The travels of the Rambling Roses: Hereford Texas, to Amarillo, Tx April 4

58 miles in 4:20....We woke up this morning, and the wind was gone, the dust was settled, the sun was out, but it was damn cold. I mean sub freezing cold. We 'slept in', because we passed into the central time zone when we crossed the Texas/New Mexico line. Our bodies were telling us it was an hour earlier than it was, but it was still chilly when I walked outside. The sun was warming things up, but the cold wind, as light as it was, told me to start out with three layers on the upper body. I haven't done THAT for a while!

I headed east on US 60, and the breeze was out of the southeast, so it was cool. 60 was great, but the dreaded Texas chip seal with the bumpy ride reared its ugly head in spots. It wasn't terrible though. I went east for about 27 miles, to the town of Canyon, TX, which is where US 60 co-joins with Interstate 27, and it goes north, into Amarillo. I rode around the little town square in Canyon before heading north, and noticed that all the roads in the historic district were red brick. Little did I know that when I got to Amarillo, I would find the same red brick streets.

As I left Canyon, which I guess is really a suburb of Amarillo, I followed a frontage road along I-27, past the West Texas A& M football stadium where the white buffalo was that I took a picture of. The frontage road was a business access road, but not busy at all, and I had a slight tailwind for the ten miles or so that I was headed north. There was a big bypass loop around Amarillo, and my GPS girl, that I never get along with, tried to get me to go on the loop. It would have been a good road, but I wouldn't have passed much more than some real big grain elevators, and I would have been out in the open plains. I've had enough open plain riding, and I wanted to go check out the city. The metro population is about 250,000, but I would have never guessed it. I saw two tall buildings, which were in the heart of downtown, off in the distance, so I headed for them, a good 5-10 miles away. I went through some residential streets and roads, before the red brick roads started closer to town. I went right past the tall ( maybe 15 story) Santa Fe Building, which was right next to the Chase Bank Building, ( maybe 30 stories), which may have been home to the West Texas A&M downtown campus. WT A& M has the number one rated softball team in Division II right now, and a top ten baseball team, according to the news.

After passing through the very un-busy downtown ( for a Friday afternoon), I hooked up with US60 again, which is also historic Rt. 66 on this stretch. It was relatively busy riding out of town on 60/66, but the roads were wide, and the traffic still wasn't terrible. Once again, huge grain elevators dominated the very flat landscape. The KOA that Pam found is about 5 miles east of town, close to an airport and some railroad tracks. Speaking of railroad tracks, they were my constant companion again today, with many trains keeping me company as I rode. I think the trains are pretty cool, and Pam said she likes them too.