Thursday, April 27, 2006


We were invited for dinner at Amarillo country club which is a restaurant at the top of the one and only 'skyscraper' in Amarillo. Situated in central downtown, it boasts unrivalled views showing 360 degrees of the Panhandle plains. Flat as far as the eye can see.


Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Sally and Jim Kohler are the parents of Susan, who i work alongside at Avondale. Their hospitality was fabulous and we had a great time. Thankyou!


Sally at work on her quilt.
She has been working on this for 2 months... pretty fast work for hand stitching!!


We were let loose in the pick up to explore the ranch...typically, we had a calamity! We had a puncture, 5 miles from nowhere. No tools, no phone!
Julie got a chance to break in her cowboy boots!



Tuesday, April 25, 2006

OHHH-KLAHOMA!.....



This is a typical working ranch and cattle are reared in this way before heading off for the feed lots.



The ride was more challenging than previous ones, and we had to jump creeks, and climb steep paths.

In one of the river beds our guide pointed out this fossil which he guessed was some sort of prehistoric horse.


On the way back, our horses knew they were headed home, so we broke into a comfortable lope. This was fine, until the lope became a run and our guide got left behind. Not fully understanding the psychology of a trail horse, i tried to stop mine...which it did not like one bit. It reared up, causing me to have to do a 'rodeo roll' (hahaha). and jump off...anyway, i was unscathed and didnt even lose my hat!! It felt a bit like a 'rite of passage', but i dont wish to repeat the experience!!
Monday, April 24, 2006

Cliff took us to see for ourselves Amarillos 'raison d'etre'. He works as a 'cow doctor' on the feed lots.
If it werent for ranching and the beef industry, there would have been little incentive to populate the panhandle region. (harsh conditions, little water etc..).
In the late 1800's however, there was a rising demand for beef from the east coast so land was practically given away to pioneers who were up for the challenge.



She spent 6 months living in Amarillo and broadcast her show from the local theatre.
Apparently she didnt have much nice to say about the place, except that it had fantastic sunsets!

Despite trying to 'blend in' (!!??), we drew a litle too much attention to ourselves on this visit, only to find 'the law' on our tails..... they were suspicious that we were terrorists, or animal liberationists, or diseased!

RETRO-AMERICANA!
The commercial break at the Drive-In was one of those 'pinch yourself moments'.
When Danny sings 'Sandy' in 'Grease' the movie, remember the screen behind him with this very advert playing as he swings on the playground?....there was even a playground here just like that!
'SAVE A HORSE....ADOPT A COWBOY!'...
This is Cliff who we met on a night out. In actual fact he adopted us, and tracked us down while we were at breakfast. Being the good mannered cowboy thay he is, he wanted to make sure we saw Amarillos finest.


Cliff loaded us up in his pick-up to go to the Drive-in......I think we saw 'scarey Movie 4', but that was totally irrelevant!

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Referring to iself as 'The Arena of Life', these cowboy churches provide a place of worship without the heavy ideology of more traditional institutions.
The service was very uplifting. We were introduced to the 800 strong congregation, made to feel very welcome, and came away with our 'cowboy bibles'.




Nicole and one of the ushers.