bigbendtexas

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First four pics - Historic stretch of Rt 66 in Amarillo.

Bottom - Preparing our last meal together

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3rd row - I don't remember seeing a Caddy with a trailer hitch.  Only Texas I guess.

4th Row - E leaving her "Mark" that will probably not last a day or at most a week.

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Top row - Headed to the "Cadillac Ranch" art exhibit.  The pic on right is right above a graffiti painted fence post. We saw a pic where someone had painted on the sign itself.

Bottom photo shows what Heinz and Susi were so amazed about that we sometimes take for granted.

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Top row - Warnings about the buffalo in Caprock State park, the home of the Texas state buffalo herd.

2nd row - the only evidence that there are Buffalo in the park!

Just some interesting, to me, geological and neat scenery pics.

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Top left - My "Hole-in-one" at Meadowbrook Golf Course, Lubbock.  No 1 and 2 holes were in a prairie dog village.  I actually had another "hole out" on my second hot. So, two holes-in-one on the same hole!

2nd row- Caprock Canyon so named because it is a three layered area with a "cap" of hard rock. 

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As an addendum to the Carlsbad trip, I wanted to buy a t-shirt that was on the 50% off rack. So I picked up a shirt that was originally marked $9.99 that was marked down to $5.99. I went to the cash register to pay for it and they said that will be $6.37. I said “Excuse me but half of $10 is not $6. Half of $10 is $5.”  She said, Well that's how they marked it.” I had asked her earlier if this was the 50% off rack so she knew what I knew. The computer wouldn't let her take 50% off of $9.99 and she was flummoxed. I said I would pay $5 and no more. She couldn't figure it out so she entered $5.99 and took 50% off that and the computer said okay. Bottom line, I paid $3.17 for the shirt. Sometimes people just can't think outside the box or maybe it was 50% off the lower marked price and she didn't know that, but the computer did.

 It was very cold last night, April  22nd, around 36 degrees here in Amarillo. With no insulation in the walls of the RV, I think it was 36 degrees inside. We survived and headed out to the Cadillac Ranch not long after breakfast. It's an interesting art display of several Cadillacs half buried in the earth showing the evolution of tail fins on Cadillacs. Apparently a Texas billionaire brought some San Francisco hippies in to design this art form on his land. At first people just looked at it with humor and then people started taking the tail fins off or taking door knobs or various parts of the cars, etc until they no longer resembled Cadillacs. And then people started spray painting them. Apparently the owner got upset at first and then decided to let everybody paint them as they wished. Now they are probably thousands of coats of spray paint on some of the vehicles in some places. There are spray cans littering the cornfield that the cars are standing in. Most of them still have paint left in them or someone will give you a can of paint to do your own decorating. Elizabeth and Susi did that. Pictures to follow. I also noticed that several cars have one rear shock removed and one had both shocks removed.  I also noted that the first or last Cadillac in the series had a different kind of shock that I had never seen before. After that we headed toward the Wal-Mart to pick up some diesel exhaust fluid for the Mercedes and pick up a few things for Heinz and Susi. We had hoped to see the quarter horse Museum and a trading post but they were both closed for Sunday. We went down to the historic 6th Avenue stretch of Route 66 because that was recommended by the tour guides. It's not the best part of town and it was nothing to write home about. We did manage to kill an hour or so before lunch and then headed to the Kwahadi Museum of the American Indian. It's only open on Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5. It has an interesting collection of Indian art and artifacts from the Hopi in Arizona and tribes in Colorado, etcetera. Elizabeth managed to find a bracelet made from turquoise that she couldn't live without. Heinz wanted to buy a painting of an Indian girl, but when they took the painting out of the frame to roll it up for him they found out it was actually a poster on poster board and not able to be rolled up for shipment back to Germany. They were very kind and gracious and happy to find out that the painting or poster could not be sold without the frame. After that we went back to Wal-Mart to get Susi's nose pieces fixed on her glasses. Then we went back to the campground for a leisurely afternoon on a relatively warm day with only a 30 mile an hour wind blowing. It was quite nice to relax and enjoy an afternoon without trying to make it to a campground. We enjoyed a nice coffee break at 1500 hours together and cooked hamburgers for the evening meal after the cocktail hour. We had a really nice discussion about living in and visiting foreign countries and how nice it is to learn about other cultures. We just got a very little bit into politics, mostly making jokes about politicians in both countries. It was a very relaxing dinner and discussion afterwards, but I forgot to take any pictures of our last meal together. We will leave tomorrow morning and should be in Tulsa late in the afternoon or early evening. It's been very much fun to travel with Heinz and Susi. They are a lot of fun and have been very patient following me to places where Siri may have been confused where we were going and I had to adjust for construction or missing a turn. We will always remember our first trip with another couple fondly. It's not often, as I said earlier, to find someone you can travel with and still be friends at the end. There will be pictures posted after we arrived back in Tulsa.

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Top pic shows how a scientist lost a toe when he lowered the maintenance platform w/o paying attention!

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top is the granddaddy telescope with the mirror sections

Bottom - End of the original 80" inch telescope installed in 1936?

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Top two how to make a huge telescope from mirror sections instead of ground glass because it's gets too heavy and "breakable" above 10 meters. This one only cost $20,000,000 and it still needs nylon straps and ropes to hold it together

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Top- El Capitan in Guadalupe Nat'l Park.

Dead motorcycle I pushed up the hill from the visitor's center

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Words can't describe everything. Just enjoy

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Bottom pic I a very strange looking stalactite or a wire hanging from a 100 high ceiling.

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Bottom pic shows something green growing in the artificial light with very little water

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Bottom rt are acid "drilled" hole in the gypsum

Picture of our friend Susi to show perspective

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5th from top looks like a pile of "bones"

2nd from top is the "Rock of ages"

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Second from top just a fantastic formation.  The others are self-explanatory