Don't mess with Texas!

June 5, 2017

The border area between Oklahoma and Texas, time has stood still. Many houses are abandoned and dilapidated. We discover a car graveyard from the 60s and 70s. Most of the cars no longer have paint, they are only made of rust. The German representative has a small spot remaining. It used to be light blue.

A tree has escaped from the local prison in Texola. The mechanic has long since moved out of his workshop. The fuel gauge will never be full again.

Already 100 miles before, The Big Texan Steakranch in Amarillo throws out its lasso. We let ourselves be caught. Today, we won't accept the offer to consume two kilograms of beef and not pay if we can finish it in an hour. We have had a good breakfast. The restaurant is an amusement park with good food at fair prices. We choose the lunch special and are stuffed. Probably a cow is being slaughtered here every hour.

At the latest on the parking lot, we notice that we are in Texas. A fat guy has a knife and an automatic pistol strapped around his belly that fires 10 shots in five seconds. He's not a policeman or any other official. You can recognize them and they are very reserved. He's just an idiot. I can approach him within two steps. If I were the villain he wants to protect himself from, he wouldn't stand a chance. He would have a knife at his throat or something over his skull before he even gets his gun out. This is probably how gangsters or assholes who rob schools arm themselves.

After eating, we devour kilometers. We see huge herds of cattle that seem ready for transport. For a kilometer, thousands of them stand close together on ground where there's nothing left to eat.

We cross the border into New Mexico. You can tell because the speed limit is 10 km lower than in Texas. KOA campground in Tucumcari takes us in and provides us with a beautiful evening view and our daily thunderstorm.