Road trip to Texas (part 6)

I'll finish up my vacation pictures by posting images from the drive home. We went out of our way to locate a couple of Muffler Men -- actually, one of them was a Muffler Lady! -- and Buddy Holley's grave. So from Austin we drove to a little town called Lamesa, then to Lubbock, then to Amarillo, and finally turned toward home. There were a lot of tiny little towns in between, and hundreds of miles of nothing but pasture. It took forever but it was worth it, even though our last 100 miles or so were largely blizzard conditions! (Yes, that was scary at 2:00 in the morning when both of us were exhausted beyond description.)

We had a great time! I can't wait for our next road trip! Tomorrow I'll start blogging images of Colorado Springs again. I hope you've enjoyed our vacation pictures!

Our first ever Muffler Lady! (Technically she's a Uniroyal Gal.) This was in tiny Lamesa, Texas. She stands in front of a tire shop. As you can see, she's been turned into a giant cheerleader with the local high school's "tornado" logo on her sweater. We love Muffler Men and will go to great lengths to see one on our road trips. I have pictures of many Muffler Men (including "cowboys" and "Paul Bunyans"), but I've never had the pleasure of seeing a Muffler Lady with my own two eyes. She was awesome! And HUGE!

Here I am, taking a picture of her. You can see how gigantic she is! We got such a kick out of her! (Photo by Pat.)

Onward to Lubbock, where we stopped at the Buddy Holley Center. I've been there before but this was Pat's first time. He thought it was pretty cool!

The larger than life statue of Mr. Holley. I thought I'd give him a little extra flair -- or flare, I should say! It took quite a few attempts to get just the right amount of flare through his famous glasses.

Here he is, in all his glory. The plaques on the wall behind him honor the many well known musicians from Lubbock.

Buddy Holley's grave in the Lubbock Cemetery. The dates of birth and death are sobering. He didn't even make it to 23. So sad.

It's customary to leave a little token when visiting his grave. Oftentimes people will leave guitar picks.

At an RV park in Amarillo we tracked down this good looking Muffler Man! He's surrounded by vintage Cadillacs, all of them in perfect condition.

He looks great! A lot of times Muffler Men look shabby because they're at least 40 or 50 years old and have been standing out in the elements for decades. But this cowboy looks spiffy! There may be a Muffler Man near you -- check THIS map to find out!

Last shot of our vacation, about to jump in the car and leave Amarillo.