Day 8 :: Still Texas Driving

DAY 8, Kilgore TX to Dalhart TX

Monday July 18, 2022

Next morning at 6 AM, I drove around about 40 minutes before going to dealer to check the Air Conditioning. It was fine and full force and no funny noises. Hmmmm. Called Dealer, and they said they could not fit me in anyway today. So kept the Kilgore socks on for good luck and we left Kilgore towards Amarillo TX. No further problems on AC the entire trip.

Along the way drove thru:

Paris. You can see the Eiffel Tower replica from the highway. Interesting Fact: ParisTX also holds third place in a category of America’s Largest City Fires. After The Chicago Fire and The San Francisco Earthquake Fire, comes The Paris Fire of 1916.
Wichita Falls. Fun Fact: City was founded in 1876 with a beautiful waterfall on the Wichita river passing through the land. Ten years later, 1886, those original water falls were destroyed by a flood.. So since 1886 no waterfall in the city of Wichata Falls until 1987 when the town built a manmade 54-foot artificial waterfall to regain its namesake.
Amarillo, TX Got here by about 400PM and 400 miles so far today. Drove a little bit on the old Route 66 that used to pass thru here, Saw the place for the 72 ounce free steak and was packed with about 300 cars. For us, we found a WHATABURGER. Heard of this TEXAS Fast Food Brand, but never seen one till here. The Burger was the BEST fast food burger I ever had. Actual Crunch lettuce. The bread was similar to a burger bun, but it had some specialness to the dough. Gotta find one in Philadelphia. They also did Onion Rings right, and a delicious banana pudding shake. It was still 100 degrees outside.

So we still got 200 miles or so to go today. By about 830 we make it into DALHART, TX and find a kind of run down mom and pop motel. It was clean and only $115 bucks including the dog. Anything else in the town was running $200.

So todays driving was overall flat land some rolling Hills. Saw lots of fenced land, but don't think we saw even one cow ALL DAY. Biggest thing on the landscapes is the WIND TURBINES. Thousands of them. Thousands of them. Thousands of them along the route today. Also one roadside middle of nowhere to us convenience store. Looked brand new. Stopped for Gas. They had over 20 TESLA chargers, all empty. And inside the store some transformer collection. Was interesting to see the mix of Dinosaur and Tesla. It was NOT a SINCLAIR station.

Drove all day but still in Texas! We are almost at the nexus of texas, oklahama, new mexico, and colorado.