Home At Last

We left Amarillo, Texas on Tuesday March 31, heading East on I-40. 6 days and 1530 miles (2,400 KM) later, we pulled into Harrisonburg/Shenandoah Valley KOA in Broadway, VA.

The last leg of the trip from Salem to Broadway, Virginia was a short one (130 miles/210 KM). We decided to grab breakfast rather than fix something. The Omelet Shoppe sounded pretty good so that is where we headed. The restaurant looks like a converted Waffle House. Food was OK but nothing to write home about.

If we were just taking the car, parking would not be a problem. Parking a 38 foot motor home is a bit more challenging especially when pulling a small trailer. We found a spot in the Exxon gas station next door. (That is Cody, our Golden Retriever, up on the dash board. That’s his guard spot.)

I-81 traffic was pretty heavy this morning. It was moving but sometimes at a slow pace.

For our last segment of the trip, we, turned off I-81 and are now on Route 608 (Mauzy-Athlone Rd). After about 4 miles (6.4 KM) of a winding two lane road, passing a few dairy farms and a turkey farm, we arrived at the entrance to our new home.

After exchanging greetings and filling our motor home’s propane tank, we backed into our site and started getting our site set up.

We made good time on our 1530 miles (2,400KM) trip. Yes, we endured a couple of big storms along the way and one obstacle on the highway in Memphis, but overall, we had a good trip. It is not unusual to see an RVer broken down on the highway or worse, an RVer involved in an accident. On this trip, we saw neither. We enjoyed the company of good friends in Bluff City, Tennessee and had great food in several places especially Blues City Cafe in Memphis.

It was sad leaving our friends behind in Amarillo, Texas but it is good to have a chance to meet new friends in our new location. We have a fantastic site and look forward to many campfires. Tomorrow I will post more photos of our campground.

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come see us now.

Wheels Are Rolling

Last Tuesday (3/31), Carol and I said “See ya later” to our friends and co-workers at Amarillo Ranch RV. We enjoyed our time there and made some new life long friends. If you are in the Amarillo area and need an overnight stop for your RV, be sure to stop by Amarillo Ranch RV. They have easy access to I-40 and friendly staff.

Our new destination is 1500+ miles to the east in Virginia.

Our first day took us to Oklahoma City about 259 miles away. We stayed at Roadrunner RV Park a little south of I-40. This is an older RV park which means the RV sites were close together and the roads in the park where tight and narrow. Our site was so low in the front that when we leveled the RV, our front tires where off the ground. For a one night stand, that is OK even though it is not desirable. The clerk on duty did not know anything about the coming storm. He did say if the wind got bad, we could go to the restrooms (no pets allowed). If the tornado siren sounded, we could go to the underground shelter (no pets allowed).

After we got set up, we ate left-over Italian from Sunday afternoon late lunch. We watched the local weather report and paid attention to the weather on my phone. We knew the weather was going  to get rough over night but did not know the timeline for that. We went bed figuring we would just ride out the storm as we had done many times before. About 11:45 we felt the wind rocking our RV and heard the pounding rain on the RV. Carol was already up. The rocking woke me up. Obviously we were a little concerned because we had not experienced weather this rough in a while. A few days prior to our arrival in Oklahoma City, a small tornado touched down about 9 miles south of where we were staying. Oklahoma City area is prone to tornadoes in the Spring so we were being cautious.

I captured an image from my weather AP on my phone at 12:15AM. We are the blue dot. To the right of the blue dot, you can see the dark red center of the storm cell. This was the source of the heavy wind and torrential rain we endured. We did not hear of any major damage in the park or our area. I think we dodged a bullet.

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Carol and I are strong believers in the power of prayer. In the Bible, there are a couple of passages where Jesus commanded a storm to stop. (Matthew 8:23:27 and Mark 4:35-41). Every time we encounter a major storm such as what this was, our prayers are for God to quieten the storm or move it away. Then we always ask for God to protect us. Then we follow our hearts. Col 3:15 says: Let the peace that Christ gives control your thinking, because you were all called together in one body to have peace. Always be thankful. Our hearts were saying to stay put, so we did.

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The RV shook like crazy and the rain and hail pelted us pretty hard. By 12:30, the storm had passed and we went to bed. In the morning, the sun was shinning and we found no damage to the RV or our car. God had once again heard our prayers. He protected us from the storm.

Wednesday morning we went to IHOP for breakfast and drove to our net stop. To be continued…

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.

Photography 101 – Day Eighteen: Edge & Alignment

Today’s assignment is to show an edge — a straight line, a narrow ridge, a precipice. A narrow ridge is a long, narrow, elevated strip of land or any raised strip or band. A precipice is a very steep rock face or cliff, typically a tall one. And an edge can be a transition from one surface to another – i.e., a shore line, or a cloud bank, or the horizon.

This was my first choice for the assignment. I did not like the clutter of highway signs at the bottom of the image. I did not want to just crop the bottom off and I am not adept at photo editing the ‘junk’ out of the photo. That is for another day. The photo would have been titled –  “The Edge Of Night”.

The Edge of Night

Second choice for this assignment was a Southerly view from Interstate 40 about 5 miles West of Amarillo, Texas. The horizon in the Texas Panhandle is pretty flat, thus creating an edge. The cars seen in the photo is an iconic landmark on I-40 better known as the Cadillac Ranch. Click that link to read an earlier post that tells more about that.

Cadillac Ranch
Amarillo, Texas

Searching for a more unique POV on the assignment, I walked to the South side of the 4th car from the right. Do you see that small splash of fuchsia in the following photo? There is a purple circle around it.

Let’s get closer. Do you see it yet?

That splash of fuchsia points to the object that is my focus for our assignment: Edge and Alignment. I just about had to stand on my head to get this shot to work. The sunshine was great but I stood behind my right shoulder. After a little creative staging and minor cropping, I am happy with the results. I present The Edge of Paint.

The Edge of Paint

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.

 

Photography 101 – Day Twelve: Architecture & Monochrome

Art Deco architecture appeared in Amarillo in the 1930’s. The Sante Fe Building, one of the oldest buildings in Amarillo, was completed in 1930 at a cost of $1.5 million. During the excavation for the basement of the building in 1928, the remains of an American Mammoth were discovered and moved to The Panhandle Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, just south of Amarillo.

I chose monochrome for the upward POV and darkened the contrast a bit to highlight the details of the window design on the 2nd floor.

The Potter County Court House, also an Art Deco styled building, was completed in 1932 at a cost of $315,000. It exhibits step massing from its entrance pavilion to the top of the central tower.

The Paramount Theater was also completed in 1032 and showed first run movies until the mid 1970’s when multi-screen theaters became popular. It was gutted and converted to office space. Today it is home to Rain Premier Sushi Bar Lounge.

While the interior has changed with the times, the exterior remains as well-preserved example to Art Deco architectural design from the 1930’s.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.

Weekend Two: Play with Light

The weekend project, in Photograph 101, asks us to take a series of photos at multiple times during the day to see how light affects this particular shot or point of view.

In the first series, I was facing North. For the second series, I was facing West. For the last series, I was facing South. All photos are taken with my iPhone and no editing was applied to any photo. This old truck is located on the east side of the campground office so it is in the shade when the sun sets.

7:30AM North

8:15AM North

12 Noon North

4:30PM North Best of this view.

7:15PM North

7:30AM West

8:15AM West Best of this view.

12 Noon West

4:30PM West

7:15PM West

7:30AM South

8:15AM South Best of this view

12 Noon South

4:30PM South

7:15PM South

4:30PM facing North, 12 Noon facing West, and 8:15AM facing South are my favorites.

What do you think? Which ones do you like and why?

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.