Amarillo. 27th October 2025.
The weather this morning was very foggy with visibility down to about 100 yards or so, therefore we decided to have a leisurely breakfast before venturing out. We had spent yesterday evening exploring what we could do today but it appeared that everything in Amarillo and area is closed on a Sunday. Even the shopping mall doesn’t open until the afternoon and none of the museums are open at all today. A trip further afield was called for so we picked a visit to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park.
We set off after breakfast when the fog had predominantly lifted although there was drizzle in the air. It was about an hour to the park entrance down generally quiet roads, the only busy places were the churches we passed with very full car parks. The park is run by the Federal government and therefore due to the shutdown, the entrance was free. We were however encouraged to donate some money to the local food bank which many of the unpaid federal workers will be using.
I’m not sure whether the photos do justice to the canyon, which at 120 miles long and up to 20 miles wide is second only to the Grand Canyon, but the sights were indeed spectacular. In total the park covers over 27000 acres and you can drive down into it. As the fog was still lingering we decided against the drive as most of the roads are unguarded, instead we chose to stay at the top and take in the views.
Leaving the park we visited the small aptly named city of Canyon, whose claim to fame is the giant cowboy statue known as Tex Randall. I don’t think that Tex was ever a real person but merely an advertisement for a nearby clothing store. The store is now long gone but the town kept the 47 ft, seven ton concrete statue to represent the city’s cowboy heritage.
Nothing else in Canyon was open so we made our way back to Amarillo.
By this time the shops had begun to open so we visited a local mall. Although the shops were full of Halloween merchandise, Christmas is obviously near as Father Christmas‘ grotto was being prepared.
When we first visited the USA some forty years ago, going to a mall was quite a novel experience seeing stores that we had never heard of. Today we could have been in any mall in any country of the world, the same shops, the same products and the same sales. A little disappointing really.
For lunch today we picked a sports bar where I was quite distracted by the numerous TV screens showing football (American), baseball and NASCAR. At least I didn’t have to watch Forest being defeated again!
I had chicken Mac and cheese (although it was penne not macaroni) ……….
……….and Sylvia had fried shrimp.
Returning to the hotel in order to watch the Mexican Grand Prix we came across the monstrosity known as the Tesla Cybertruck in the car park. It look very big and extremely brash, but rest assured we won’t be seeing any in the U.K. in the near future as they don’t pass our safety standards.
Tomorrow we return to Lubbock.