The adventurous tale of our ascent to Browns Lake (elevation 11,260') begins at 650' above sea level and 880 miles from the idyllic alpine lake...
My personal belief is that a proper road trip/adventure should proceed with as little planning as possible; this is contingent, of course, on the consent of one's travel companions. Dan and I were in full agreement, our spouses bound by the "for better or worse" vow, and Caleb and Rachel ready to go anywhere.
Our carefully considered Transportation Plan A of traveling in one 7 passenger SUV was quickly derailed when we were able to get a good look at the 7 passengers and the accompanying luggage. Plan B - two cars, the SUV and a sporty Subaru.
Dan and I road in the Subaru for the first leg (San Antonio to Snyder) of the trip; discussing politics, religion, weather, cars and motorcycles the entire way.
Note to self - develop thoughts on "Dominionism".
Brenda, Hannah, and the kids traveled behind with good conversation and a soundtrack of good, progressive bluegrass!
Snyder to Lubbock was uneventful and as we rolled north out of Lubbock on the "eternal highway" towards Amarillo, we decided it was time to book a couple of affordable and clean rooms in Amarillo. Plan A - La Quinta West to rack up a few hotel points and a good launch into Colorado tomorrow morning.
Note - when traveling by the seat of your pants, you mustn't panic when there are glitches.
La Quinta West, totally booked. No problem, La Quinta East will suffice, Plan B.
La Quinta East, totally booked. We were approaching Canyon and didn't have a place to lay our heads. Still no panic on our part, though the occupants of the other vehicle were getting a little nervous.
Plan C, search hotels.com and every other website looking for a couple of clean rooms (the exacting standards of our wives) for under $30 a night (the tight wallets of Dan and I). The best we could come up with was a Holiday Inn Express just west of downtown Amarillo, significantly higher than our $30 budget.
Two rooms booked...and then we received the confirmation e-mail on the south side of Amarillo:
"We are so excited that you have chosen to stay at Holiday Inn Express. We hope you enjoy your time in Amarillo, Texas. See you on August 3, 2014. Check-in time 3:00pm"
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| No Country for Old Men, a great story of west Texas travels |
After scouring the northern plains of Texas, we settled on the Holiday Inn Express in beautiful Dumas, Texas. Not the most desirable spot to spend the first night of vacation and about $100 more a night than we wanted but such is life when you travel by the seat of your pants...
