One of my favourite adventures was my trip around the Texas Panhandle. Let me tell you some of the highlights from this trip. As usual, planning was of the utmost importance. When the idea to do some travelling by car around Texas first occured to me the first item on my planning list was, just what do I want to see in the alloted time I had allowed myself. Texas is a pretty big place as you may have heard, if not you haven't been listening to the right type of music or read any of the right types of novels or watched any of the one million ‘‘westerns’’ that have existed since the making of movies began. Me, I was brought up on all things Western which might seem a bit odd for a kid from Nova Scotia but yes, we kids had imaginations that took us far from the wild Atlantic Coast. Every Saturday afternoon we were transformed into Cisco’s, Roys, Lone Rangers and on and on. Of course when we made our way home we didn’t walk we rode on our white stallions watching for bad guys around every corner. So, I brought up a couple of must-have tools that I find invaluable for any trip planning session: my trusty Google Maps and the Booking.com website. I began looking at all the possibilities for a 3-4 day trip around this fascinating State. What a fun chore that turned out to be, this State has it all from the Gulf Coastal Plains, the Interior Lowlands, the Great High Plains, the Hill Country, the Edwards Plateau, the Rolling Plains, the Piney Woods, the Pecos Mountains, the Rio Grande Valley, and the South Texas Brush Country. Of course, my starting point had to coincide with a ‘‘jump-off’’ point on my Amtrak journey, again I had numerous choices, San Antonio, Houston, El Paso, Ft. Worth/Dallas, but which one would give me access to as many ‘‘must-sees’’ as I could fit in. As major centres, getting a rental car in any of these cities wouldn’t be an issue. However, would I begin and end my trip in the same city, or drop the vehicle off in another city that would give me access to reconnect with Amtrak? Price always being a consideration I quickly discovered that to pick up a rental in one city and drop it off in another location drastically increased the price of a rental, so that option was out. I finally narrowed it down to the Texas Panhandle, which seemed to fit the bill as far as making a circular route, ending in the same city that I started in, as well as having several different topographic regions that would allow me to experience as much of what Texas has to offer. As Amtrak’s Texas Eagle begins at my usual starting point, Chicago and covers a wide swath of Texas on its way to Los Angeles, this seemed like the perfect route for me to use. It then seemed like a no-brainer to ‘‘jump-off’’ in Ft. Worth. What aspiring Cowboy wouldn’t want to spend a couple of days exploring the cattle capital of the West? Using Google Maps, I could then plot my path around the Panhandle. A circular route of 4-5 days would give me a great taste of what this State has to offer, plus it would allow me to visit some of its more well-known locales. So I decided to head directly to Amarillo, from Ft Worth a journey of approximately 340 miles. The drive was beautiful, lots of green hills and valleys which took me by surprise as it wasn’t all flat brown plains with tumbleweeds blowing across the highway. After a drive of about 6 hours, I arrived in Amarillo. I was so wrong to think that Amarillo was just cattle and horses. It does cater to the western ideology with its rodeos such as the WRCA, Working Ranch Cowboys Association which is held throughout the year, the Tri-State Fair & Rodeo, and the Coors Cowboy Club Ranch Rodeo, to name just several of the six-plus rodeos held there. But I was to find out what makes this city such an exciting part of the Southwest. As I was googling ‘‘Amarillo’’ I happened upon their city website: https://www.visitamarillo.com/ and through that made contact with the city's Tourism Director; Luz Aguilar. I explained to Luz that I had in mind to stop in Amarillo for a day, and could she recommend some activities to take in and some places to visit while I was there. Well, she went out of her way to make up an itinerary for me which included an evening of rodeo, a visit to the local State Park; Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the US and some of the fun things having to do with the famous Rte. 66, which runs right through the city. Every June, the city celebrates the Route with Cattle Drives, Bus tours, classic car shows, concerts, etc. In June 2026, it will be a special celebration as they celebrate the 100th anniversary of Rte. 66. Luz did such a wonderful sales job and made me feel so welcome that I ended up booking in for 2 days. She ended up calling me ‘‘Cowboy Bob’’ which just killed me. Imagine a guy from Nova Scotia being a cowboy anything? I stayed at the Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Amarillo, https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/microtel, which was centrally located for my needs. As I was checking in, the lady at the front desk said; ‘‘Oh, you must be Cowboy Bob’’. She told me that Luz had dropped off a ‘‘goody bag’’ for me. Look at the end of this blog to see a picture of the contents of the bag. I just couldn’t imagine people being that friendly. The goody bag held a pair of tickets to that evening’s Rodeo, so I quickly changed and took an Uber to the Rodeo (so that I could partake of the offerings of local refreshments). Had a fantastic time at the rodeo, lots of horses and cows, cowboys and cowgirls. I wore a Stetson that I had purchased in San Antonio the year before, yeehaw!! One regret of my visit to Amarillo was not going to The Big Texan Steak Ranch and taking the challenge of a free 72-ounce steak to anyone who can finish it within the allotted time. The next morning I went to Palo Duro Canyon, which is the second-largest canyon in the US. The scenery was just stunning. It took about 2 hours to drive through it, up hills, down hills, around steep curves, and rugged rocks. It had it all, even free-range long-horned steers. I took a circuitous route through Wayside and Canyon back to Amarillo, which took about 2 hours, after which I went ‘‘downtown’’ to where Rte. 66 runs through the city. There were lots of antique stores with Rte. 66 memorabilia and retro looking buildings, cars and garage stations. I then swing outside of the city to Cadillac Ranch, which is a bunch of old Cadillacs buried front-end into the ground up to their windshield, and over the years it has become a great pastime to spraypaint them so that now they all look almost psychedelic. Next morning, I’m headed due south. First stop is Lubbock, home of Buddy Holly, so nothing doing, but I had to find the Buddy Holly memorial. It wasn’t hard. They have a tall life-like statue of him playing his guitar in the centre of a park that has a semi-circle wall of fame, which has probably a hundred names on brass plaques of many of music’s more well-known figures. Now it’s on to today’s destination, San Angelo, a little more than 4 1/2 hours from Amarillo. Now it’s flat land. Lots of oil wells along the way. Everywhere there are tall stacks of flaring or burning natural gas, so you can see the flames from many miles away. Made it to San Angelo around dusk so I didn’t get to see very much of the town. Stayed at another Microtel Inn & Suites, which are good, clean, reasonably priced motel/hotels. This one cost $96 CDN, so you really can’t beat the price. Up and ‘‘on the road again’’, haha, early the next morning first stop was Fredericksburg a very nice little town. The main street had some great western-wear clothing stores and I almost bought a pair of cowboy boots that was until I went to stand up and almost fell over, haha. I think I got a nosebleed from being up so high. That was $300 saved. Now I’m getting excited because the next stop is Luckenbach, Texas!! Yes, just like the song!! It took me half an hour to find it as it’s a very small place. Just a little dirt turn-off that takes you down a lane to the actual place, village is a strong word for it. It consists of 3 buildings. A Post Office, a Curio Shop and a Bar, but it is really neat. The store is really old and chock full of mementoes and trinkets related to the song. I managed to get away with only a fridge magnet, a sticker and a coaster. Now I’m headed towards Austin. The scenery along this latest stretch has been very pretty. Hills, grass, cactus, wild flowers everywhere. It started to rain, and I now know how flash floods happen. I had to pull over because it was raining so hard, but it only lasted about 10 minutes. This drive continues to be beautiful. I passed the Lyndon B. Johnson State Park, wish I had time to stop for a while. Driving through Austin, I saw lots of beautiful homes, and the city itself is very picturesque. Wish I had chosen to spend a day here, looks like there is a lot to see here. It’s nearly dusk as I turn north and head back towards Ft Worth. I did see one thing that truly amazed me. It was a Buc-ees Service Station. Apparently, the largest one has 120 pumps; these stores are tourist attractions and are huge. Got back to Ft Worth around 11 P.M. Tomorrow I’m off to Oklahoma City.
