Ah… so tired after unproductive day! Not the most exciting day but some interesting notes on what I did see. First, for those of us who choose to travel with your pets… remember to take the least possible amount of stuff into hotel especially if you are the one person who will be carrying all that stuff back out! Morning started off with a drizzling rain and humidity which was the not the most pleasant way to start off. After leaving Round Rock, we made our way to Comanche, TX – not sure what I expected. Taking hwy 183 west, we made our way through Lampasas, Goldthwaite, then came into the “big” city of Comanche. Typical small town look but with a little bit of nostalgia. Comanche was named after the Indian tribe of the same name but the most notorious claim for Comanche is this was the place that the bank robber, Sam Bass was killed. Bass was responsible for the single largest robbery of the Union Pacific Railroad ever and he is also buried here in Comanche.
After Comanche we headed west on Hwy 36 towards Abilene, passing thru the small towns of Rising Star and Cross Plains. Abilene to me still has this 1950s look and feel to it and was very easy to get around in. We stopped at a local Dairy Queen for lunch – thankfully most small Texas towns have a Dairy Queen!
After Abilene, we started into what is considered West Texas Cotton Country and the hub of the Texas cotton industry. A huge portion lot of the world cotton is produced in Texas and in 2006 Cargill brokered the single largest cotton sale in history to China. The crop of 2005/06 was the largest crop in Texas since the 1940s, with most farmers producing 2-3 bales per acre instead of the usual 1 bale per acre. Cotton has long been considered a “cash” crop since back to the colonization of America and will continue to be a major player on the world market. For more info on the cotton industry and some interesting facts about the US and Brazil’s long feud on the world market of cotton then check out this link… http://www.commodityonline.com/news/US-cotton-subsidy-angers-Brazil-26416-3-1.html
After Abilene, headed thru Sweetwater (another huge player in West Texas cotton), something very interesting sprang up in Roscoe, TX and continued to be seen through out my drive to the New Mexico border…. wind power! It was the oddest thing to see these enormous skyscraper windmills but not the ones that you think of but instead tall white industrial looking alien-like windmills. They were everywhere!! Apparently what I saw is a very small part of the largest wind farm in the world… check out this article for more info – amazing… who knew?! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Wind_Farm
After Roscoe came Synder and Post – both huge players in the cotton industry. Finally we arrived in Lubbock, TX!! It was late and dark, rainy for most of the day and still raining slightly. Lubbock reminded me of the last outpost of human civilization – my apologies to anyone who lives there but for such a huge player in the cotton industry it was not what I was expecting at all.
We checked into our hotel late and even though Lucy had slept the entire drive she jumped up on one of the double beds and went right to sleep. Here are a few random photos of our journey on Day 2.
A Southern Girl's View with Sandy Adams 
You must be logged in to post a comment.