The Whataburger Incident

Day Five of Spring Break 2022

Snow covered the landscape when we awoke Tuesday morning. A wet fluffy snow that accumulated several inches on the surfaces facing the wind and blowing off of others. Our cow friends said that snow was no excuse for not visiting them with a snack.

Reading a few more pages
Trever wearing the kid meal hat

We lazed around for a bit before we set out for the day. The sounds of the traffic whizzing by indicated that roads were clear but we didn’t have a set agenda for the day.

When we did strike out, we drove further west to see how the surrounding areas fared from the storm the night before. Not far past our rental was an area with several large rock formations and the snow looked like powdered sugar on the rock and surrounding countryside.

The wind really started picking up as we were driving around and the snow obscured the view not unlike the dust had done two days prior. It was really amazing to see how much of a difference in accumulation and coverage there was between areas only a few miles apart.

The sun was beaming so the snow was melting rapidly, falling off signs, traffic signals and overhead power lines in chunks and sheets. The streets were a mess, some blocked off for flooding as the snowmelt overwhelmed the drainage systems. As we tried to decide what to grab for lunch, The Whataburger Incident Occurred.

I won’t go into the details because they are not important and inconsequential to the argument that ensued. Suffice it to say that this was the blowup of the vacation with hurtful words, tears, and sulking silences by all parties. There is always one per vacation – at least in our family. But we worked through it in a wet and melty parking lot in the middle of town and then ate our now cold Whataburgers before resuming our afternoon.

We drove to the site of the old Texaco oil refinery, where Trever’s dad worked until 1985. Now a vacant lot, the site once housed a small refinery that produced around 20,000 barrels a day. When the oil giant pulled up stakes in Amarillo that year, the Bracketts moved eastward to Oklahoma.

Next, Trever had to ride around the trainyards to get some obligatory train pictures. Finally, we went to nearby Canyon to visit the sister bookstore of the Burrowing Owl we had been to in Amarillo. We learned it was actually the founding location and had even more inventory than the one we had been to previously.

It was decidedly rest time at the point so we drove back to the rental house for a break. Most of us napped and we planned to go out for Mexican food that night.

We ate at Rosa’s Cafe and Tortilla Factory; although it was a chain/quick casual restaurant (you order up front and pick up your order by the number) it was really quite good. The cheese enchiladas, tamales, fajitas, and fresh tortillas were ah-mazing! I am a sucker for a good tortilla. We would definitely eat here again if we were in the area. https://www.rosascafe.com/

A quick drive around downtown, and we went back to the house to do some preliminary packing up before we drove back out to look at the stars. We had had a nice trip overall but will all be glad to get home.

Open Sky

-Karri Temple Brackett
March 22, 2022

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