Our Fourth and final Hop in Texas

Lubbock, Texas - April 19 - April 26, 2020

Our trek through Texas has taken us through several of the states regions.  We started out in the Gulf coast Region.  Then hit the Texas Plains, cruised through the Hill Country, and now are held up in the Panhandle plains.  Whew!  Despite the pandemic lock down, we have still managed to see and explore this great state.  It would have been much better if we could have also tasted some of the local cuisine and visited the museums but that just gives us an excuse to come back to the lone star state at a later date in our travels.

 

I have to admit that the only reason we stopped in Lubbock is that it was a halfway point between our last stop in Marble Falls and our next destination of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I found a brand new park just off I-27 called The Retreat.  The noise from the interstate wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be but it was still pretty loud.  I think when the park gets fully operational it's going to be a nice stop over location.  But for right now, there is still construction going on in the back half of the park and the sites still need landscaping.  But hey...the price was great at only $205 for a pull thru!  However, I do recommend the back in sites over the pull thru.  We did not have a concrete patio like all the back-in's did.

One hour waiting for a $4 part! Insane!

I had not really researched anything to do, so it was a pleasant surprise to find things to do here.  However, our first trip was to Home Depot.  Whoever plumbed in our sewer connection had it at ground level which prevented us from connecting without having an extension.  The office did not seem to care about this so it was up to us to go find the fitting for it.  Needless to say, after waiting in line for over an hour just to get into Home Depot due to the Covid-19 restrictions, we were not happy.  We then figured they could send the plumber who plumbed it wrong to get them one for we be taking our $4 part with us!  Ha!

Buddy Holly Museum

Buddy Holly Center that was NOT open!

Even though the center was not open to the public is was still cool just being there.  Across the street the Civic Club of Lubbock built this memorial to honor Buddy Holly and it has since grown into
honoring those who have a strong connection to Lubbock and the West Texas area who have devoted their lives to the performing and visual arts and whose body of work has been influential nationally in one or more of these areas.  Here are a few of the names I recognized:

Buddy Holly (of course)
Waylon Jennings
Jimmy Dean
The Crickets
Tanya Tucker
Roy Orbison
Gatlin Brothers

Texas Tech

Texas Tech Seal

Four Faces located at Talkington Hall

Park Place located at Talkington Plaza

The Masked Rider located at Marsha Sharp Center

Will Rogers located in the Memorial Circle

One evening we set out to explore the Texas Tech Campus in order to see the Will Rogers Statue.  Little did we know that this school has beautiful art everywhere.  I posted just a few of them that we found.

We even found out they have a little piece of the Blarney Stone.  Of course we had to check it out too. And no, just for the record, we didn't actually kiss it.  Plus, we've been to the real one in Ireland and know that the locals urinate on it as a mean joke on the tourist!  Mean, I say, just plain mean!

National Ranching Heritage Center

Located just down the street from Texas Tech was the National Ranching Heritage Center.  I so wish this place had been open.  Open, Open, Open!  Oh well, at least we got to get up close and personal with a longhorn or two.

Lubbock loves their art! 

As you can see there are tons of things to do in Lubbock despite the lock down.  There is no shortage of art throughout this city.  So if you are just passing through like we were, please stop and enjoy all this wonderful talent that is displayed.  I have a feeling we just lucked up on a small part of it.

With this we say goodbye to our month long hopping through the huge state of Texas and head further northwest to Santa Fe, New Mexico!