We made it home pretty quickly; total travel time was only 17.5 hours from door to door. Sure feels good to be home! (and our home in Austin doesn't suck!)
On the way to Amarillo, we witnessed an amazing sunset across the snow-covered New Mexican plains we wanted to share with you. Lynne captured this amazing shot with her new Nikon D5000. This sunset seemed to last forever; it felt like we were north of the arctic circle, lost somewhere in Siberia.
Then this morning, we struck out early from the land of the free-if-you-can-eat-the-whole-thing 72 oz. steak, and headed east into the aftermath of a major snow and ice storm, the storm which caused President Obama to declare Oklahoma a Disaster Zone. In some towns there was 2-4 ft of snow piled up after a day of melting. But then we hit the snow-ice line. It looked like a war zone, with fallen trees everywhere you looked, and literally everything covered in ice. At a McDonald's we saw10" icicles hanging from the few remaining branches of the trees. 10" !!!
Then we came across an old antique store (I know, that's redundant) and we just had to stop and capture the scene on the Nikon. The devastation we saw contrasted with the whimsical pieces they had in front of the old red building to make some very interesting photo's:
Now we know why there are no large trees in the part of the world. They get an ice storm like this every 10-20 years, and they all get destroyed. The circle of life for a tree in the Texas Panhandle.
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Well, ..... "That's All Folks!" This trip was life changing and eye opening. Writing the blog was really fun and I hope you enjoyed it!
Talk to you soon, I hope! Stay well, happy, and enjoy this great big wonderful world we live in!
--Karl
