Winds Are Coming From The North West East, Say What?

Doppler Dan the weather man has been giving us weather reports since we pulled in to Amarillo. He talked about the weather coming from the north, bringing cold weather. Doppler Dan showed how hotter fronts from the south would be overtaken by the colder fronts. That was on the weekend when temperatures dropped to freezing at night. Then he showed how the area would be getting warmer weather as the Indian Summer moved in. Then on Wednesday we saw a cold front coming down from the north. Doppler Dan said there was rain coming in from the west coast area that would likely hit on Thursday and bring thunder storms on both Thursday and Friday. Then he mentioned another bout of weather coming in off the Gulf of Mexico. Great, three weather systems dropping in to the area all at the same time. There was talk of severe weather, possibility of large hail and tornados. I checked the weather.com website and saw Lubbock was on the outside edge of the severe weather, so that was enough to send us south. Well, after we dropped by the Historic Route 66 District of Amarillo.

We drove through the area, then decided to stop and look check out some of the antique shops, then go for lunch at a mexican restaurant.

Then it was time to go. We left Amarillo before the weather turned bad. We got a few drops of rain on the highway to Lubbock and had to fight the wind a bit, but got there without incident. It was too late to check out the American Windpower Museum, so we stayed overnight at the Walmart in town, close to the Statue of Buddy Holly and the Walk of Fame. We would check them out the next day before going to the museum.

We were parked just one block away from the park that housed the Walk of Fame and the Buddy Holly statue. The rain stopped around noon, so we headed out to get a photo of the statue.

There was no statue, and there were no walk of fame plaques. There was just a wooden sign. The statue and the Walk of Fame plaques had been moved. They were in the Depot district, where the Buddy Holly Center Museum was located. I decided we had enough time to make a quick stop there on the way to the Windpower Museum and would still be able to get out of town before the thunderstorms were expected to hit around 6pm.

The Buddy Holly Center Museum had a huge pair of black rim glasses outside, beside their sign. Ward got his picture taken beside the glasses. Then we crossed the street to the memorial park and got our pictures taken with Buddy Holly. A tourist couple from Pennsylvania were at the statue and offered to take our picture if we would take theirs. They were in town to catch a football game at the Texas Tech. We got our picture, and took off to the Windpower Museum.

 

 

I googled the Windpower Museum so I would know how to get there. As we were getting closer you could see the windmills. It would be hard to miss this place. There were over 60 windmills outside the building.

When we got inside, the woman at the museum told us they had 100 windmills inside. Most of them were used for water. That is what made this area of Texas habitable and allowed farmers to grow crops and have livestock. There were a few windmills that generated electricity, some built as early as the late 20s. You could buy a kit for the windmill, and it came with a radio as well.

There was even a Cushman motorcycle in the museum. Why? I know, it's a windmill museum. I was kind of wondering myself when I saw the motorcycle there. But it turns out that Cushman used to be called The Easy Manufacturing Company, and used to manufacture windmills back in the 30s. Hmm, who knew!

We finished looking at all the different windmills, then left town for safer skies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was windy again, but not too bad. So we decided to get as far out of Lubbock as we could. They were expecting severe thunderstorms, large hail, and possibly tornados. And it was going to hit around 6pm. The weather.com website showed the severe weather lasting at least 2-3 days in the Lubbock area, but New Mexico was only showing severe weather for tonight. We made the decision to head toward Carlsbad down Hwy 62.

We made it to Hobbs, NM by about 5pm. I checked weather.com and there was no mention of hail or tornados. It mentioned severe thunderstorms, but the wind wasn't to go about about 15 mph. That was good enough for me. So, here we are in Hobbs. The clouds are to the North of us and we are watching the lightning off in the distance. I am not sure what weather we will get overnight, but it is not supposed to be anything more than thunderstorms.

While watching TV tonight, our program was interupted by some weather dude. Apparently there were reports of tornados touching down in the county north of Lubbock. They also got hit with hail that was 2" in diameter. I am so glad we got out of there.

It's now 10:30pm and another bout of weather is here. The thunder and lightning are all around us. The curtains are open and we are enjoying the show from our gold fish bowl. That's what we call the back area of the RV where the bed is. It is surrounded by windows, like a gold fish bowl.

Tomorrow we are headed for Carlsbad.