On the road by 10:45am, a lazy start to the day. We were only going about 4 hours down the road to Wichita Falls, Texas, so there was no need to rush. Cloudy weather as we left Paris, but no rain. By 11:30 it had cleared to bright sunshine and by 1:00 it was a cloudless sky with a warm breeze. The weather god likes us again.
We notice now that the vegetation has changed in the last couple of days. All down the eastern seaboard, the trees were in bright colors and most of what we saw were deciduous, not many evergreens. Same true from Durham to Nashville, then down the Natchez Trace which was heavily wooded but with farms evident just beyond the trees that were losing their leaves. In Mississippi, and definitely in Arkansas, the vegetation changed to mostly evergreens with lots of low scrub vegetation evident. Now, in Texas, we are into plains. Amber colored grasses, patches of trees, mostly pines. And flat terrain with a few rolling hills. So there, Social Studies 20 class is now over, go home.
Arrived at Wichita Falls in the early afternoon, checked into the motel, left our stuff and went downtown. We asked the visitor's center what we should see, and they recommended the Train Museum and the 'historic section' of town so that's where we went, guided by Hal the GPS. Got there, parked with no problem. Lots of parking. In fact, nobody on the streets, even discounting the fact that it is Veteran's Day. About 75% of businesses in the 'historic section' are closed, gone, boarded up, done. This place is a cadaver. Granted the banks were closed, but everything else was open. Looked into a couple of stores, a sleepy sales clerk was the only life. Spooky.
We walked the area for about 2 hours then, feeling like characters in some B-grade science fiction movie (Invasion of the Body Snatchers?), we scampered out of there looking for the non-historic downtown. Aided by the map we were given, and the GPS, we still couldn't find a vibrant downtown or even a mall in this ghost town. I guess they are all out on the fringes. Or maybe the aliens scooped them all up and took them to Mars. Hey, I'm serious.
Jan and I consoled ourselves with a Mexican dinner. A taco salad each, plus two margaritas and two Bud drafts. The cost - $18.75. What this town lacks in people it makes up for in great drink prices. Draft beer is $1.50 and the happy hour margarita is $1.00. You can't afford not to drink.
Random comments: The train museum was great, old steam and diesel locomotives, cabooses, dining cars, etc, all open and you can get up into the cabs. If you are nuts about trains, this place will make you drool. And, if you like horse paintings, they have them here. Or should I say painted horses. They have a bunch (herd?) of them around the streets, here are some to check out.
Amarillo tomorrow, another short trip followed by seeing the sights. Then into the mountains on the way to Santa Fe, NM.
