Western Vacation Recap:: Day One

West Texas

photo by Mike Galloway



Day One of our ten day vacation was all about the flat, open skies of Western Oklahoma and Texas.  We were packed and ready to go by 10:30 in the morning, and we took off with our good friends, the Reutlingers, with a goal of reaching the glamorous city of Dumas, Texas by dinnertime.  After studying a map, we picked Dumas because it was a good halfway point between Oklahoma City and Loveland, Colorado, our first vacation destination.  At noon, we stopped in Clinton, Oklahoma for a quick lunch at a delicious Italian restaurant and finished off with some to-die-for Tiramisu.  With our bellies full we continued on toward Amarillo where we were going to begin heading north. 

Our first major excitement of our 2011 family vacation occured just outside of Amarillo.  I was driving when our rear passenger side tire blew and was ripped to shreds!  Thankfully, I managed to quickly move to the shoulder of the interstate and within half and hour, we had the spare on.  The guys took our van back into the city to have it replaced while the girls took the kids on to Dumas where we checked in, changed into our swim gear, and hit the pool.  Soon the guys returned with a new tire and joined us for dinner and swimming.  I hope that our kids learned through this small setback that sometimes you have to take life's lemons and make lemonade. 

We were all in bed early on day one so we could hit the ground running the next morning.  Oh and one more highlight of the day was a stop at good old Dairy Queen for some ice cream.  Nothing says summer like a cool, creamy, sugary, ice cream cone. 

Stay tuned for Day Two!