Waterloo to Shangri-La

This leg in to Vineland was going to be a relatively short one at two hours, so we didnt leave until 9.  For those that know the area, the Highway 8 portion from the 401 up to the north winds through the combined cities of Kitchener and Waterloo with exits and lane changes worse than any American cities we went through.  In fact, in all the travel we did down to Arizona and back I only had two instances with drivers either cutting me off or giving me the finger because I was apparently going too slow.  On the trip up from the 401 the other night and back down the following morning I had three drivers that took exception at my driving for one reason or another.  Mind you they all had their elbows up as they passed so perhaps it was something else.

To get from Waterloo to Vineland the shortest route is down Highway 8 to the 401, over to Highway 6, down to the 403, and finally over to the QEW.  It is typically a very heavily trafficked route but this day the drive was not bad.  Light rain and cold all the way so we were both wondering what on earth was going on with this weather.

We pulled in to the Shangri-La Campground about 1130 and were set up within an hour.  This campground does not officially open until May 15 like most parks in Ontario, but they do allow snowbirds to use the facilities if they arrive early.  There is one other RV here so we expect it will be super quiet.

We arrived full of water with nothing in the gray or black tanks so are good for about three weeks before we will need service.  Despite the cold weather I hope it warms enough before the end of the month that they can turn on the water.  At this point we are planning to remain here for three or four weeks.

We are not fully home yet but this stop is going to be a nice one.  I am from the Niagara Peninsula and my parents and brother and sister are here so we are looking forward to seeing them and relaxing.  Buds are out on the trees and if we get a bit of warmth it wont be long now before the place starts popping with fruit blooms and the familiar smells of spring.

Thank you for reading. 

Nappanee To Waterloo

Our service visit was scheduled for four days and we were completed by noon on the fourth day.  Our next leg to a longer layover was to take us to Vineland, but to get there from Nappanee was too long a drive, especially considering possible delays and such.  So I split the trip into a drive to a Harvest Host location near London followed by a short trip from there to Vineland the next morning.  I could have departed at noon and made it across the border same day but there has been persistent cold and snow in the Eastern part of the US and Canada.  Leaving at noon would have put us in some of that as we approached Detroit, so we stayed put and took it easy for the afternoon.

Departure the next morning was as usual and right at 0800.  The drive through the countryside north from Nappanee to Elkhart is easy with hardly any traffic and decent speeds on good roads.  We planned and drove Interstate 90 to 69 to 94 and that was a great choice.  Given the condition of the highways south out of Detroit I was expecting rough jarring roads that look like they were last paved ten years ago.  What we got instead were some of the best roads we had been on all winter.  Very nice.  Grooved concrete and smooth transitions between roadways and bridges.  The approach to Detroit returned to some of the bumpy bits but nothing like the Interstate south.  Next time we are down this way I think I will purposely route further west before heading south. 

Two and a half hours in we made a fuel stop for our last load of fuel before crossing the border.  We have been using a Commercial fuel card called Open Roads all winter.  It has proven to be a worthwhile card as it allows use of truck stops which have clear arrival and departure lanes without having to negotiate tight turns.  As we are towing our car behind us I cannot go backwards, and so do not want to arrive at a fuel stop where I may get trapped in a situation I cannot get out of easily.

The cheapest fuel we purchased on the entire trip was $2.83USD and the most expensive was $3.64, with an overall average of $3.09.  The last stop we made came in at $2.99 so I topped off both the fuel and DEF.  This equates to $1.11CAN per litre and the price for fuel at ONroute stops is currently running at $1.40, so certainly a better deal to get fuel before we cross the border.  

Nice To Be Home

Our last leg in to Canada was straightforward and the traffic was lighter than I was expecting.  Whether in part due to the tariff situation or not, I am not sure, but the truck traffic was the lightest I have ever seen.  When we crossed on the same bridge last November the truck traffic was in its own lane on the right hand side all the way up to the middle of the bridge.  On this trip, the traffic continued to move all the way across without delay and once we moved over to the car lanes we were third in line for our lane.  Stop at the booth was routine and we were through in a few minutes.

New Gordie Howe Bridge - to open September 2025

Shortly after we stopped at the ONroute in Tilbury for lunch and firm up the plans for the Harvest Host.  Contacting them I found out they were not allowing reservations due to the cold.  This was a golf course and other than no-one likely wanting to golf on a wet course, I am not sure why they were not allowing anyone to stay overnight.  So, with no delays so far and the overnight temperatures forecast to be below freezing we opted to make arrangements at the Green Acre Park in Waterloo.  Although this would put us over our typical daily trip length, the traffic and timing worked out and would effectively return us to our departure point last November.

Thank you for reading.

Nappanee And Area

While in Nappanee for service we had some time to explore the local area.  Nappanee is in Northern Indiana and is a small town of about 7,000.  It is a picturesque town and I imagine it would be quite vibrant during the summer and fall periods as you get a real family feel when in town.  April is the start of spring but this year it is a little slow off the mark.

The town is dotted with Magnolia trees that do not know whether they started their buds too soon or not, but I would expect in a few weeks it will be quite aromatic around town.  The town is very reminiscent of most small towns in this part of the US and also has a feel like small town Ontario.  The homes close to downtown look like most small towns in Ontario, and you could be transported between one and the other and not know you had moved.

The area of Northern Indiana has a heavy Amish population and the roads are shared equally with single horse and buggy combinations transporting their occupants from one place to another.  There are hitching posts at most stores and it is common to see a horse patiently waiting outside the dentist office, the hardware store, or a family restaurant.  Most of the buggy’s are lit for night time operations with running lights, although they do not have headlights to speak of as I presume that would interfere with the horse.  I can imagine the horse trotting forward into its own shadow would be a bit spooky.  It is calming to hear the clip clop of the horse coming from downtown past the Service Center to take whoever is aboard back home.  Amish do not like pictures being taken of them but I did take a picture of a buggy going by the other day.

While we were in town we wanted to experience a few of the things that make this town celebrate their heritage.  We went to a place called the Coppes Commons.  It is a repurposed mill that made production wooden furniture for a lot of years before that kind of manufacturing dried up.  In fact, if you own a Hoosier cabinet it was most likely built in this facility as this was where they were built.  The mill is now a museum, with a number of restaurants, a bakery, and the obligatory gift stores.  Today, there are a lot of furniture manufacturing places around town but they are typically specialty manufacturers with over one year wait lists for the type of material they are producing.

The family also diversified into a large mill

We walked a few of the parks downtown and found they have done an excellent job of integrating the walkways with play areas for kids, and gardens that are likely tended by local people who volunteer to do that to ‘their’ park.

On a recommendation we drove a few miles out of town to a restaurant called the Dutchmaid Eatery that is the place to go if you want authentic local food.  It was one of those experiences that seem out of place in a way as we drove for ten or so minutes down a country road and did not see another car in any direction.  On that last turn onto the small road that leads to the restaurant you see a few buildings in the distance that look like any of the farms in the area, only to come upon a parking lot absolutely full of cars and horses with buggies and a restaurant on one side of the road and a grocery/market on the other.  The line up for the restaurant put us about twelve back but we did not have to wait long.  The ladies running the operation and seating people were doing it like second nature and we did not have to wait long.  This is a well known spot and the food and service was great.  Food is locally grown and raised and is fresh.

RV Hall Of Fame And Museum

To round out our local things to do we took a trip up to Elkhart to see the RV Hall Of Fame And Museum.  The museum is located there as Elkhart is arguably the RV capital of the world, and the vast majority of large manufacturers are located there.  We drove up there rather than taking the RV, but there are twelve spots where people with RV’s can park to visit, or stay overnight.  It is a Harvest Host location for users of that app.

The museum covers everything from the very first concept of living in something mobile all the way to the development of the homes of today that are fabricated in a factory and shipped to the site for final assembly and finishing.  There are examples of RV’s from the 20’s, 30’s and beyond as well as the early mobile homes that are typically called Park Models today.  They even have three manufactured homes right inside the facility to show how that concept has improved.  We spent a fair amount of time at the museum and really enjoyed the layout and content.  Well worth stopping to see if you are in the area.

Oh, I almost forgot.  When we are in some of these small towns I like to find a small local barbershop to get a trim.  It is a good way to get a feel for the town and if you can find a local independent shop you are likely going to get good value for the cut.

I usually google local barbershops and the top rated that looks like it is a real barbershop and not a salon chain gets my choice.  I selected Heplers Barbershop.  Getting up early has its benefits so I was there shortly after they opened.  There were two chairs running and both were occupied and there was one guy waiting.  Perfect.  As I started to sit down the one barber says, “Do you have an appointment?”  I said no, I figured this was a barbershop and was walk-in.  He stopped what he was doing and went on his phone to confirm the next appointment was at 0800 the next morning.  The two guys in the chairs already were looking at me quizzically.

I was quite surprised at that with only one guy waiting but came back the next day for 0800.  I had the same barber and again the other seat was filled and there was one guy waiting.  Turns out Chad and Cody are the two barbers and they are full most every day.  During Covid they developed the system of booking and loved it so much they continue today.  He said pre-Covid they used to sit around doing nothing for hours and then six guys would walk in and often wound up working past closing time to get things done.  Now, with the bookings they schedule them on 30 minute intervals and love it.  The shop runs right on time and $16 for a trim, eyebrows and neck shave you can’t beat it.

When the barber found out I was from Canada he told me how he loves to fish up there.  His family has been going to a small lake half way between Timmins and Sudbury for twenty five years and absolutely loves it.

Now that I think of that story it reminds me of a similar situation in 1998.  We took our son and daughter on a cruise and the first stop was the island of Sint Maarten.  Just before we went on the cruise I had been so busy with a project at work I had not had time to get my hair cut.  Checking out the prices in the ‘salon’ on the ship I found it was $25USD.  This was 1998 and I just paid $16 for a real haircut in 2025, so there was no way I was paying 25.  I decided to get my hair cut when we got off the ship.  For those that have been to Sint Maarten you will know the town of Philipsburg has streets that run parallel to the water front.  It is likely more developed by now, but back then it was three streets.  Front Street, Back Street and another one that I cannot remember.

Front Street has all the jewellery stores and fancy places to shop, eat and drink.  Back Street has a lot of souvenir type place and lesser grade jewellery stores and less fancy places to shop.  No barbershops that I could see anywhere.  So, I went back to the third street.  Looking up and down I spotted a barber pole a few blocks away.  Walking down this street was a little odd as there were no tourists and the stores were nothing like the first two streets.

Entering the barbershop I saw a single chair with no-one in it, and two local guys sitting in adjacent chairs looking like they were waiting to be served.  It was fairly dark in there and when I asked if this barbershop was open they both looked at me like I was from Mars and said something I could not understand to someone I could not see.  A few seconds later a lady came out from the back who was apparently the barber.  She had to be in her eighties, had a knife in one hand and a live chicken in the other.  I ended up paying $25 for a haircut on the ship.

Thank you for stopping by to read.

Another Cold Front

As with the cold front that swept through the area last Sunday, there was another one forecast for Wednesday late in the day.  It will be interesting to see how this ends up once the storm has made its way off the east coast, but the storm last night was one of the worst we have ever experienced.  

As we travelled East on our way here a week ago we noticed with increasing regularity the number of tornado shelter signs put out by businesses and municipalities alike.  We have never had to take shelter in one before and didn’t know if we would ever need to do so.  We typically plan our travel days to avoid any kind of bad weather, and other than staying overnight at a destination prone to tornadoes, would not likely come across the need to access a shelter.

Last night was different.  I am always amazed at how quickly cold fronts can produce heavy storms with gusty winds and lots of rain.  The forecast for yesterday was for there to be bad weather starting around six last night and lasting until eleven.  I mentioned before I use the app Windy for information on the location of high winds and bad weather.  Throughout the day yesterday I looked at the radar layer they have and nothing was showing up.  Then all of a sudden discrete cells started showing up on the radar down as far as the gulf coast.  These look almost like popcorn going off at first ahead of the cold fronts.  Within an hour the rest of the line formed and became visible as it stretched all the way north into Canada.

As it turns out the most severe outbreak looks like it was down in Arkansas, but I suspect this series of storms will be in a class of their own by the time it is done.  As I write this on Thursday morning the line is still moving east and has begun to slope back in to central Texas for possibly more storms down that way.

Last night, everyone in the campground seemed to be watching various news feeds showing the progress of the storm as it moved east and keeping an eye out for the tornado watches and warnings.  We got our first watch just before dinner and by the time dinner was done the line had progressed with a possible tornado about twenty miles from here.  Newmar has a customer package provided when you come here for service and it contains a list of all the storm shelters in town.  Top of the list is their own facility.  So it was reassuring if anything came of it we could just access the facility for shelter.

Just before eight the storm siren went off in town and we decided it best to head to the Service Center.  We arrived at the same time as another customer who decided to go, and we ended up with about fifteen other customers who made the same decision.  To say whatever went by was intense was an understatement.  I don’t know what it was but it was incredible.  From the Service Center you can see across the street to the campground and for some time the rain was so heavy you could not see the RV’s across the road.  The winds, rain and lightening did not last long after that initial fifteen minutes or so, but it continued storming and raining until about ten.

I can only imagine what it must be like to be in a home or shelter and have an actual tornado go over you.  For those that have lived through one it must be terrifying, and I can appreciate how important the shelters are.

Now that this cold front has gone through, the temperatures will go back down to near freezing for a couple of days before slowly making their way up again.

Thank you for reading.

Effingham To Nappanee, IN

This was our last leg of back to back travel for the few days we will be spending in Nappanee and we were again on the road at 0800.  The weather systems that have been coming up out of the southwest US and the Gulf of Mexico have been relentless this winter.  We have been on the West side of them but this morning we departed in the warm rain that is the precursor to some more serious weather that is expected later this coming weekend.

This last leg was to get ourselves set up for our visit to the factory and service center for Newmar.  When we bought our coach last May we identified a few items to the dealer that they remedied before we drove off the lot.  There were a few items they were not comfortable completing for some reason that still puzzles me, but as a result we decided to include a stop at the manufacturer on our return to Canada this year to have those things resolved.  There are not a lot but we have booked four days to have them taken care of.  There have been a few additional items added to the list since we took delivery, but overall, the list is small and it should not take them more than a few days to accomplish everything.

The drive was nice and quiet for a Saturday morning and we had one stop planned at a rest area in Plainfield, Indiana.  If you are driving or towing an RV I would not recommend a stop at the rest area.  The area for cars looked reasonable enough, but the back area used by larger vehicles was absolutely filthy and disgusting.  We stayed about fifteen minutes and were back on the road.  We have seen about twenty rest areas of various sizes in the different states on this trip overall and have never seen anything like this.  The only thing missing for this to be a scene out of Walking Dead would be zombies coming out of the bush.  Scratch that one.

The rest of the drive was uneventful and we arrived at the Newmar Service Centre just after 1400.  There are 62 sites available for customers who are using the facility for service, and about two thirds were occupied.  In addition, any customers who order a coach and pick it up at the factory will stay here while they undergo their orientation.  Each site is fully serviced and the area is secure.  I will do a post specifically on the service visit at some point, and am looking forward to seeing the service facility and what is in town and the surrounding area.

Service Centre upstairs lounge

Service Center bays

We are hunkered down and ready for a sharp cold front that will be bring possible heavy thunderstorms and the threat of tornado’s late Sunday and early Monday.  Later in the week there is the potential for more storms as the transition to spring ramps up the tornado and thunderstorm threat. 

Thank for stopping by to read.

Conway To Effingham, IL

The stay in Conway was really nice and peaceful and when we come back down through this part of the country we will definitely stop on either the eastbound or westbound side.  Today was a planned 300 mile leg and was going to be a bit more busy as it routed around St. Louis before ending up at our planned Harvest Host location in Effingham.

When we travelled down last November we stayed right downtown at the Draft Kings Casino and while the visit there was a great way to see the downtown touristy things it was a bit stressful getting into and out of the area.  There are three major Interstate Highways that cross in St. Louis so the logistics of getting all those roads to interconnect smoothly was a challenge.  St. Louis is the hub of the spokes connecting Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, Memphis, Tulsa and Kansas City.  For us coming up on I 44 from the West, the easiest transition was to take the main ring road (270) around clockwise to come out north of St. Louis on to I 70 to Indianapolis.  It is possible to go straight through the city on the original Interstate system but that is old infrastructure, narrower lanes and more turns, and what I did last fall so figured I would avoid that.  All in all it was not a problem on the ring road, the route was easy and you would not even realize St. Louis was there.

Mississippi River flowing quite fast

Bypass channel around this section of shallow river water

As we transitioned to Illinois the landscape was flatter than the approach to the Mississippi on the West side and we were back in to farming country.  All along this stretch of the interstate it seems like it was all farms separated by bush lots.  The road here looks like it was recently paved and is in excellent condition.  As we were driving along we had Deja-vu as we spotted a large cross in the distance.  Sure enough it is a larger version of the cross I wrote about that we passed in Groom, Texas.  Apparently the cross in Texas inspired the builders of the cross in Effingham to build a replica - only bigger.  Take that Texas.

198 Foot tall Cross and exhibits

We arrived in Effingham mid afternoon and checked in with the Harvest Host for parking.  We chose the Mid America Motorworks Museum as our stop over.  It is a car museum for Corvette and Volkswagen enthusiasts that has been set up as an adjunct to the main business of suppling parts for those vehicles.  The museum is free to the public but they do ask for donations and was quite well attended while we were there.  I think a lot of owners of these vehicles use them as a parts supplier as there was a steady stream of courier vehicles and delivery trucks picking up and dropping off parts.

Actual 1910 gas station moved on site.

Corvette heaven

A lot of the history of the corvette development program

Black Beetle

Patty practicing her elbows up

As we were approaching town I was expecting to see an increase in pig farms for some reason, but it was just cows in the pasture and crops.  It occurred to me the Chamber of Commerce could do a better job at attracting pig farmers to the area.  If Uranus, Missouri can attract a large Fudge Factory you would think Effingham would be able to attract pig farmers.  With the various government cutbacks taking place in Washington they could even approach the National Pork Producers Council to set up shop in Effingham, or have all the restaurants in town only serve pork products, using the slogans “Everyone Loves Effingham”.  Okay, I’m tired.

Thank you for stopping by to read.

Chandler To Conway, MO

The stay at the rest area in Chandler was pretty good.  The guy I met the night before commented that, as big as the parking lot was, come nightfall it would fill up completely.  Boy was he right.  We were in the back row of three rows of the outbound  side and when I awoke in the morning there were so many trucks and RV’s in there they were even parralel parked behind our rig all down the aisle.  It was quite amazing to see the procession of trucks coming and going starting about 0600.

We were on the road as usual at 0800, with today being the shortest of our legs for this portion at 270 miles.

Our only rest stop enroute was for fuel.  Oklahoma and Missouri are the cheapest locations for fuel so I planned stops in both States to keep the tank full.  With the fuel card we are still seeing our prices at $3.00 a gallon.  Once we cross in to Illinois and Indiana and points East the price will go up ten to twenty cents a gallon.  Still cheaper than Canadian prices so I will fill up for the last time before we cross the border in a few weeks.

For regular readers of the blog you may recall we stopped at a rest area for an overnight stay on November 12 last year on the way to Arizona.  This rest area we were destined to in Conway is the mirror image of that one and has an identical configuration.  It is well laid out, well lit and although there are a few rows of parking stalls for transport trucks it is not nearly as busy as the one in Chandler.  The nice thing about this rest area and the one on the westbound lane is there are dedicated RV parking lanes that are not able to be used for anyone other than RV’s.

One of the things that is very impressive about the welcome centre itself is the floor has the kind of floor used in schools and hospitals (I don’t know what it is called) that is inlaid with all the States and major cities that Route 66 goes through on its way across the country.  I tried to take some pictures to piece them together but could not find a way to get the right perspective.  Here is one example.

The drive to Conway was uneventful although the roads were rough around Tulsa, and I have noticed the main interstate routes are typically pretty good with either concrete or new asphalt.  It is the ten or so miles leading into a metropolitan area and the ten on the other side that are miserable.  The transition between asphalt to the concrete surface where there is a bridge is usually bad enough you end up anticipating the bump before you hit it.

We have been making out with good prices on fuel so far on this trip and so stopped twice in Missouri on the way through to capitalize on the cheaper fuel there.  Once you cross the border in to Illinois and beyond the prices jump about 25 to 30 cents a gallon, and taking fuel close to the border will carry me through until we cross the border back in to Canada.  I will then top off with fuel because the taxes in Canada put the fuel price up quite a bit higher.

Thank you for stopping by to read.

Amarillo To Chandler, OK

We spent almost a month in Amarillo and found it was an interesting part of the state to visit. Today we departed for Chandler, Oklahoma on the continuation of our journey.  The prep for departure usually takes a full day, but we spanned the activities over Monday and Tuesday.

We left the park at 0800 and had planned this leg to be the longest of the four legs to Nappanee at 313 miles.  We have found that a 300 mile leg gives us two rest stops on the way and a decent arrival time at the destination to wind down, while also anticipating delays for traffic and such.  Amarillo is likely planning for the future as they have built a highway system that rings the city at quite a distance from the core.  The 335 is a four lane divided highway and from what we saw the only people that are using it now are locals as we never saw any transports or ‘through traffic’ on it.  The city is not that large and I never saw any signs of rush hour slowdowns so we took the I40 straight through to the East side.

As with some of the other stops we have made, once you are on the other side of town the scenery changes.  It was quite noticeable as we left the city behind how the landscape was basically that same flat expanse, but it was now green fields of grasses the further east we went and the not a lot of indication of feed lots.  So, whatever grass fed cattle farming and general agriculture takes place there likely takes place on the East side of town.

Not long after we left we saw a large cross up ahead in the distance.  This turned out to be the Groom Cross, which is a 19 storey metal cross erected primarily as a tourist draw.  Had we known about it prior we would have made the stop.

The rest of the trip was quite easy.  Downhill all the way other than a few hills and we ended up in Chandler at 800 feet; which is more or less where we will be for the rest of the journey. The scenery had now transitioned to what you would think of as typical for the eastern part of the US - fields of whatever crop is going to go in, with deciduous trees defining the lot lines, all interspersed with bush lots of mixed deciduous and coniferous trees.

Not much further down the road we crossed over in to Oklahoma.  The rest area was clean and well laid out and we were able to get out and stretch our legs for a bit.

Our final stop for the day was in Chandler, OK.  The rest area there is a busy spot with truck parking on the inbound side of the fuel station as well as three large lanes of parking on the outbound side.  We didn’t need fuel and went through to the backside and picked a spot that we would be comfortable for the night.

Shortly after we arrived a guy pulled in next to us with a rig transporting three cars.  A brand new 2025 Chevy SUV that had been rolled, a Jeep SUV that had been stolen in California, and a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville that looked like it came out of the showroom.  This was a beautiful example of a collector car and even had the original sales sticker taped in the window.

In speaking with the driver, he was an independent owner operator that transport vehicles for a living.  He was on his way back from an auction in Glendale, Arizona to Chicago for a car collector who the driver believed also owns a parts yard.  The driver was from the middle of the state of Indiana and had trips lined up for the next few weeks transporting various vehicles.  He mentioned he is paid $4000 for the round trip to Arizona.  At 5 mpg on his truck I figure his fuel cost at $3.00 a gallon paid on a fuel card will be half that cost, which only leaves $2000 for truck maintenance and his earnings.  A tough life for sure.

He then commented his trip next week was to take two ambulances from a factory in Indiana down to Fort Lauderdale so they could be blessed by, presumably a Rabbi, before they are shipped to Israel.  His job was to take the ambulances to Fort Lauderdale, wait for the blessing to take place and then drive them up to Baltimore to be loaded on a ship for Israel.  Go figure.  You figure it would be cheaper to take the ambulances straight to Baltimore and have the blessing done there.  He said when the war started a few years ago with Israel the need for ambulances was so great they were shipping them over on aircraft.

Thank you for stopping by to read.

The Windy City

No, not a side trip to Chicago - just another day in Amarillo.

Not long after we arrived in Amarillo we went to the airport to visit the Air & Space Museum.  While there we noticed it was quite windy and the lady who checked us in mentioned it was typically like that in Amarillo.  In fact, she said Amarillo is the windiest city in the US.  This lady was one of the volunteers at the museum and looked like she knew what she was talking about.

When we got back home I checked it out and found out she was right.  Amarillo is the windiest metropolitan area in the United States.  According to Wikipedia, Chicago got the name Windy City from a rivalry with Cincinnati in the late 1870’s.  Both cities were competing to host the 1880 Republican National Convention, and the term was used by the group in Cincinnati to take a jab at the political leaders from Chicago implying they were full of hot air and empty promises.  The convention was in fact held in Chicago that year, confirming politicians are full of hot air and empty promises.  It would appear politics were a lot more civil back then, and it seems like a lot of cities could hold that title these days.

Since we have been here we have seen three low pressure systems form just north of us and become some of the worst spring storms the Midwest and Eastern seaboard have seen in while.  For readers in Canada you will have heard about the storms originating from Alberta referred to as Alberta Clippers due to their origin and speed.  You have no doubt also heard of the Colorado low.  Amarillo is only 200 miles south of the southern border of Colorado and these Colorado lows form in the southeastern portion of that state.   The area centered around Northwest Texas, Northeast New Mexico and Southeast Colorado is in an interesting location, and topography has a lot to do with this being as windy as it is.

Once the beginning of storm systems blow over the Rockies, the winds come flying down the Eastern side and hit the open plains where there are barely any trees or obstructions to slow things down.  Most days the wind is in the teens to low twenties, but when these low pressure systems form, the winds easily get up in the forties and fifties with gusts into the sixties and higher.  I think everyone that is used to the weather here believe anything less than 15 mile per hour winds is considered calm.

You may have seen the news recently about the trucks that flipped over on the interstate in Northern Texas.  That was about five miles from here.  Same with the huge pileup in Canyon, Texas.  Canyon is about ten miles from here and is the town near the entrance to the Palo Duro Canyon.  Because there are so many cattle ranches around here the amount of dust that blows up during these events brings the visibility to extremely low values and even becomes so thick it obscures the sun.

The first storm we experienced resulted in consistently very high gusts, and I am surprised there were no small RV trailers affected.   The park bolts down all picnic tables but even a few of those were damaged.  Two small trees came down and some of their wind fencing was blown down.

To prepare for these storms we brought in all our slides and retracted the stabilizing jacks.  Our coach weighs 41,000 pounds and the manufacturer recommends bringing in the slides and retracting the jacks in very high winds.  Different people have different opinions on the definition of high winds, and some keep their slides out and jacks down all the time.  The higher the wind the more the side loading when the wind is coming from the side, and you would be stressing either the jack mechanism or the attach points to the frame if all the weight was carried on the jacks in those circumstances.  If nothing else, the coach has suspension designed for loads well in excess of those experienced in strong wind so I think that is the safest course to take.

So if the wind is coming from the side consistently over 30 mph we retract the jacks and bring in the slides.  If the wind is from the front or back we don’t need to do much as the frontal area is small enough the jacks can handle it.  We are fortunate we can still move around and use the coach normally with the slides retracted, and it is only for a short period usually so better to be safe than sorry.

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Steak Date Night

In addition to some of the touristy things I have posted about Amarillo, there is another tourist attraction that is well known in the area - The Big Texan Steak House.  This steak house has a feature attraction that allows you to eat for free.  It is called the 72 ounce steak challenge.  Essentially, you get one hour to eat a 72 ounce steak, and if successful, you eat for free.  If not, you pay $72.  As big as a 72 ounce steak is, the catch is also that you have to eat all of the accompaniments - shrimp cocktail, salad, roll with butter, and a baked potato in that hour.  Now I have a big appetite and do like a good steak, but, we didn’t go to the Big Texan Steak House.

We were tempted to try it out to see what their other steaks would be like, but we have met a number of local people who recommended other locations for an authentic steak.  No-one said the Big Texan had bad food, but the recommendation was to go somewhere else if you were looking for good quality at a reasonable price.  It has been over a month since we went to a restaurant for a meal and we are in beef country so wanted to try something authentic to this area before we head out.  A number of people recommended the X Steakhouse.

This turned out to be an excellent recommendation.  Their 12 ounce rib eyes were $25, and $5 for a Texas Blonde draft beer.  What is there not to like about that.  The recommendations did not disappoint as they were cooked as we asked and tasted great.

While there we had a toast to my parents 69th wedding anniversary

As it turns out the owners of this restaurant also own a cattle ranch in a small town south west of here and have partnered with local Amarillo beef suppliers until they can get approvals to bring their own cattle to the restaurant.  In the meantime, they sell the local beef under their brand in the restaurant and also have a retail side as well.  So, we doubled our bill and walked out with five pounds of grass fed local beef for the freezer.  They package two tenderloins, two ribeyes and a New York strip.

Thank you for reading.

X - Ranch in Dimmitt, Texas

Horseradish Meat Loaf

Like a Bat Out Of Hell, we will be leaving here in a few days to start our next few legs on the way to the Newmar factory in Napannee.  Whenever we are on a road trip Pat prepares a meal plan so we can eat properly and not have to worry about finding a place to eat.  Whether it is to stop for a snack, for lunch or dinner at the end of the day, we prefer to prepare our own meals.

For this four day set we have some smoked pork loin left from a cook I did a few weeks ago and will be doing some chicken breasts on the bbq before we leave.  One of our favourites throughout the year, whether as a main protein for dinner, or as a sandwich is Meat Loaf.  This is a great recipe and one which we have not modified much.  We came across this about twenty years ago somewhere in a magazine or something but it caught my eye because of the use of horseradish.  We quite like horseradish and the coarse variety that is hot is a great addition to this recipe.

Years ago when Pat was working, one of her coworkers lived south of North Bay and owned a cattle farm.  We were invited over to tour the property, see how they ran the farm and stay for dinner.  With a cattle farm it was a fairly good guess we were going to have beef of some sort.  They served a great prime rib meal and had homemade horseradish on the side.  Without a doubt the taste of the horseradish was as hot as I have ever tasted but was a satisfying flavour.  It has the same affect as wasabi paste when eating sushi.  They said we were doing them a favour to take some as the root takes over everything once it starts.  We had tasted commercial horseradish but this was in another league.  Unfortunately I have not been able to get my hands on any fresh root since but we always search out the hottest variety for our meals when it calls for horseradish.  We also look for coarse horseradish rather than the paste or fine variety.

Horseradish Meatloaf

• 2 pounds ground beef (85% or higher lean)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs or coarse Panko
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 1/2 tablespoons coarse horseradish
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Sauce:

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon horseradish
• 2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

Light up the bbq and preheat to 250 degrees.  As it is coming up to temperature, in a large bowl, mix all Meat Loaf ingredients together well.  Although this is messy, it is easiest to do this with your hands.  Form the mixture into a 5X9 or similar loaf pan, making sure to press it down firmly into the corners.  Sprinkle a small amount of panko or bread crumbs on the top if desired to add a bit of crunch.

The sauce in my opinion is optional.  If you are planning to eat this meal in one sitting then I would recommend the sauce.  If you are planning on using some of the leftovers for sandwiches like we do, I would omit the sauce.  That is, of course, unless you like the sauce on your sandwiches.

To make the sauce, whisk together the ingredients in a fresh bowl and spoon half of the mixture on top of the Meat Loaf prior to going into the bbq.

Place Meat Loaf in the bbq and add your favourite chips to the coals.  I prefer to use hickory with this meal.  At 250 degrees I usually wait 90 minutes to lift the lid.  At that time you can add the remaining sauce and close the lid for another 30 minutes.  Regardless of using sauce or not, after a total of 2 hours pull it off the bbq and let it rest at least 15 minutes.  Enjoy.

Thank you for reading.

Painting The Town

I am sure just about every tourist that passes through this area makes a point to stop at the Cadillac Ranch.  It is a road side attraction on a frontage road next to the side of Interstate 40, that from what we have seen, is visited by a lot of people.   Every time we have gone past there are upwards of fifteen to twenty vehicles parked along the road.  In fact, if you search for that on google maps and turn on the traffic layer it always shows yellow or red because of the number of people stopped on the side of the road.  There is a truck and trailer parked inside the fence selling souvenirs and spray paint cans.  These are likely overpriced as no-one was at the trailer buying any, but everyone that was there were painting their own messages on the cars.

You can read the Wikipedia link above for a lot of history on how these cars became an attraction, but it is entirely possible the metal may have rusted away long ago because the paint is thick enough it is hard to see the underlying car.

The notion of painting stuff as a tourist attraction has caught on in Amarillo as we also came across the field that contains two large legs as some form of art exhibition.  To be honest I read the plaque and googled the legs, but am still not exactly sure what they are there to represent.  This site is not nearly as well visited as the cars, but it appears there are visitors as the roadside is equally worn where people park their cars.

We have not been, but there is a painted cowboy in town that is at the site of an old Route 66 motel, and apparently the guy who was the creator of the Cadillac Ranch also came up with about a thousand fake signs scattered throughout the city that have strange sayings and comments on them.  They must be well hidden as we have not found any yet, but if I do I will come back and edit the post to include them.

Perhaps the most interesting painted objects in town have been installed to recognize the American Quarterhorse Hall of Fame and Museum.  A number of businesses around the city have life sized statues painted to represent their brand.  There are a few at Ford dealerships, restaurants and just random horses.  It is similar to the moose they used to have throughout Toronto.

Statue Titled ‘Early Morning Disagreement’

We spent a half day at the museum and it is quite an interesting stop, particularly to outline the history of the quarterhorse as the best breed to run a race of a quarter mile.  There is no question this part of the United States has a lot of history surrounding horses for fairly obvious reasons, and the head offices for the American Quarterhorse Association are right next door.

It was worth the visit.

Entrance hall commemorating the QuarterHorse and the lineage

Look closely at the first recorded date of the first QuarterHorse

Blazing Saddles - Black Sheriff rides into town

Thanks for stopping by to read.