Made it to Amarillo

Thursday, 4 June 2015
Amarillo Ranch RV Park — Amarillo, Texas
Temps: Hi 95F (35C) / Lo 65F (18C)

We re-jiggled our plans … though not in the way you might think.

Mui and I were both up around 4:30a this morning.  Don’t ask me why.  We woke up, we tossed-and-turned, and finally we decided to just get up.  Figuring we had a long day of driving ahead of us, however, we decided to take it easy, and didn’t get on the road until 8:00a.

A golden sunrise in Fairfield gets our day off to a good start.

I put the extra time to good use and took another look at our Streets & Trips routing.  Replacing the side roads we initially planned to take with highways and interstates shaved off a good chunk of miles from the distance we needed to cover today and tomorrow.  That’s what I meant when I said we re-jiggled our plans.

When we finally left the campground, we figured we would let the day unfold of its own accord and go with the flow.  Traffic, we knew, would be a big determining factor in the distance we would cover.  Wouldn’t you know it … traffic was negligible the entire way.

our view for much of the drive today.

We started off with a comfortable drive on I-45N; then turned on to US Hwy 287 … which allowed us to bypass the Dallas traffic.  Nearing Fort Worth, we jumped on I-820 to skirt around the city … again missing the city traffic.  Back on US Hwy 287, we followed it pretty much all the way to Amarillo, getting on I-40 for the last 40 miles (65 km) or so to the campground.

Dust storm as we approach Memphis, Texas — I think this is our first dust storm in the Phaeton.

The funny thing is, I had Amarillo as our stopping point for today before we ended up staying an extra night at Coach Care.  I had, in fact, cancelled our reservation at Amarillo Ranch RV Park thinking we would not make it this far today.  I was a little chagrinned to be calling back to say I needed to make another reservation … for the same night I had cancelled!  Good thing I did.  The place is packed.

The website describes the park as having spacious sites.  Well, maybe by some standards.  We’re packed in like sardines in my estimation.  But you know what?  It doesn’t matter.  We’re here for just the one night.  We have an FHU site ($33.15 w/a 15% military discount); the neighbors are quiet; and we’re in a pull-through, so the toad is still hooked up and ready to follow us when we pull out tomorrow morning.

We’re in site P2.

Final mileage tally for the day: 449 miles (718 km).  Ten hours of driving, inclusive of several stops we made along the way to give Mui a break, stretch our legs, and have lunch.  The flat terrain and mostly straight roads helped to ease the pain of such a long drive, as did the light traffic we encountered along the way.  Not even the dust storm we drove through near Memphis gave us pause.  Wouldn’t want to have driving days like this one too often, but they’re OK every once in a while.

Rest breaks to get out of the Phaeton and stretch our legs … essential to a long driving day.

Our reward for the long drive today … we have only about 250 miles (400 km) left to our destination.

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