Team Dave's Road Trip, Day 1 - Austin to Amarillo

This morning, I woke up and went to Ken's doughnuts to get kolache and pastries to lure James and D out of bed earlier (and happier) than usual for a Sunday. My goal was to head out by 8, and we were in the Astro and on our way by 7:40.

Daphne slept for the first three hours of the trip, while James and I just took in the scenery. It started getting very windy at, well, the wind farms just southeast of Sweetwater. We pulled into town in time to get gas and stretch our legs a bit before Allen's Family Style Meals opened for lunch.

Another family was already seated at "our" table when we were told where to park ourselves, so the fried chicken was already down. There were also bowls of carrots, yams, cold creamed potatoes, hot potato chunks, creamy pea salad, macaroni and cheese, cole slaw, a pepper salad, rolls, beef with gravy, green beans, corn, white gravy, squash, and probably a lot of other things I can't remember. Oh, and peach cobbler. My goodness.

When we walked in, we were directed to the table and asked if we wanted iced tea. That's it. Then the food comes on like crazy. For all of that, it was $10 per person.

Well-fed, we were ready to hit the road again. Wind was worse, and we had to blast "Holes" so we could hear it over the ambient noise. There were at least two, and maybe three times when the visibility was less than 50 feet, so I'd slow way down, turn on the lights and the hazards, and proceed with caution.

When we finally reached Palo Duro Canyon, there was a clear demarcation in the sky exactly where the dust storm was and where it wasn't... yet. We were able to see the first set or two of formations, but could not see into the distance. Heck, I couldn't enjoy the scenery without binding my skirt in my fist or else flashing other visitors to this state park.

We stayed for about an hour, taking in the view and then getting to see even more from the shelter of the visitor's center before it closed.

Then we drove the rest of the way into town and checked in at the Amarillo KOA. We have a nice cabin that even has a television, which we unplugged so we could charge all of our devices.

We had planned to have dinner at the Big Texan Steakhouse, but none of us was hungry enough after lunch. We found a place online, Bangkok Restaurant, that was basically billed as good food on the grungy Amarillo Boulevard. Since it seemed like a local must-visit, we went and had dinner there. It was excellent.

Now we're in the cabin listening to the outrageous winds. I'll be glad to leave Texas tomorrow and get away from the crazy storm cell! Daphne is chatting online with friends, James is already asleep, and I'm ready to be asleep. I'm uploading a few pictures, but the wi-fi here is spotty, so will pause it and finish tomorrow.

We make the rest of the road trip tomorrow, then get to hang out for the majority of the week without much Astro booty time. Looking forward to that, too! :)