Surviving NJ

I spent a little time in Texas a few years ago, and when I first went down, one of the things that I really felt was how much open space there was. I had always lived in the Northeast, so going west, I was expecting it to look mostly the same, but I was surprised just how open it was! It made me think of the song "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks as I explored. When I first got there, I had an apartment, because I had set up some stuff before I arrived. I was amazed at the difference in prices between Amarillo and my home town in Pennsylvania. The prices in Texas were half what they were in Pennsylvania! I didn’t need movers, because it was just me and what was in my pick-up truck. I was just going through a divorce, and needed to clear my head. I didn’t make all of my best choices at that time, but it was a shift that really showed me another side of the country.

In Amarillo, one of the things that I got a kick out of was all the horses, donkeys and long horns I saw. I stayed at a little place right off of Claude Highway, which was a half paved, half dirt road along the way. I had a friend Scott in the fire department and sheriff’s department that lived down the road, and he helped me get adjusted to the local areas I needed to know about. One of the neat things Scott did was fly airplanes in shows as well! He was an all around neat guy. His dad was involved in cattle feed, something totally different from the Pennsylvania world I knew about. He wasn’t actually the reason I was in Texas, but we became better friends when I lived down the road. Good guy, I hope he’s doing well.

My favorite place in Amarillo was the Lonestar. It was this little hole in the wall tavern, where the long necks were kept in a bathtub full of ice, and a roll of papertowels was thrown on your table for napkins. They had the biggest, freshest steaks that left me missing them when I found myself back in Pennsylvania a few months later.

While I was down there, I was looking at Used Motorcycles, and when I came back home to Pennsylvania, I ended up getting my motorcycle license, which I still have today! It was a time of growth for me, and that’s how I’ll always remember Amarillo. Don’t get me started on my first Tornado warning, that was a culture shock in itself!

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