Through Texas

We traveled across Texas’s top hat and into Oklahoma today. There were some surprises.

As crossed from New Mexico into Texas, I was reminded of something an old friend from Texas was fond of telling me. He took great pride in telling me that Texas was so big that I wouldn’t be much closer to Galveston when I crossed the line than I would be from anywhere else in the US. And, you know, I didn’t feel any closer to Galveston than when I was in Rapid City.

Also as we went deeper into Texas the mountains started to recede. Somewhere outside Amarillo, we could no longer see them. In their place was a very flat grazing land. Even flatter than what we saw in South Dakota. It turned out, however, that the mountains weren't far away. Where ever we saw erosion or a river cutting through the land, we saw the red boulder and gray, porous granite--the stuff of the mountains behind us.

We were, again, in Big Sky Country. The sky was abruptly cut off by the flat, straight horizon. A remarkable effect. Every once in a while the road followed some gently rolling hills but, largely, it was flat.

This is richer looking grazing country than we saw in Wyoming. Also a lot of hay and there was even a cutting in progress. All we saw were big bales and stored in the field in roofed shelters. We saw sorghum fields in addition to the hay. Also unlike Wyoming, there were a lot of cattle in the fields.

We were surprised at the size of one of the beef processing operations. Without trying to count, it looked like there were thousands of cattle in a feedlot situation--many trucks, workers and feeder systems. . I’ve never seen anything on this scale.

Sometime after passing through Amarillo, we noticed a cross in the distance. Didn’t do much more than note it at the time. It was our second surprise. As time when on we realized that this cross was a ways off and, therefore, big. Finally a sign announcing “Cross” at Exit 115. We had to see this. We pulled off and there was more than just a nineteen story cross. A circle of concrete on which statues of the Stations of the Cross were situation surrounded it. Each with an explanatory plaque, a metal cast statue of a supporting character and of Jesus carrying a wooden cross. Between the first and last stations a walkway lead to a staircase leading up to a presentation of the crucifixion. Yet a larger circle was devoted to presenting the Ten Commandments and a display in memory of those who have died due to abortion. Even further out is a large, well-equipped gift shop and impressively large fountain. The structure is still unfinished. This was remarkable and very moving. If you’re interested in more information, visit the following links: http://crossministries.net/ and http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php3?tip_AttractionNo==1912.
If you ever have the opportunity, I recommend visiting this site near Groom, Texas.

We stepped through all of the stations reading the plaques and then ended with a time at the crucifixion display. After visiting the gift shop we sat for a while at the fountain. This was deeply moving.

We’ll be spending the night at Elk City, Oklahoma.