More Fun in Red Rock

Tuesday May 17, 2011
Overnight RV Campground
Site 12On I-40 Exit 75
Amarillo, Texas

Before leaving Red Rock Canyon
campground, I took a few more pictures
of things I found interesting.

This great tenting site was in a small box
canyon off the main road with 3 or 4 other sites
like it.  Very secluded,  NICE!

 

This set of A Frames was in another
slightly larger box canyon and
is referred to as the “group camping”.
Not much painting upkeep but
boy I’d hate to have to replace
those roofs.

Get ready,
it’s another comedy of errors.

We were pulling out of Red Rock Canyon at 9:30
when the cell phones refused to
facilitate our exit.
For whatever reason, David’s phone would
not ring, but went immediately to phone mail.

In order to get out of the canyon and up the steep but
narrow road, you have to have someone stop the traffic
coming down. So we decided I would go to the top
stop the traffic, use my cell phone to call his and tell him to come on.

The comedy of errors from our entry to the park started again.
I called
it didn’t ring, but went
instantly to phone mail.

Three times.

I waited for him to call me back.

No dice.

I got in the car drove back down into the canyon to
ask what was going on.

He had no clue.
His phone is a Virgin Mobile pay as you go.
They use the Sprint network which is the only
network that had service in the mountains around our farm.

I have a Verizon Droid because we determined that
would be better on the road and has been until we hitTEXAS.His phone showed 2 bars but clearly it had no service.

Sooooooooooooooooooo

I went back up, did it all over again.
But DUH he couldn’t check his phone mail either.
I was trying to determine what to do now when
he took a chance and just came up.

I was waiting,
no traffic,
all was well.

This time it was a little more funny at the moment.

I think Red Rock Canyon did not wish to facilitate us
either coming or going.

But it was a lovely place just the same.

We got back on I-40 west and amused ourselves
by looking for where
the old Route 66
went along the side of the interstate.

Other than that,
this is pretty much what we saw along the way.

Eventually we drove into Texas.

I was expecting a big fanfare from the God Bless Texas people

But nothing was there
but the sign.

No welcome station in sight.
Guess they don’t welcome strangers coming in on I40.

We didn’t have a Texas highway map and had hoped to get one
but we were almost to Amarillo
before an “information station” appeared
and it was none too easy to get to.

But it was an interesting building for sure.
Texans definitely consider themselves to be
the Lone Star State.

We got the map as well as some information about
Palo Duro Canyon State park.

We noticed two things about the Panhandle of Texas.
One was the wind.

And the other was that we saw only two oil rigs or wells or derricks
or whatever is the correct term
and neither of them was working.
But we did see lots of these.

For sure I’d have one in my yard if
I lived in this part of Texas.
Get an electric car and your
fuel costs are history.
The wind blows like crazy
pretty much ALL THE TIME!

For a while we followed this strange
LONG and WIDE trailer with front and back escort cars.
Not sure where he was going.

Did you recognize it as an airplane wing?

And when I saw this I wondered if Texas is the only
state with a different speed limit
for night time.  I hadn’t seen that
before but perhaps we are just
getting into the “WEST” where that is more common.

We had driven 220 miles by the time we got to Amarillo
and decided to make a
rare for us stop
at a commercial campground east
of there for an easy overnight
before going 30 additional miles
back down intocell phoneless internetless canyonland.

It appears that in Texas canyons, you
can get phone service IF you have AT&T.

In Red Rock, we had no Sprint cell service,
spotty Verizon cell
but fairly decent Verizon internet.
AT&T was the only reliable service there.

And we were told by the ranger at Palo Duro
that there was no Verizon of any kind below the rim.

AT&T had the closest tower
and was the only one with a signal,

So we stopped at Overnight RV Campground at exit 75 on I40.
It’s a nice campground for the purpose.
Its basic parking lot look is greatly improved by
little fences and trees, bushes and flowers.

Sites are level and have full everything.
Electric, water, sewer, cable.
They have a laundry $1.25 to wash,
a lending book and video library and a number of office cats.
Although I don’t think they lend them out.
J

All for $28.80 with good Sam discount
which is a bargain compared with Texas State Parks.
We didn’t have Passport America at this point
because we so seldom use private parks,
but we’ll be joining soon given the difference in
prices that we discovered.

But more about that later.

The only drawback to this, and to most “Overnight” campgrounds
located just off the interstate, is the traffic noise
which we could have tolerated.

But in addition to the traffic, for some reason
this night there were a lot of truck air horns being blown
from about 11pm to 7 or 8 am.
I do mean in the middle of the night.
Not sure what that was all about
but it made for very difficult sleeping.

The campground would be a perfect stop over
for a night or two
in Amarillo if not for that.

After we got set up, we just relaxed and later fixed dinner.
In the evening, David put his laptop back together
for the 3^rd time and this one was the charm.
Was he happy!!

VOILA….it’s working again.
He is as patient as a saint,
and just tried one thing after another
for the past 5 days.
Looks like the isopropyl alcohol worked.

I count his success as money in the bank
that was not spent to replace the machine!!

Since we had free cable,
I watched the next to last episode of this season’s
The Biggest Loser and was amazed
at what these formerly severely obese people had accomplished.

Of all reality shows, this one actually does seem
to do some good and be motivating to a lot of people.

I don’t watch any TV as a rule
so my opinion on this is actually worth
about what you paid for it.

We are off to Palo Duro Canyon tomorrow.
Down into an even bigger canyon.

They bill it as “second in size only to The Grand Canyon”.

So we’re using it as a TEST DRIVE.

J