Dallas and the Leg Home
The Dallas contest has been held for over 50 years and used to be up there with the Nats in stature. I last attended in about 1971, when I flew combat and went to SMU to watch girls. Lots of dignitaries were there this year—Al Rabe, Bob Gieseke, the current National Stunt Champ, plus others I have known for a heck of a long time. It was hot, and there was plenty of good food, more than my share of which I ate. I did fly a little stunt, but not well enough to receive a prize. Richard Oliver prevailed, followed by the Brothers Moon.
I figured that I could go on almost a straight line to Seattle if I forewent Interstate highways for four segments. This partially worked. I spent several pleasant hours on US 287 toward Amarillo, which was fast and good. It even had rest areas, although most were “picnic areas” with half a dozen benches each, but no restrooms. This, I think, is a requirements problem. I don’t know about Texans, but the frequency I need to take a picnic is much less than that for other operations less supported by US 287. I stopped at a Dairy Queen for one of the latter and the requisite cone and found a bullet on the sidewalk. I thought that was quite Texan. All Texans pack heat. This was just a .22, so it must have been a kid’s. Texans feel good about the shape of their state, and it is on display everywhere. I include photographs of two examples: a giant one at the Texarkana Welcome Center, which impressed me as being what Texas looks like from the bottom, and a Texiform waffle maker at the Amarillo Comfort Inn breakfast room.
A New Mexico back-roads shortcut was reasonably scenic and pretty fast. I got on I-25 and went through Raton, which I’d heard about in a song, and which didn’t look too prosperous. I intended to take I-25 north to Colorado Springs, then take a shortcut to I-70, but a thunderstorm loomed ahead, so I took US 50 west from Pueblo instead. This was a mistake. It is a very windy (long i) road with lots of traffic. It would have been scenic for a passenger, but required full driver attention. It got above 10,000 feet. That caused the Prius to wheeze, although it didn’t slow down much. This route went past a lot of recreation areas, the recreation being more for Cabela’s customers than REI customers. I hoped to make it to Carl Shoup’s town by nightfall, but fell short. I got to Grand Junction the next day, spent over $2 for 16 oz. of coffee I could see the bottom of, and got on I-70. I’ll stick to Interstates. They are no less scenic than any back road I traveled on this trip. I passed through Yakima again and called Dan Rutherford to get his permission to buy peaches. Dan is a fruit snob and disapproves of peaches picked before Halloween. I took a load of peaches home and got to work on a contest our club was putting on the next weekend that I had neglected. It came off satisfactorily except for the stunt placings.
Topic: Another Contest Trip (Read 2340 times)