Howdy, y'all

We are in Amarillo, Texas, in the middle of the panhandle (map). We spent the night in the parking lot of a mostly-defunct shopping mall here, known as "Western Plaza." Parts of the mall have been defunct a long time -- the major anchor was clearly a Montgomery Ward, and they went out of business five years ago.

We parked here because there is an Olive Garden on the perimeter, and we can hardly resist when we are on the road. (I know -- Amarillo is famous for steak houses, including the Big Texan, where we have eaten before. However, we just made ourselves a steak Tuesday night, in a moment of poor planning.)

One of the businesses that remains at this mall (or possibly is an opportunistic venture based on rock-bottom leasing on empty retail space) is a night club called Graham Central Station. It is clearly very popular, if the number of cars in the parking lot is any gauge. Last night we were awoken by commotion around 2am, which turned out to be the club emptying out. Louise counted no fewer than six police cruisers roving the lot, presumably to make sure folks got in their cars and left, rather than hanging out, a practice with which we are familiar from our years in downtown San Jose.

We spent a few minutes sweating the possibility that we were going to get a knock on the door followed by "move along." Clearly, however, we were not the droids they were looking for. That, or my Jedi powers are now complete.