Day 1 Austin to Amarillo Day 2 Amarillo to Raton Day 3 Raton to Castle Rock Day 4 Castle Rock to RMNP Day 5 RMNP to Fort Collins Day 6 Fort Collins to Moab Day 7 Moab to Flagstaff Day 8 Flagstaff to VEGAS Day 9 VEGAS to Las Cruces Day 10 Home Again

Day 1 (6/30/02) - Austin, TX to Amarillo, TX

It rained buckets most of the way to North Texas, but it had stopped by the time we reached Amarillo.  Upon arriving and checking into a La Quinta, we decided to sample the local night life.  Little did we know that there wasn't any.  The first stop was Pizza Hut, where our order was botched so badly that we ended up eating free and taking another free pizza out with us.

Then came a drive through the (mostly deserted) downtown area in search of a country dance club.  Karin and Nyssa found a life-size painted horse statue and climbed on it while I nervously looked for cops and took their picture (with Karin's camera.)  Our search for Amarillo night life then took us by the bus station, where we found a homeless person and gave her the spare pizza.  I was keeping the car running and thus wasn't privy to the conversation, but the homeless person apparently engaged the girls with a lengthy diatribe about government conspiracies to steal her reproductive organs.  We then dropped by a seedy tavern on Route 66 (called "The Broken Spoke", but which bore no relation to the Austin club by the same name) before heading back to the motel.