Day one from Italy TX to Bernalillo NM, 692 miles through some of the flat lands of TX and into the cedar covered hills of NM.
We stopped occasionally, though I forgot to take pictures. This picture taking habit is a hard one to acquire, unless birds are nearby. Our first stop was at Texas Donuts, 1208 Holliday St, Wichita Falls TX. Somehow the address for this donut shop was in the navigation system of the first Toyota Rav 4 I ever leased. I think it might have been my user error that put it there, but it was a real mystery to us. We took this opportunity to stop and check it out. It was AMAZING!! I can’t believe how yummy the donuts are there.
We continued our drive, and the next awesome stop was at By George a collectibles store at
1600 Boykin Dr, Memphis TX (right on US 287). We had stopped here on our way to Italy TX last year and I had found a great work purse, I was hoping that lightning would strike again, and it did. The purse I found in Laramie, while stunning and useful for adventuring is not as compact as what I need for day-to-day work.
There’s a Quarter Horse museum in Amarillo https://www.aqha.com/museum. It’s right off the freeway at: 2601 I-40 East, Amarillo, TX. Last trip, it was closed because it was Sunday. This time, I thought for sure we’d be able to visit, but again we were denied. Apparently it’s closed the day after Thanksgiving. We stopped for lunch near the museum at our usual Cracker Barrel restaurant. For the past few years I’ve been collecting Christmas/Holiday dishes. Just a piece here and there of patterns I love, usually with deer, moose, or cardinals on them. Cracker Barrel netted me a lovely soup tureen, and two small plates. Then back on the road.
Once we were past Amarillo, I turned the driving over to Shanna. Just before Albuquerque she turned it back over to me and I got us to Bernalillo and a very clean Days Inn. Not without complications from my Nav system. I have a love hate relationship with Lashiel or Lash for short. I’ve named my Nav system after a character in the Jim Butcher series featuring Harry Dresden. In the books there is this shadow of a fallen angel who he calls Lash, and sometimes she’s incredibly helpful, and on occasion, she’s not. My Nav system is very much this way. Fabulous so much of the time that I begin to rely on her when suddenly she turns on me and tries to detour me through several unnecessary back roads to cross a street. This happened at Bernalillo. We used the system to find a Taco Bell and asked her to drive us there. Of course, the crazy commenced and I saw our hotel and stopped there immediately. We had by now passed the restaurant that was off to our left. Needless to say we turned off the navigation, checked in, went out for food and then slept the sleep of the I can’t believe we’ve driven all day.
— Jenny
BlueRavenBirders 