Per usual, I am a ‘state behind’ in blogging, but taking the back roads from Taos to Archer City, TX filled our trip with unexpected delights, and even thrills. From Taos, we drove through the infamous Cimarron (which apparently doesn’t ‘open up’ for the season until May 1). In a little town called Roy, it appeared that their claim to frame was where the young Bob Wills grew up, and apparently wrote San Antonio Rose, as revealed by this mural painted on the side of a building.
To our luck, we learned that we had happened to be on La Frontera del Llano for our route, and stopped in the beautiful little town of Mosquero, in which nearly all of their buildings had incredible murals.
An artist from Tucumcari had been hired to work with high school students in the town and their legacy were these beautiful and humorous murals. South of town was a historic church on the Gallegos Ranch.
Crossing the state line into Texas, we were surprised to see on the horizon, not shining towers, but 35 miles of wind turbines instead of the oil rigs we would have expected.
35+ miles of wind turbines through a bug splashed windshield
Due to our dawdling through these scenic towns, we had a long day’s drive (over 10 hours) – but had to stop for Texas barbecue in the town of Childress – Top Notch Barbecue, with a big plate of barbecued brisket, pulled pork, baked potato salad, cole slaw, and Texas toast! This tasty delay put us about 1/2 an hour behind a thunderstorm ahead of us, and so we followed that storm, but never ran into it, nor did we run into a train that we did beat across the tracks before reaching our destination, The Spur Hotel, Archer City. Woo hoo!!! Next post – all about Archer City, where Larry McMurtry grew up.
Redwoods 2 Gulf Stream Waters 