Big, long views once again.....

7:45 am - Saturday - January 19th - Vernon, TX - 32º F (feels like 21º F), 68% humidity, wind 17 mph out of the north by northwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 45º F.  Wind blew like crazy last night, and there was rain and hail at times......not big hail, but big enough to wake up one.

We chose to leave the Dallas Elks Lodge about 9 am to miss the morning rush hour traffic, plus we needed to take advantage of a good diesel price down the street at the Kroger fuel station ($2.39/gallon).  We arrived at the fuel station at the perfect time, so it was easy to pull up to one of the diesel pumps.  We had 10¢/gallon fuel credit with Krogers (earned through grocery purchases at affiliated stores) so that made the first 35 gallons $2.29/gallon.  I figured we would take on a total of 70-80 gallons, and I was close...we took on 79 gallons......35 at the discounted price and the balance at $2.39. 

By the time we finished that task it was about 9:40 am, and time to head northwest towards Amarillo, TX.  It took us 45-50 miles to extricate ourselves from the Dallas traffic vortex......

.....traffic, as you can see, was relatively light, but there were 6 lanes of it going each way for quite a distance, and at one time there were 9 lanes going north.......that's a little more congested that I prefer, to say the least......

......at last we began to be able to see a big horizon, and the freeway narrowed to only 3 lanes.......

....eventually it was down to two lanes each direction and very little traffic....now that is more like it!

It is pretty much always windy in the Texas Panhandle, and eventually we came to a large windmill farm......TLE caught a picture of one, but there were literally hundreds all the way to the big horizon.

Initially we had planned to drive only as far at Wichita Falls, but when we were about 25 miles south of our destination we decided to press on another 50+ miles to Vernon, TX where we would be just 176 miles from Amarillo.  Our decision was influenced by the fact that it would be quite windy Friday afternoon, and terribly windy on Saturday.  We do not like to drive in 25-35 mph winds, so we decided to drive the extra distance and sit still through Sunday morning when the winds will abate, and then continue on to Amarillo.

We arrived in Vernon, TX around 2 pm at a nice RV park situated directly next door to the local Walmart Supercenter where there is a gate allowing one to take a short cut to the store directly from the RV park.....perfect!  After hooking up to the utilities TLE started a load of wash after which we took a 1.4 mile walk, which included a stop at Walmart on the way back.  That's six straight days we have walked at least one mile, or more.

As we returned to the Newell the winds became more intense as the wind speed rose above 20 mph where it stayed the rest of the evening.  TLE prepared some Progresso Clam Chowder and a nice salad for dinner and that was our day.

We are now back in the land of big, long views, and how I have missed them!  We are also back above 1,000' elevation for the first time in a long time....by the time we reach Flagstaff we will be over 7,000' elevation!

Thanks for stopping by!

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