Day 5: Amarillo, TX - Georgetown, CO

Bad in parts.  My right ankle has seized up.  Since it was perfectly happy lugging Heavy Things through airports at the weekend, and because practically the only thing I've done since Sunday is drive, I can only conclude that it is the fault of Chrysler for failing to provide somewhere for my right foot while using cruise control.  Which has been most of the time.  If only they'd had a Mustang...  I've bought one of those tubular bandage things in the hope that this will improve things, but it could be light duties only at Battle Mountain.  And if I want some ice in my medicinal whisky tonight I'll probably have to drive to the ice machine.

Now the good bits.  Learning last night that the famous Cadillac Ranch is only a few miles out of Amarillo, I decided to go and have a shufti before starting in earnest.  This is considered by some to be an artwork.  It consists of nine junked Cadillacs of assorted vintages buried nose-down in a field.

The Cadillac Ranch

However, before heading out into the countryside to take more photos of the Caddies, I encountered this beastie:

One point twenty-one Gigawatts!

It has the licence plate BTTFCOM and is being driven to California along the old Route 66 by Terry and Oliver Holler.  Terry gave me one of their cards, which I have already lost, and said they doing a lot of fundraising for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which does Stuff to do with Parkinson's Disease.  Many thanks to Oliver for taking the photos with me in them and to both of them for being nice.  There are more pictures of bot the time machine and the Cadillac Ranch on my flickr page,which is linked somewhere on the right.

This done, I headed back towards Amarillo before turning north, back on US-287 again.  In marked contrast to previous days it felt cool, though the temperature was still in the high twenties.  Once or twice it even tried to rain, prompting me to put the roof up.  Of course at this point the sun came out again.  The terrain was much the same as yesterday for the most part - gently undulating grassland and dry river beds as there's been a bit of a drought hereabouts lately.  I must have crossed the Arkansas River at some point but don't recall it.

Anyway, another day, another state.  This time Oklahoma.  The Okies seemed to be embarrassed about this - probably something to do with the musical - and the only signs that you're no longer in Texas are:

1. A reduced speed limit, and
2. Some slightly different road signs, and
3. A worse road surface

For a while it looked as thought the sign delimiting Boise City would have to constitute proof of passgae, but then I encountered this:

Proof that I have been in Oklahoma

The part I'm crossing is the thin pointy bit sticking out to the left at the top.  It's not very far and you could quite easily fail to notice that you'd been there at all if travelling from south to north; instead thinking you'd gone straight from Texas to Colorado.

Ah, yes, Colorado.  I've not bothered to provide photographic evidence of coming here as all four regulars will have already seen loads of pics from last year.  Eastern Colorado looks the same as everywhere else I've been today, but then you pop over a rise and Lo! there is Denver with the Rockies in the background.  Getting across Denver was a sight easier than getting through Dallas and then it was up into the hills on I-70 as far as Georgetown.  Which is now getting chilly as the sun has long ago dropped behind the mountains.  I gained an extra hour today going from Central to Mountain time, but I'll have to give them all back on te way home chiz.

New states visited: Oklahoma.  Old states visited: Colorado