Is this the way to Amarillo?

How would I get there from Heathrow?

[Debbie_King]

Tony Christie's classic hit is now Number One in the UK charts after being featured by Peter Kay on Comic Relief on 11th March.

Just out of interest, where exactly is Amarillo and how would I get there?

(pssst.... I can remember the song when it was originally recorded waaaaaay back in 1971)

:-)

[vkaryl]

Amarillo is a city in northwest Texas.... the word itself means "yellow" in Spanish IIRC, which tends to aptly describe the environs during most of the year....

It's actually a pretty nice place - I had some good friends there (who've now bought island property in the San Juans - talk about diametrically opposed!). If you're using I40 to go west to east, you hit Amarillo after you've gone through New Mexico (only big city in NM is Albuquerque - I have a sister there.... was nice, didn't have to get rooms in either city before the friends moved!)

Oh - getting there.... fly into DFW and take a Southwest Airlines hop up there....

[Essex_boy]

the way to Amarillo - Come to Colchester instead its much nicer.

No cowboys either.....

[iDKris]

amarillo sucks. i don't recommend going there. my grandmother lives there and we used to go all the time. if you really want to make it a trip, fly in to dfw and drive the 7+ hrs. see the tx country side ;-)

the cadillic ranch is definitely worth seeing once in your life... but only once [libertysoftware.be ].

[edited by: pmac at 6:09 pm (utc) on Mar. 21, 2005]

[vkaryl]

idkris: um.... the texas countryside isn't particularly nice between Amarillo and Dallas.... unless all the rain this winter has improved things....

[lZakl]

Plus ... All the Ex's live in Texas don't you know? BAD place to be... with all the ex's..

[photon]

If I remember correctly (I used to drive through twice a year on the way to/from college) there's a giant helium atom there, and just outside of town is the "Cadillac ranch", where several old Cadillacs are buried nose first in the ground.

Oops, iDKris beat me to it!

[iDKris]

vkaryl: yes, the drive is miserable.

i lived in tx for 25 years and never had a problem with ex's. i've lived in nyc for 10 months and i run into my ex ALL the time. met a girl out one night, turns out she's an intern for my ex (she had lived in nyc for 1 week. i've run the numbers and i should have played the lottery that night instead of going out). not going to consider hanging my hat in tennessee anytime soon though ;)

the only parts of texas worth driving through would be east texas. nothing like driving my seas of bluebonnetts

[MatthewHSE]

I've never been in Texas, but I fail to see how it could possibly be more barren than Nebraska, or the section of Wyoming highway between Rock Springs and Jackson. The Pennsylvania Turnpike at 2:00 AM is more interesting than THOSE stretches of road! ;)

The thing I found really funny when we were out in Wyoming this past summer, is that they actually close the Interstate if it snows! Make you drive back to Laramie or wherever . . . can it really snow that badly, that even the Interstates don't stay open? LOL

[Sanenet]

Ever hear the takeoff of that song "The way to Aberthanwy"? :)

Did you spot Ronnie take that tumble in the video? Classic!

[vkaryl]

MatthewHSE: oh yes, it CAN snow that badly.... This winter (NOT mind you in Wyoming!) there was a 10 car pile-up between Central and St George (about 27 miles distance) because it was snowing so hard and blowing so hard, and the road was so icy because the plow drivers couldn't see to drive up the road to plow it....

It's worse many many times in Wyoming and Montana - ask anyone who's ever spent a winter in Billings, f'rinstance....

[grandpa]

The only dust storm I've ever experienced was near Amarillo. What a miserable walk that was!

[vkaryl]

[[....wait for it....]]

Okay. I'll bite. Grandpa, WHY were you walking in a duststorm in northwest Texas?

[grandpa]

Well, I was there. Decided to leave my room and stroll into town - just a mile or two - and on the way back the storm hit.
I could see it approaching, and I hurried (couldn't find a horse), but still got caught in it.

Come to think of it, my only trip to Heathrow wasn't all that much better.

[swoop]

Amarillo is on the old Route 66, a famous US highway that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles. Amarillo is also in a very flat part of Texas.

Therefore, the millions of Americans who drove Route 66 came to assume that all of Texas was flat and featureless. (It isn't.)

[vkaryl]

Very true, swoop. Only the Llano Estacado is really like that.... southeast Texas is green and rolling hills covered in spring with bluebonnets and hundreds of other colorful wildflowers; there's the Piney Woods country outside of Houston north and west that's while not "mountainous" at least forested and "higher" and where whitetail thrive; there's the beaches of Galveston....

Much of Texas is glorious. Of course, in the more humid, generally wetter parts of the country you also have cottonmouths and monstrous mosquitos, not to mention roaches which will carry you off.... but those are just minor quibbles, ain't?

Fredricksburg.... anyone who wants a true fun experience outside of the cities, this town is it.... unless of course Mickey Gilley is your idea of a good time.... or Donny Gay *sigh*....