Day 4 and 5 -- the Drive Through Texas to Colorado Springs

We headed out of Louisiana right after the swamp tour and planned on spending the night somewhere in the Dallas area although none of us wanted to venture into the city proper!  We tried to  only drive six or seven hours a day at the most and often planned stops along the way to view local venues.  In Texas we stopped first in Greenville and then in Amarillo.  Along the way we found a small city park to eat in and a local quilt shop to visit (Joan and I are both avid art quilters),  

While eating lunch in that urban park, I spotted this bird which I immediately identified even though I had never seen one before!!  I had heard the name though.  It is a Broad-tailed Grackle and you can see why.  It is amazing that he can hold up this huge tail!!

Just another view of the Grackle!

I constantly was taking pictures out the window of the car as we drove along.  It was surprisingly pretty scenic on the back roads of northern Texas.  I was expecting  a very dull ride and it wasn't.

Our second night we stopped in Amarillo.  Again our GPS took us around in circles and frustrated us before we finally found our destination.  As we had AAA books, we found that Amarillo had a Botanical Gardens so we made plans to visit first thing in the morning before we headed to Colorado Springs, our destination for Day  5.

We had another day of near perfect weather and the Amarillo Botanical Garden was a real  treat.  It only took about an hour to go through but it was beautifully done in a small space and had a gorgeous greenhouse filled with tropical plants.  I especially liked all the hollyhocks they had growing in the outside gardens.  I took pictures of the flowers that interested me as I found them unusual but unfortunately can't tell you the names of any of them!

I think these are some of the hollyhocks and I know the below picture is!!

I managed to sneek a couple of pictures of my travelling companions at the Gardens.  

Vicki is patiently waiting or me to take my pictures.  From here we headed through New Mexico and north to my sister's in Colorado Springs where we spend three nights and two full days before heading onward.