At first glance, the drive through TX once you leave Dallas is pretty unremarkable, be it day or night. The arid landscape stretches off in every direction as far as the eye can see, and you wonder how the parched terrain can sustain *any* living thing. And yet it can, as evidenced by the small herds of cattle grazing behind the fenced-off fields, feeding on (this blogger guesses) an abundance of dry weeds and grasses. The only other signs of life on the land are the smaller sized oil pumps keeping a steady, silent rhythm here there and everywhere, reminding the traveler of Texas' rich history of oil and prosperity.
When the land is as flat as it is here and the horizon goes on forever, it's no wonder that the sunset lasted a good 45 minutes. When the sun started sinking, the clear skies gave off its obligatory soft hues of blues, deep reds, oranges and yellows. You'd think the sun would go down faster, but after about 30 minutes of watching the darkness struggle to take over, you wonder if it'll ever be night, as the sun fiercely clings to the horizon. What I found particularly striking were the silhouettes of the cattle and oil pumps, black against the dark orange backdrop Finally the day succumbs to the night as stars blanket the black sky in a display of twinkles that only a sky as big as Texas can deliver. What the landscape of Texas lacks on this stretch of road, the skies make up for in spades.
So begun the long drive north on 287 en route to Amarillo. Judging by the time of day, to keep driving straight through to Amarillo would not be wise, as we'd arrive there and find nowhere to park. The idea was to stop someplace soon (as it was already 7pmish), have a good dinner and a good sleep, and continue on to Amarillo in the morning for a shower, breakfast, and then to Denver.
This plan was easier said than done, as town after town; Vernon, Chillicothe, and Quanan, to name a few, offered no respite for the trucker looking to park. What WAS abundant were motels and hotels, as well as the stand-alone porn video stores every town or so. The gas stations there do not cater to the trucker as we were forced to press on into the night, hoping for better fortune in Childress, TX. And fortune was ours.
Before approaching Childress, we saw a sign that indicated truck parking at a McDonalds...and that was good enough for the likes of us (we did pass by a few restaurants that we figure we could walk to after parking). We hoofed it a couple of blocks south in the bracing wind, and decided on a steakhouse called K-Bobs, which looked fairly busy, always a good sign that the food can't be all that bad.
K-Bobs is an unpretentuous family eatery with a salad bar that sits in a chuckwagon in the middle of the restaurant. Undaunted by the simple surroundings, we were seated, ordered a couple of Sprites and looked over the menu. Boasting some pretty good steaks, some fried shrimp selections, grilled chicken and bugers, we decided to go with the kabobs, the very dish that gave K-Bob its name (as I had that "aha!" moment and moved on). The meal was described as a succulent kabob with tender cuts of top sirloin steak, tomatoes, red onions and bell peppers served over a bed of rice, complete with Texas Toast (duh!) and a side (went with the baked potato), which is exactly what we got. The meat was done to perfection (medium rare is the ONLY way to eat steak), and very flavorful. With a pricetag around $12, it was a very nice meal, and totally worth the money. I'd reccomend K-Bobs in Childress, Texas.
After dinner, we walked back to the truck with full bellies, ready for a good sleep. We ended up moving the truck to the Shell station across the street that offered truck parking for about 15 trucks, mostly because its bathroom facilities were open all night.
And so we went to sleep in Childress, a surprising oasis in an otherwise dry, barren land.
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