Shamrock, TX to Sallisaw, OK

There is not much going on in the Texas panhandle.  Three times to Amarillo in the past was enough.  There, you will find the Big Texan Restaurant where, if you eat a 72 oz. steak with the trimmings in one hour, your dinner is free.  That’s right, a 4 ½ pound steak (what my Mom used to feed a family of 12), plus a potato the size of a football, a ten-gallon hat-sized salad and a shrimp cocktail appetizer.  I know people have done it because there is a blackboard near the entrance with their comments, like, “Ugh, I think I’m going to die.”  If you don’t eat it all in one hour, you have to pay for it:  $72.  A logical way to shop for meat, hey?

So, we had a choice:  Amarillo or continue on through just about nothing to the next stop, Shamrock, TX.  Too short a drive or too long.  We chose Shamrock.  We will each drive twice so as to break up the day and make each lock-up in the pilot seat more tolerable.  One night in Shamrock and then:  TWO nights in Sallisaw, OK, God willing and the creeks don’t rise.  Creeks meaning the water kind not the Indian tribe.  From what we hear from others in the parks who have just come from the east, there is a very good possibility that the creeks have risen.  Fortunately, Noobee has oarlocks and a rudder.  We’ll see what we are in for.  (Uh oh, ended the sentence with a preposition.  HELP!)

View from the Mesquite Canyon Restaurant window

Rob in Texas, y'all!

Historic Route 66 on the right

As you know, I love driving across our beautiful country.  Our scenic treats so far have included cactus and sagebrush, wide expanses of range dotted with cattle, tall bright red rugged mesas and now, more prairie-like flatland, John Deeres, oil rigs, thousands of cylinders of hay in the fields, pinon pines, scrub oak and miles and miles of old Route 66 to accompany us.  Now, we are parked at Lone Star RV Park where there are 18 rustic sites. 

The instructions are:  pull in to any space and pay for it in the restaurant.  $20 US.  The restaurant features catfish and fries and looking out the big picture window, you see green rolling hills that go on to forever.  Tricia wanted to know what she could serve y’all.

This morning, we press on to Sallisaw, OK pursuant of the quest to traverse this portion of the trip efficiently so as to spend as much time as possible in the places we haven’t seen yet in the southeast.  The land is green and lush, small rivers travel aimlessly it seems, the crop dusters are busy and the cattle are doing what they know how to do:  graze.  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of windmills and just to pass the time, we did the math.  The molecules at the tip of the windmill blades were traveling at a speedy 31mph.  Not the AJ Foyts of molecules, for sure.  This was a low wind day.  Top speed of the molecules is 180mph.  Still… no AJ Foyts!  Just thought you would want to know that.  Traffic has not been too awful and the I-40 has smoothed out some. The sky is blue.  No rain threatens, yet!  It’s a pretty drive through our heartland today.