From the weather report in Amarillo:
Blowing dust advisory until 10 pm. Southwest winds of 35 to 39 mph with higher gusts are expected across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandle. The wind will start around 11 am CDT. Sustained winds of 35 mph are expected, blowing dust could restrict visibility.
Luckily, I had a tail wind today, I felt the wind a few times when the road turned E-W for a short time, but I was heading straight north to Colorado, and did not have any problems.
In 1881, the State of Texas struck a bargain with Charles B and John V Farwell, brothers in Chicago, under which the brothers agreed to build the $3,000,000 pink granite state capitol in Austin and accept the 3,000,000 acres in payment. In 1895 the first cattle, long of leg and long of horn, rolled onto the XIT. The XIT brand was originated to thwart rustlers as it was hard to alter.
The ranch ceased operation in 1912 with the last of its land sold in 1963.
There is a lot of interesting information about this huge operation at the museum and on the website.
Providing water for 150,000 cattle on 3,000,000 acres proved challenging, especially during the first years of the operation of the XIT Ranch. The Canadian River - the only major source of water that crosses the Texas Panhandle - passed through the center of the ranch and a few springs provided some water. During rainy years, playa lakes furnished water on part of the ranch. Eventually, more than 300 wells and windmills supplied most of the water consumed by livestock as well as humans on the XIT.
I ended the day in Lamar, CO - went to the Visitors Center at the train depot - checked out a used bookstore and had lunch in a coffee shop.
Checked into the Country Acres (Passport America) Motel & RV Park. The park is very well taken care of and landscaped nicely, the sites are gravel and set up kind of strange, pull through, but more like parallel parking. The wind started to get really strong about 1/2 hour after I arrived, so I moved to a site that would be sheltered by the building.
Miles driven Wednesday.....233
Fuel prices (mid grade):
Dalhart, TX $3.639
Lamar, CO 3.669
If you want a short day tomorrow I recommend Shady Grove Campground in Seibert Colorado. Just super people. If you stop tell them hi for me.
ReplyDeleteYour moving right along and bet your happy to have missed the winds.
ReplyDeleteGood idea to get going early and take advantage of a tail wind. Tail winds seem to be hard to come by.
ReplyDelete