Who Knew?

 We are staying a couple of miles from the impact site of the second largest meteorite in the United States and the sixth largest in the world. Who knew? So, we had to visit.

The Visitors Center is chock-a-block with meteorites of all shapes and sizes from all over the world. Turns out, thousands of meteorites enter the Earth’s atmosphere every year, but only a handful reach the ground. Most of those are comprised of iron and nickel, and are scrubbed and shaped by their heated trip toward Earth. An interesting theory proposes that the “rocks” that hit our world are from the breakup of an as yet unknown planet located somewhere between Mars and Jupiter.

When the Odessa rock struck, it created a depression almost 200 feet deep. Today, after thousands of years, the hole is about six feet deep.

Leaving the south side of Odessa, we headed north toward the busiest area of the local oil patch, and the thriving community of Notrees, Texas. Yeah. There are no trees in Texas, and there isn’t much left of Notrees either.

Notrees does indeed have a remarkable point of interest. This area has, surprisingly for West Texas, the first wind turbines that we have seen in the state. You would think that with the constant wind…

Our drive took us on a 120 mile route through more of West Texas. It begins to numb the mind.

We stopped in Monahans, TX, for lunch. Our inclination was for fried chicken, so we dropped by a 4.7 star rated restaurant.

Order after knocking on the window, but not today.

Limited is right. They’re on vacation.

We found another chicken place that reminded us of Los Pollos Hermanos in Breaking Bad, but with a few thousand more miles on the tables and chairs! But, hey, the chicken was good!

We’ve got another day in the Patch, so stay tuned!