Trip 3 – Panhandle – Day 5 – 16 March

Off to an early start from Vernon, seat of Wilbarger county.  Here’s the day 5 itinerary, including back to Wimberley:

Vernon to Wimberley
074 – Wilbarger County – Vernon

From Vernon, southwest to Crowell, through very agricultural lands, with a Cowboy Church out in the fields along the way.

Self-portrait in ag lands

All along the highways in this part of the country are tufts of cotton, sometime so extensive as to look like banks of snow.  I guess they either blow off the cotton plants during harvesting, or blow off the trucks while they are being taken to the gin.

The landscape suddenly changed, with actual rows of trees putting in an appearance.

Through the little settlement of Thalia

and then in to the little town of Crowell.

Home in Crowell
075 – Foard County – Crowell

Crowell turned out to be a very scenic little burg:

Crowell – a seating alcove for senior citizens (probably the ONLY citizens around)
Crowell prides itself on being the wild hog capital of the world. It may well be, I saw a GIANT one on the roadside as a casualty
Garage in Crowell
Fruit of a VERY orderly mind!
Crowell, fire truck of yesteryear
Courthouse and square, Crowell, Texas

On to Paducah, seat of Cottle County

076 – Cottle County – Paducah
Remains of the Cottle Hotel, Paducah
When you head out of town from Paducah, you get rural in a hurry…
Jimmy’s Automotive seemingly not doing much business these days, though there is a Thunderbird logo on the garage door…

Continuing due west from Paducah to the town of Matador.  I had been hoping that now that I was in the southern part of the Panhandle, the winds would give me a break.  No such luck, but I did get another chance to let the landscape tell the usually invisible story of the winds.  Leaving Paducah, the winds were just entering from the west:

And a few hundred yards farther on…

While the dust was intermittent, the wind was constant throughout the entire Panhandle trip.

On to the forlorn little town of Matador, seat of Motley county.  (No, this is not where the Motley Crue are based…)

077 – Motley County – Matador
Matador town square and courthouse
The bank in Matador
Remains of the Matador grocery store…
A mural in Matador, which was apparently named for the Matador Ranch portrayed on the mural, established in 1882, and still comprising 130,000 acres today, and is apparently owned by the famous Koch brothers…  Ouch!

And on to the last stop on this Panhandle trip, Floydada, seat of Floyd county.

Entry to Floydada
078 – Floyd County – Floydada

Floydada is pretty quiet:

Not the Hotel California…

And from Floydada, an 8 hour drive to the southeast.  Along the way, scenes of cotton country

…the little town of Ralls

including the Ralls Community Tornado Shelter

And down off the escarpment…

And after hours of riding, I came into the lovely Hill Country town of Fredericksburg, where the mountain laurel was blooming and the air was redolent of that honeysuckle-like smell.  It was a fine welcome back to central Texas, and I was given a very fine sunset on the Henly road 15 minutes from home.

This was a grueling but wonderful trip.  The Panhandle of Texas was more beautiful, interesting, and thought-provoking than I had imagined before this trip.  While there are pockets of prosperity, it is no easy place from which to make a living, and a place where dreams turn, literally, into dust.  I’m glad I came here…

Next trip, Trip 4, is likely to be the Buddy Holly and Flatlanders country from Lubbock south to San Angelo and Medina, again mostly new territory for me.  Looking forward to it.  Had the BMW oil changed after the Panhandle trip, so just waiting for a weather window…

One Reply to “Trip 3 – Panhandle – Day 5 – 16 March”

  1. Another great photo of that spindly tree waiting out the oncoming dust storm. Seems representative of a resignation to a hard, bleak life which a lot of these towns seemed to embody.

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