Ausflug 37

The Great American Road Trip Returns!

April 2013


 

3 Palo Duro
El Malpais 4
Index


 

April 9th and 10th, 2013: Amarillo Aircraft Museum, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico

Before turning West the next morning, we drove to the East side of Amarillo to visit an airplane museum located at Amarillo Airport. It was rather small, but the folks were friendly and there were several interesting airplanes in the hangar. One was a homebuilt biplane racer constructed by a local rancher. Despite being a Good Old Boy, he must have been an intuitive engineer because the airplane held together and was a competitive racer for several years. We also saw a beautifully polished P51 Mustang that looked like it was ready to leap into the air!

One outside exhibit was an Viet Nam War era military transport plane, used mostly for transporting paratroopers and small loads. We were allowed to get inside that one and I, of course, indulging in my inner Walter Mitty, tried out the pilot's seat.

From there we headed due West to Albuquerque driving through some ominous-looking clouds that turned into a weird succession of a sandstorm, a hailstorm, and a thunderstorm. There was no place to hide on that road, and I later talked to our friend Jim who was driving a new car on that same stretch of road and had it pounded to pieces by large hailstones because they just couldn't find any shelter from the weather. We experienced only small, pea-sized hail, so we arrived in Albuquerque unscathed and early enough that we could have a short visit with Terry, Mary, and Terry's son Nathan after dinner that evening.

The next morning Terry and Mary walked through old town Albuquerque with us. We had brunch with Joel, Terry's other son, just before he had to head off to work so that we could catch up with him a bit.

That afternoon Terry showed us all his toys including an ice cream maker, a radiation dosimeter, balance wheel balancer, a variable speed record player and the star of the show, his “Mobile Motel Room”, a shed made of slabs of Styrofoam that collapses onto a small trailer. He took the time to set up the shed, a process that only took 7 minutes, and I took pictures of each step in the process.

Later in the afternoon we visited a couple of antique shops where Monika found some turquoise earrings. Walking along we not only saw a sculpture of a roadrunner, but also a real one. That evening we had dinner at Terry’s favorite restaurant, Padillas, and dessert at his favorite ice cream shop, I Scream. At the end of the evening we dropped Terry off at Mary’s place and retired to our hotel room for the night.

Copyright 2013 by Robert W. Holt and Elsbeth Monika Holt
Dallas Palo Duro Amarillo El Malpais Canyon de Chelly Arches, NP
Canyonland, NP from Moab to Zion Zion, NP Bryce, NP Capitol Reef, NP Drive Home

Return to the Wanderungs Homepage.
Sign the Guestbook or Read the Guestbook.
Comments about this site? Email the Webmaster.
Contact Bob and Monika at bob_monika@hotmail.com.