Amarillo, Texas Panhandle

Louie and camper at typical rest stop

We pulled in to Amarillo with thoughts of swimming for the afternoon only to hear a loud BANG as we were winching up the camper!  One whole corner of the camper had collapsed….after a lot of heaving and ho’ing we managed to winch her back down and the office at the camp recommended someone who might be able to help us.  We drove  to the place only to find that he couldn’t help us be he knew someone who could and so the story went.  By now we had been in the car the entire day and were wondering where we were going to sleep that night. 

Louie's homemade movie system

Eventually we found someone   (the only guy for miles) that could help us.  We dropped the camper off and drove to a motel for the night.  The kids were happy, they can jump on beds at the motels so we let them go nuts and wear themselves out.  The next day we took the kids to the Amarillo Discovery Centre which they loved.  There was a clay activity class where Leo made a Buzz Lightyear, the teachers loved this so much he is now framed up on their wall.  There were special play areas for the kids, dress ups and so many fun activities that even Justin and I were keen on getting in on the fun.  One included standing in the middle of a moat and pulling a bubble up to surround you, there was vortexes to throw balls around in, light shows, magnetic bridges, electronic devices, huge building blocks, ribbon mazes and the list goes on.

Look at my boots ma!

Scarlett O'Hara

The forever immortalised Buzz Lightyear

A lot of Spencer

After sufficiently tiring the kids out we took a drive out to Palo Duro Canyon which boasts of being the second largest canyon in America.  It was pretty spectacular and worth the 30 minute drive from town.  The kids slept through the whole experience so Justin and I got to contemplate life with a great view for a while.  On the way back into town we picked up our camper.  A cable had snapped which was only to be expected when we keep putting her up and down so often I guess.  We counted 17 times so far in the trip.  We headed back to the campground who had deferred our 2 nights stay for us, planning on a nice bbq and afternoon swim.

Palo Duro Canyon, Texas Panhandle

Now the camper winched up nicely but wouldn’t lock at the top so the roof kept coming down!  It was as though the gear that locked the roof in place was broken.  When we rang the service guy he said to bring it back in….so we packed the kids up and off we went again, cursing because we believed the guy had broken the gear while he was fixing the cable.  We need to start watching what we say in front of Leo because when we got there he promptly told the guy that “he broke our camper and he needs to fix it now”. 

Well, long story short the gear can’t be fixed but we managed to sort out the secondary locking system and we are now using that along with 4 planks of wood propping up each corner of the camper to make sure we don’t become a meat sandwhich if she comes down around our ears.  So we finally put the camper up for the 18^th time in Amarillo and went for our swim.  It’s definitely colder at night now, we have invested in a small electric fan heater with a thermostat (about $25 from Walmart) and set on the lowest setting this seems to do the trick.

She'll be right mate

Finally.....the swim!

We have now joined the historic Route 66 and went for a bit of a meander down one of the old streets which has lots of antiques from that era etc.  The interstate 40 (I40) replaced Route 66 in the 80’s but it is still very much alive as the “mother road” and has been memorialised in each town on it’s route.

Happy birthday Kath!

I celebrated my 36^th birthday on the day we left Amarillo, Leo chose me a Spiderman cake which was lovely and I got lots of smooches, a pair of furry boots (well needed), some trashy American mags and best of all I got to spend it with my family in our little home away from home.  Thanks for all the birthday messages and emails it was so lovely to get them!  As we left Texas declared a state of emergency because of the extreme fires and dryness they are experiencing.  We also heard that Tropical Storm Lee resulted in over 100,000 people being evacuated and killed at least 9 people in flash floods.   It seems we are managing to stay ahead of earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding and now fire….long may it continue!