Donna and Gary's RV Adventures: Windy City

We left Amarillo Sunday morning, heading south on I 27, heading for more of the vast high plains of west Texas. We could call I 27 one of the country's backroads if the amount of traffic was the criteria, since there was very little of it, but our destination, Lubbock, is a city of 230,000 people, plus or minus, and that is definitely not a byway! There's not much to see along this route,

and the road is just about as straight as can be, so along with the 75 mph speed limit (actual closer to 85). we got through the 131 miles in short order. We're staying a few days at the Camelot Village RV Park on 34th Street, off the 289 Loop. Texas has adopted a road system that fronts freeways with parallel highways. The frontage roads are one-way and multi-lane, so vehicles are constantly zigging and zagging, merging on and off the freeway. Kinda interesting when you drive a 50,000 lb motorhome off the freeway and immediately need to drift across 4 lanes of traffic to make a right turn! In any case, we made it with only minor tire scuffing, and set up camp in site 78. The park is completely paved, with concrete pads for every site. Most of the park is occupied by long-term residents, but everything is spotlessly clean and neat. Nice place! And the price is right, too!

We didn't have to check in (the office was closed), so we set about taking the non-op washing machine in the motorhome apart. Fortunately, most major components are accessible from the front of the machine, behind a removable panel, so with the help of the tech manual (thank you internet), we started checking parts. One part showed defective, but I don't know enough about these machines to know if it is the problem. In any case, on Monday morning, I found an appliance store nearby and ordered a new part. Should be in by Wednesday, so we'll see how it all shakes out then!

Today, Tuesday, after spending most of Monday doing laundry in the laundry room in the park and washing the car and motorhome, we decided to have a little fun. Considering that Lubbock is directly in the path of a river of wind coming in off the Gulf of Mexico, our first stop was the American Wind Power Center. This museum of wind power celebrates the history of wind powered machines, and contains a huge collection of antique and one-of-a-kind wind machines.

This Zenith wind powered generator from the 1930's was primarily used to power small electric appliances such as radios.

During World War II, GI's in the Pacific rigged wind machines built out of scrap material to makeshift washing machines so they could have clean clothes once in awhile. Pretty ingenious, these Americans!

There are hundreds of wind machines housed in the main building, including this "vane-less" machine.

Considering the constant wind in Texas, and the likely chance of a tornado, we were interested to find this tornado damaged wind machine. This was an "Eclipse" style windmill that had side vanes to help govern the speed of the machine. The vanes were attached to steel pipes that extended parallel to the wheel. After ripping away the complete wheel, tail, brake, and tower, the circular motion of the winds wrapped one of the steel pipe arms four times around the hub!

Perhaps that's why the signature T-shirt in the museum is:

Outside, dozens of windmills are on display, many of them circling in the afternoon breeze (ok, wind).

This Flowered Hundred Post Mill is perhaps the most unusual in the museum's collection. In 1619, the Governor of Virginia, Sir Yeardley, established a private settlement, of "hundred" on the James River. By 1621, Yardley had built the first wind driven grist mill in North America. In 1977, Mr. and Mrs. Haarrison, owners of the Flowerdew Hundred, commissioned an English millwright, Derek Ogden, to build a replica. This "post mill", so called because all the machinery sits atop a huge post, allowing it to turned into the wind, has now been moved to this museum, and is a working grist mill. The small wheel in the rear is a nod to an improvement to this type of windmill that was introduced in 1746, and kept the windmill automatically turned into the wind. Obviously not an original part.

Our second stop of the day was the National Ranching Heritage Center on the campus of Texas Tech. Tech has a student body of 35,000 students and covers hundred of acres north of downtown. Constant expansion of the campus is the norm, and event though the University was established 50-odd years ago, there are still huge tracts of land still available. This is a huge university!

In any case, the museum is dedicated to the preservation of the history of the high plains. Huge donations by the 6666 Ranch (called Four Sixes around here), The Mallet Ranch, and the Pitchfork ranch has given us a glimpse of how rough life was back in the day.

This 1780's era fortified home is the earliest on display in the 17 acre outdoor park. Called "Los Corralitos", it is made from cut sandstone, mud and mortar, and has small gunport in the walls.

From the Matador Ranch, this half-dugout was cut into a bank with the door facing southeast to catch cooling breezes. Ranchers and their families moved to better housing as soon as possible to avoid the snakes and critters that liked to share the dugout with them.

This Box-and-Strip (or Board and Batt) home from about 1903 became popular when railroads began delivering scarce wood building material to the southwest. The walls were only as thick as the vertical boards, with no insulation, and when the wind blew, the walls actually moved. I know because that's the kind of house I grew up in!

In 1879, when this bunkhouse was built, cowboys slept wherever they were. Ofttimes these widely scattered bunkhouses would stand empty for months, but when needed, they provided shelter. It's said that the first fire of the season in the fireplace was exciting because all the snakes who had been hiding during the summer came out....!

This "Fort Worth Spudder" was used to find oil in the '30's. Brute force and awkwardness were the trademarks of the machine, because a series of belts attached to a power source raised and dropped a bit to drill a hole up to 6,000 feet deep. Bang, bang!

A huge exhibit of branding irons is in one of the barns. Hundreds of irons are on display, along with stories about them and their owners. This King Ranch "Running W" is one of the most famous.

Inside the main museum, a side room told us the story of the Western Bandanna. Turkey Red is the name given to cloth dyed with materials originally from the country of Turkey. A yard of this material was used as a dust mask, sunburn protection, washcloth, and sweatband.

This "Hat-in-the-Ring" bandanna promoted Teddy Roosevelt's presidential ambitions in 1912.

The Code of the West sculpture represents common sense values of working for what you get, helping neighbors, taking care of family, and having your handshake and word be your bond. What a concept.

An extensive display of frontier handguns resides in another room of the museum, This Texas Ranger commemorative edition of the Model 19 .357 revolver has the Texas state seal embossed on the it.

Outside near the entry to the Ranching Heritage Museum stands a bronze sculpture of Captain Samuel "Burk" Burnett, the founder of the Four Sixes in 1868, when he purchased 100 head of cattle from Frank Crowley of Denison, Texas, that were already branded with 6666. Today the Four Six encompasses over 300,000 acres, and is owned and operated by Anne Burnett Windfohr Marion (known as "Little Anne"), the great-granddaughter of Captain Burnett.