Day 11 - Amarillo TX to Colorado Springs CO

First up we paid a quick visit to a section of Route 66 at Amarillo - actually it was MEANT to have been quick but we went round in circles for a while here.  We'll blame Benson, our GPS. 

 We then had to check out the Big Texan Steak Ranch.  This place is something else.  They serve a free 72oz steak to any person who can eat a 72oz steak meal in an hour or less.  If you're up for it, you have to go up on a stage, with digital counters above you.  The crowd in the restaurant all get in there behind you and away you go.  If you can't eat the steak, you're up for a USD72 bill.

Car time again.  We had to stop to get a picture of this - our first Dodge Viper. 

This '64 'vette was  parked next door, having a Saturday morning clean.

And this Hummer was parked across the road.

We noticed as moved out of Texas, the ratio of pick-up trucks to cars has reduced significantly.  We're seeing more Japanese cars now.

Our travels today saw us leaving Texas, passing into Oklahoma, then New Mexico and finally into Colorado on our way to Colorado Springs.

We noticed this set up at Boise City, Oklahoma so we had to stop and have a play.  I think this is a Howitzer - the missile in the background is an Ajax. 

Here's another cool little town we stumbled upon - this is Clayton, New Mexico.

Clayton isn't a big place but they have some pretty serious police cars here.  I think this is a Dodge Charger.

We put in some serious miles today, travelling l-o-n-g straight roads most of it at 75 mph.  From time to time, we drove past quaint little towns, bustling with attitude.

This was an almost deserted community at Mt Dora, New Mexico.  We pulled off the interstate and had a walk around here and didn't see anyone at all.  The only movement was a rusty old windmill slowly spinning in the breeze.

Onwards through New Mexico to Capullin Volcano National Monument.   This is a relatively recent (about 60,000 years old) cinder volcano and one of the most outstanding landmarks in New Mexico.

Here's a closer view.  You can drive right to the top, which is around 7500ft.  So we did.  Once there, we walked around the crater rim and then descended down into the crater itself.  Sounds more adventurous than it actually was.  Like all National Parks in the US that we've seen, the pathways are excellent and you'd almost get away with walking in jandals!

Can you see the road cutting into the side of the volcano?
 

Here's the view from the top.  It was gorgeous up there.  Quite a number of volcanic cones were visible.  You could even see the remains of old lava flows.  Most interesting.

Here's a nice slice of rural USA.  Out the window at 75mph.  Thank goodness for fast shutter speeds.

This little town was a real surprise.  Trinidad, Colorado looked so good from the interstate, we took the next exit to check it out.  Here's the main street.

The area surrounding Trinidad is quite hilly  Here's the view of the hills from town.

Back to cars for a second - we saw this cool 6.1 litre Dodge Challenger parked outside a playground.  It's a lot like a modern version of the car used in Dukes of Hazzard.

We saw an aircraft museum sign at Pueblo, Colorado so popped into have a look.  It had been closed for a couple of hours by the time we got there but the kind folks looking after it were still there and let us have a look around.  Here are a couple of their star aircraft.  This six-engined B47 Strato Jet was parked outside with a few other aircraft.

While this spectacular B29 Super fortress was parked up in inside in one of two large hangers.

After a long drive, we finally made it to Colorado Springs, where we stayed the night at Nige's friends' house.  We had a lovely home-cooked meal and were shown some wonderful American hospitality.  We even had a personalised Kiwi message drawn on their driveway by our host's young children.

Nice eh?