Amarillo, Groom, and Wellington Texas

We left our sweet friends in Cochiti, New Mexico and stopped for a couple of nights in Santa Rosa, New Mexico on our way to Amarillo, Texas.  We stayed in this park last year so we knew what to expect.

We continued east on Rt. 40 and made it to Amarillo, Texas where we stayed for almost a week.  We're trying out some doctors in the area now that we're Texans!  We also had a chance to meet up with my cousin, Rob, and his wife Cindy again for this trip.

We got set up at the Elks lodge where we shared the huge lot with only one other RV.

We didn't stop off at Cadillac Ranch last year when we were in town so we had to make the pilgrimage this year.  What a strange attraction!

So I set up our doctor appointments for October 24th and who would guess that we would get this blowing snow storm on that day when we needed to drive between various offices.

Rob and Cindy turned us on to "swamp fries" from Lazy Gator and oh my gosh were they delicious!  Al and I went back another day just for the fries!

Gator fries smothered in Cajun Alfredo and topped with fried shrimp remoulade sauce, chives and bacon.

We stayed an extra night at the Elks lodge and waited for the snow to melt.  After leaving Amarillo, we made a little detour off our route to visit Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Ministries in Groom, Texas.  Here is a little info on this site:

What originally was going to be a large spiritual billboard, transformed into a 19-story, 2 ½ million pound, steel cross. Construction of the cross frame was completed in two shops in Pampa, Texas. It took eight months for the cross to be built, and more than 100 welders worked on it. After much prayer and planning the Cross was erected in July of 1995.

Since 1995, Cross Ministries has grown tremendously. Starting with the Cross and a small building for greeting visitors, the grounds now has over a dozen life-sized bronze sculptures that portray Jesus’ journey to the cross. There is also a replica of the Shroud of Turin, the Empty Tomb, an Abortion Memorial, a bronze sculpture of St. Michael the Archangel, and The Ten Commandments. 

Each year, 10 million people from every tongue and nation drive by the Cross in Groom, Texas. Some people stop and some keep on driving. Regardless if they come by or not, the 19-story Cross is always seen and it makes people think about Jesus Christ – even if only for a minute. The grounds at Cross Ministries are open 24/7, and we encourage everyone to come and see this incredible place.

You can't miss this huge cross visible from the freeway!

There were statues for each station of the cross.

Divine Mercy Fountain

The Last Supper

Calvary Hill

The Tomb

Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Ministries in Groom, Texas had beautiful life sized sculptures and is worth the stop if you're in that area of Texas.  

We continued on and by fate, the GPS took us through Wellington, Texas.  We were in that small town last year for the RV'ing movie premier.  Unfortunately the event was cancelled for this year because this small town really needs the traffic.

We pulled off our route slightly to drive in to the center of town to see how it looks.  Luckily we ran in to Carol, the owner of the antique store, who met last year.  He's such a friendly man. We had a nice conversation with him and talked about the effects the cancelled event has had on the town. 

Site of the movie premier last year

Next stop is Wichita Falls, Texas where we were lucky to be in town for the Sheppard Air Force base annual Air Show and saw some very cool flying acrobatics done by the Air Force Thunderbirds.