When we arrived in Amarillo on October 15th I was a blonde, when we left on October 22nd, I was … well, not blonde.

We arrived in Amarillo around 1pm and the park looked empty, but it soon filled up in the late afternoon. It was a great campground that had an indoor pool and hot tub. We settled in and I was in the hot tub to relax.

We drove downtown Amarillo and walked along the Route 66 strip. Went in and out of some stores and met a nice local potter who was working on his latest creation. We then went to see an item on Joerg’s trip bucket list, Cadillac Ranch. It is an art installation in a field off the highway where a row of cars are buried halfway in the ground. Over the years, people have added their own art to the display. While there, a man offered us his spray paint can and we added our own piece of history to the cars.

We did a couple hikes in the area. We walked at the Wildcat Nature Center which was an easy 1 hour walk but we didn’t really see any wildcats or event wildlife of any kind. That same day we also ventured into the local RV museum and it was very fun to see the old RVs and motorcycles.

We also did a hike in Palo Duro State Park along the lighthouse trail. It was about a 2 hour hike with the last 10 minutes a difficult scramble up to the top of the rocks they call the lighthouse. When we arrived, there was a Marine training group. I suspect is was a type of cadets as most were late teens.

It was now time to go to get my hair touched up. As most of you know, I am not a natural blonde but decided to give it a try this year. The challenge has been that I need to go to a different hair stylist in a different city each month to touch it up. The results have never been quite the same as they use different products and have different techniques.

This time I went in and asked to have my “roots done” which I believed to be a standard phrase to use when you want your darker roots to match the rest of your blonde hair. The first time I had it done, they bleached my roots, then added colour. The next time, the same. The third time she said she didn’t need to bleach first and in fact, it turned out ok. This time I had told the stylist that I am not sure if you need to bleach them first, you decide.

Well, she decided she didn’t need to bleach them and said she would blend in the roots with the hair. Well, as I was sitting there waiting for the dye to start lightening my hair, I suddenly realized that she was making my hair darker. She was changing the blonde to match my roots. I just laughed to myself. What was I to do? Obviously, there was miscommunication somewhere. I was thinking about going back to my natural colour soon anyway as maintaining the blonde while travelling was too difficult. I decided not to tell her that she got it wrong and ruin her day. In the end, I do like the colour. The blonde is starting to show through a little bit, so it all worked out in the end.

On Sunday we decided to go to a local gun show. We were in Texas, the heart of NRA land, and I thought we may not have this chance to experience this again. It was such a surreal experience. Walking around with all the guns, riffles and machine guns on display and for sale to anyone. I felt like such an outsider. At one booth a man was holding up his own personal machine gun and was telling the vendor that he was looking to trade it in. I didn’t touch anything, just walked around, taking it in and trying to look like I fit in, but as soon as I opened my mouth, they knew I wasn’t from there and my cover was blown.

We finished our stay in Texas with a steak dinner at The Big Texan Steakhouse.