<– Day 33 – Thu. May 14th: Leaving On a Jet Plane | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 35 – Sat. May 16th: The End of Texas –>

This was my view for much of today. The Grass covered prairies of the Texas panhandle stretch for miles and the roads are straight and fast.

Today was the first day of the Midwest Willys Reunion, so I hope every has a good time there! I do have a few books and t-shirts available through Bob Christy. If you see him and can slow him down for a minute, he’ll help you.

Today’s drive to Amarillo, Texas.

I began today knowing I’d be on the road longer for a longer span of time than I had since the early part of our trip. (Yes honey, read long lonely roads!). Fortunately, there were a few stops and surprises along the way.

Only in Texas would you find a Texas-shaped waffle maker. We saw these at several motels.

The first surprise was west of Wichita Falls. When I saw this CJ-3A, I braked immediately. I *think* it is for sale. It’s got rust. It also has some allstate front hubs.

Not much longer after I saw this 3A, a truck pulling a trailer with an M-38 whizzed past me. I couldn’t pull out my camera in time to capture that one.

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<– Day 32 – Wed. May 13th: No Raining on Murphy’s Parade | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 34 – Fri. May 15th: High Plains Drifter –>

The owner of this BBQ restaurant in Grapevine was a retired cop who had never worked in a restaurant before launching his BBQ restaurant. Last fall he had someone build a custom smoker that looks like a train. Here he is explaining how it works. Despite it being the hardest job he’s ever had, he loves running the restaurant.

Ann’s grandfather took a turn for the worse. After I watched her stress eat two bags (small bags) of M&Ms I knew it was time to send her back home for a few days. So, she arrived in Pasco Thursday evening.

After dropping Ann at the airport I left for Bowie, TX.

Prior to her departure, we attempted to accomplish one thing. We wanted to see the cowboy glockspiel in the town of Grapevine. The cowboy glockspiel is a clock tower. At certain times of the day, two automatronic cowboys appear on the tower and engage in a gunfight. I’m told one always dies, but never the same one. The death is chosen at random by a computer.

We arrived in Grapevine at 11:30am, all ready to watch the gunfight unfold. It turned out we arrived as the town was readying itself for their annual beer celebration. So, there was a great deal of hustle and some bustle all through town.

Yes, lots of hustle and bustle in town, but not evident at all in this photo of downtown.

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<– Day 31 – Tue. May 12th: A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 33 – Thu. May 14th: Leaving On a Jet Plane –>

Audi Murphy looks taller in person . . .

Today we began our trek northwestward. We got going later than planned, as usual, so I passed up my opportunity to be manscaped at the local barber, Milford’s, that Jason recommended. We really needed to get going so we could beat the rain that was heading our direction from Dallas. So, I remain longhaired.

Our first objective was Whitehouse, Texas, to locate a big hat. Along the way we passed two towns Jason mentioned during our history lesson: Sacul and Reklaw. These two adjacent towns faced the same problem when they applied for a post office. Both original names were taken. So, the town brain trusts decided to spell the names backwards. Thus, Lucas became Sacul and Walker became Reklaw.

When we finally reached Whitehouse it didn’t take long to locate the hat. It’s a big white hat that sits atop a coffee shop. It just might be the largest cowboy hat in Texas! Of course, I had to buy a drink.

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<– Day 30 – Mon. May 11th: Three-nap Kind of Day | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 32 – Wed. May 13th: No Raining on Murphy’s Parade –>

Jason Monday and I next to his M-677.

Our goal for Tuesday was to stay dry. It wasn’t easy to achieve, because it rained hard at times!

As planned, we began the day with Tacos at Titas Taco House in Humble. Once again, they were awesome. This time I got to watch them make the corn tortillas. Their dough station sat just behind their serving station. They were pretty much rolling and cooking them as they served them. You can’t get any fresher than that!

Front doors of the Texas Prison Museum.

With breakfast finished, we headed for the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville. Apparently, Huntsville is the prison city and for more than a half century hosted the prison rodeo. It was a big hit for the city economically and people from all over came to spectate. Even some stars arrived to participate. One of the more odd events was the Monday Grab. A bag of cash was strapped to the neck of a bull. The prisoner who could grab the money and hand it to an official won the money. We saw some video and it was a wild event! The rodeo ended in 1986.

Inside the museum.

Ann seemed to enjoy seeing me inside a cell.

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