Ron and I enjoy traveling together. You are always meeting someone interesting or seeing how differently others live.
It seems survival of the fittest rules here in West Texas. At rest spots there are warnings about rattlesnakes and insects, such as scorpions. There is so much history here, starting in the 1500's. Amazing to me as B.C. only celebrated it's 150th birthday this summer.
The old 'black gold, Texas tea' ( oil ) has waned over time with cotton fields, timber, forests, aerospace and high technology taking its place. We're still going through West Texas, which used to be a rich hunting ground for the American Indians with buffalo, wild turkeys and waterfowl in abundance. One water spring was the half point on the Comanche War Trail. It is part of the Chihuahua Desert. We're heading toward Central Texas which appeared to be a desert of grass. Dallas and Fort Worth to the north are on part of the Blackland Prairie which is a narrow corridor of grassland that made a grass highway down to the bottom south. This route was used for the famous cattle drives right up to Kansas. The top part of the state is called the Panhandle Plains as you can see by the shape on the map. It has rolling plains dotted with mesquite. 125 years ago, only the Comanche knew how to navigate these empty plains, knowing where the few waterholes were. When we went for fuel in a truck stop, we saw a cute little truck driver. we're nearly invisible surrounded by the big trucks. We're into slightly rolling hills now and the cuts in the sides of the road show total rock. Harsh land. The ocotillo cactus has given way to the prickly pears which the Texas longhorn cattle thrived on. Today was a pleasant drive, not too much wind and we're stopped overnight at the Johnson River RV Park, a friendly place with a lookout over the little creek, in an orchard of pecan and oak trees.
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