Bigger Horizons......

7:40 am - Monday - January 21st - Amarillo, TX - 34º F, 63% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the south......mostly clear skies with an amazing sunrise......got to love those big horizons in the Texas Panhandle!

 Amarillo sunrise

We only had 166 miles to travel Sunday, but we did want to be on the road between 9 and 9:30 am.  Why?  Well, I wanted to be settled in our site in Amarillo before 2 pm so I could watch the NFC and AFC championship games.  I don't watch much NFL football anymore due to the National Anthem protests which began a couple of seasons ago.  The protests have largely disappeared with only one player kneeling during week 12 of the 2018 season.  At any rate the two match ups for Sunday pitted the L.A. Rams vs. the New Orleans Saints (1st game), and the New England Patriots vs. the Kansas City Chiefs (2nd game).  The Saints and Chiefs were favored to win their respective games.

We were out the gate of the RV park and merging back on to US-287 by 10 minutes after 9 am.  Our drive northwest on US -287 (a very nice divided highway, by the way) revealed a mostly deserted road.....we pretty much had the highway to ourselves for the three hour drive to Amarillo......

.....we made on short stop at a Rest Area about 100 miles into our day to use the bathroom, and, additionally, for me to check our tires....

The temperature of my recliner....😉

.....I use an 'OEM' infrared 'gun' to check the individual temperatures of our 10 tires (6 on the coach and 4 on the trailer).  What I am looking for is the one tire running way hotter than the others....like 20+º hotter.  If that is happening that means something is going wrong with that tire.  Doing this has saved me numerous blowouts from tread separation over the last 7 years, which is usually what is causing the tire to run hotter.  On this day all 10 of our tires were within 5º F of each other.

All the way from Vernon to Amarillo we were gaining elevation.  We began at 1,000 feet elevation and finished in Amarillo at just under 3,600'.  We actually got as high as 3,800' elevation about 20 miles south of Amarillo.....

Our altimeter is on the left, and the analog gauge on the right is our battery condition indicator

....we arrived at the RV park in Amarillo about 12:30 pm, paid for 3 days @ $14/day, picked a site, and connected the Newell to the utilities.  Within minutes I had dialed in our DirecTV DVR receiver and we were read to relax.  Our decision to pay for three days here in Amarillo is due to the heavy winds predicted for both Monday and Tuesday....Wednesday looks good, so we will stay put for three days, and visit Palo Duro Canyon while we are here, and, of course, The Big Texan Steak Ranch and Brewery.  I have eaten there before, but this will be TLE's first time.  The Big Texan is the home of the 72 oz. steak challenge....this steak costs $72, but if you can consume it, as well as everything else on the plate in one hour, or less you get a full refund.  Would I try it?  No way....I know I could not do it.

Both NFL games went to overtime, and were won by the visiting teams (Rams and Patriots).  I was personally pulling for the Rams as they would be the first L.A. team to reach the Super Bowl since the Raiders back in 1983, which they won.  We could not have asked for better games, but each one was marred by poor officiating at crucial times in each game benefiting the eventual victors.

We took a 1 mile walk around the RV park between the two games making it 8 straight days we have walked at least 1 mile, or more......thanks for stopping by!

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