoooth, gnarly limbs with sturdy, sharp thorns and vaguely mimosa-like leaves, only tougher, more water-conserving; it turned out to indeed be mesquite.
I already knew what cottonwoods look like--they grow up north as well. Louis L'Amour was right; they grow near water. Every clump of cottonwoods I saw seemed to be growing near a drainage ditch or some other water. There are also thickets of juniper, often wind-swept. Up on the Staked Plains, I saw ranch houses with wind-twisted junipers planted close around the houses as windbreaks. The wind must blow a lot up there.
They weren't kidding about the heavy rains causing flooding in Wichita Falls. Muddy brown flood water was almost lapping at both sides of the highway when I drove through Wichita Falls. A nearby Holiday Inn was completely surrounded by floodwater (as in, lapping at the front step of the main building). That was the only actual flooding I saw. Deja vu all over again.
I got my first speeding ticket in years in Chilcothe. Until Chilcothe, US 287 bypassed all the towns. Chilcothe was plopped right in the middle of the highway, as in, US 287 was the main street of town. I was half-zoned by that time and didn't notice the preliminary speed zones (stepping the speed down from 70mph to 55 to 50) and finally woke up when the speed limit signs said 45MPH. Oops! I hit the brakes, hard, but unfortunately the local cop had already caught me on radar. He caught up with me on the way out of town.
He was an older man, weather-beaten and tanned, with a lovely Texas drawl; he could have been the marshal of some cow town (like Chilcothe) 120 years ago. He was very polite but he still gave me a citation. Oh well, my bad. I shouldn't have been going that fast. I didn't get caught like that again--I paid more attention when I saw towns coming up and noticed the speed zones after that.
I saw quite a few of the old-style horse-head oil pumps operating. There was one area that had dozens and dozens within a few miles. Must have been a fairly rich oilfield. Saw a couple of operating windmills pumping water for livestock. The Panhandle plains were much greener than one would expect for July, thanks to the unseasonable heavy rains Texas has been inundated with lately. Normally that country would be starting to turn sere and brown, but instead it's lush and green.
There seems to be critical size for towns, above which they grow, below which they die. The largest towns were thriving, and the cities are growing metropoli, but the small towns were clearly dying. Too many empty buildings and closed essential businesses, like gas stations. Nothing says "economically depressed area" like a closed gas station--everyone needs gas for their cars, it's one of those essential infrastructure things. However, only the very smallest, most moribund towns failed to have a Sonic drive-in. Those things are all over the place down here. Slightly larger, livelier towns had a Wal-Mart as well as a Sonic.
I bought a funky pink straw cowboy hat. I still don't have a camera, so I can't post pictures of me in it. It's cute, though, and it keeps the sun off my head. I'll see about getting a camera either tonight or tomorrow.
Estimated distance travelled today: 470 miles
Tomorrow's destination: Gallup, New Mexico.
Dallas-Ft.Worth is a megalopolis. The highway system is a freaking labyrinth--I kept wondering where Judge Dredd was, it's that crowded and huge and confused. The unseasonal heavy thunderstorms in East Texas continued while I drove the width and length of the metroplex. (I-20 approaches from the SE side of Dallas. The road to Amarillo leaves from the NW side of Ft. Worth). Finally I got through that nerve-wracking mess and was on US 287 toward Amarillo. US 287 is four-lane, but not limited access--mostly it's 70mph, but every now and then there's a town in the middle of it. That got me in trouble later.
The drive to Amarillo, Texas took me across the prairie country of Texas up into the Panhandle plains. It's mostly cattle country, though up toward Amarillo they irrigate and raise crops of some kind--I think cotton, but I'm not sure, since the fields were empty and being plowed. I kept wondering what the trees I saw were, since I'd read about this country, but western novels don't have pictures that show you just what mesquite and sagebrush are.
Somewhere up near Goodnight, I talked with Ravyn on the cellphone while I stopped at a rest stop and got out to examine the wildflowers. Thanks to the unseasonable heavy rains, a lot of the late spring wildflowers are still blooming, and are very pretty. I had a nice little pamphlet on Texas wildflowers that I matched several of the flowers against: Indian blanket, Texas thistle, agave or yucca, various daisies, fleabane... and something that looked awfully familiar but wasn't in the pamphlet. A low-growing scrubby weed with tiny silvery leaves. I plucked some leaves and crushed them between my fingers and inhaled the spicy scent; it was wild thyme. (Curiously, some web searching says that thyme is a native of the Old World. Was this something a lot like thyme, or has it gotten loose in the Great Plains?)
Ravyn looked up mesquite on the web and confirmed my suspicions of the thicket of gnarly thornbushes growing near the overlook. Very dark, smoooth, gnarly limbs with sturdy, sharp thorns and vaguely mimosa-like leaves, only tougher, more water-conserving; it turned out to indeed be mesquite.
I already knew what cottonwoods look like--they grow up north as well. Louis L'Amour was right; they grow near water. Every clump of cottonwoods I saw seemed to be growing near a drainage ditch or some other water. There are also thickets of juniper, often wind-swept. Up on the Staked Plains, I saw ranch houses with wind-twisted junipers planted close around the houses as windbreaks. The wind must blow a lot up there.
They weren't kidding about the heavy rains causing flooding in Wichita Falls. Muddy brown flood water was almost lapping at both sides of the highway when I drove through Wichita Falls. A nearby Holiday Inn was completely surrounded by floodwater (as in, lapping at the front step of the main building). That was the only actual flooding I saw. Deja vu all over again.
I got my first speeding ticket in years in Chilcothe. Until Chilcothe, US 287 bypassed all the towns. Chilcothe was plopped right in the middle of the highway, as in, US 287 was the main street of town. I was half-zoned by that time and didn't notice the preliminary speed zones (stepping the speed down from 70mph to 55 to 50) and finally woke up when the speed limit signs said 45MPH. Oops! I hit the brakes, hard, but unfortunately the local cop had already caught me on radar. He caught up with me on the way out of town.
He was an older man, weather-beaten and tanned, with a lovely Texas drawl; he could have been the marshal of some cow town (like Chilcothe) 120 years ago. He was very polite but he still gave me a citation. Oh well, my bad. I shouldn't have been going that fast. I didn't get caught like that again--I paid more attention when I saw towns coming up and noticed the speed zones after that.
I saw quite a few of the old-style horse-head oil pumps operating. There was one area that had dozens and dozens within a few miles. Must have been a fairly rich oilfield. Saw a couple of operating windmills pumping water for livestock. The Panhandle plains were much greener than one would expect for July, thanks to the unseasonable heavy rains Texas has been inundated with lately. Normally that country would be starting to turn sere and brown, but instead it's lush and green.
There seems to be critical size for towns, above which they grow, below which they die. The largest towns were thriving, and the cities are growing metropoli, but the small towns were clearly dying. Too many empty buildings and closed essential businesses, like gas stations. Nothing says "economically depressed area" like a closed gas station--everyone needs gas for their cars, it's one of those essential infrastructure things. However, only the very smallest, most moribund towns failed to have a Sonic drive-in. Those things are all over the place down here. Slightly larger, livelier towns had a Wal-Mart as well as a Sonic.
I bought a funky pink straw cowboy hat. I still don't have a camera, so I can't post pictures of me in it. It's cute, though, and it keeps the sun off my head. I'll see about getting a camera either tonight or tomorrow.
Estimated distance travelled today: 470 miles
Tomorrow's destination: Gallup, New Mexico.
