A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 284 miles from Amarillo, Texas to Choctaw, Oklahoma.
Author: David
Travel from Amarillo, Texas to Choctaw, Oklahoma
We drove our coach 284 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Amarillo, Texas to Choctaw, Oklahoma.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
Departing the RV park:
Texas likes to have frontage roads with onramps to freeways, which is actually a good system:
I-40:
Cadillac Ranch:
RV Ranch:
Amarillo overpass, with boots in the name:
The Big Texan Steak Ranch:
VW Slug Bug Ranch:
Big cross:
Leaning water tower of Texas:
Old building:
Wind turbines in a row:
Rest area:
The rest area on the other side of the freeway had an underground shelter:
Cotton field:
Welcome to Oklahoma:
Dinosaur:
Our coach at the rest area:
Elk City:
Fun with zoom:
A stop at Cherokee Trading Post:
Super-relaxed Paladin:
Oklahoma City:
Interesting bridge art:
Interesting building:
Air Force One:
Air Force water towers:
Our destination, the KOA entrance:
Koi pond:
Guided to our site:
Palo Duro Canyon State Park
We visited Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Amarillo, Texas. The second largest canyon in the country.
Entrance:
Canyon view:
Visitor center:
Heading down into the canyon:
Store:
Cadillac Ranch
We visited a famous roadside attraction, Cadillac Ranch, an art installation of ten Cadillac cars, buried nose-first in the ground since 1974, in Amarillo, Texas.
Graffiti on the road:
They sell spray paint and merch; people are allowed and encouraged to spray on the cars:
Approaching Cadillac Ranch:
Lots of people when we visited:
A fun roadside attraction.
Oasis RV Resort & Cottages
We stayed at Oasis RV Resort & Cottages in Amarillo, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A couple of nights in Texas on our journey east.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-10-19
- Check out: 2023-10-21
- 2 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps ranging between 83-88°F, lows around 53-59°F
- Negligible wind
Noise:
- Some freeway noise
- No train noise
- Negligible neighbor noise
Site:
- #17, pull through, concrete
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
- Fairly level
- Asphalt driveway with concrete pad, about 80 feet long by about 20 feet wide
- Gravel between sites about 15 feet wide
- Some trees
- Picnic table on small concrete patio, about 13 feet by 6 feet
- No fire pit
- Clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 55 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 30-36 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
- Verizon: 6 Mbps down, 7-12 Mbps up, 155 ms ping
- AT&T: 58-80 Mbps down, 9 Mbps up, 90 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters (no garbage pickup, so not really a resort in my book)
- Closed pool
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Convenient stop off I-40 in Amarillo
We needed a short stay while traveling through the Texas panhandle, and this place was perfect for that. It’s a large park with long, wide (mostly) pull-through sites. There are concrete pads perfectly placed if you’re a motorhome with tow, but not quite right if you pull a fifth wheel or trailer. So many places have it the other way around, so it was a nice change for us to be able to park in the optimal spot. Close to I-40, but not much noise. Disappointing that they close the pool seasonally regardless of what the actual weather is doing, and also that they are a “resort” and don’t offer trash pickup, which is the bare minimum to be a “resort,” IMHO. We camped at Oasis RV Resort & Cottages Amarillo in a Motorhome.
The map:
Interactive map:
Our site:
Other sites:
Outdoor cat:
Cabins:
Bathrooms and tornado shelters:
Office:
RV in the style of Cadillac Ranch:
Video: Tucumcari, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 99 miles from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas.
Travel from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas
We drove our coach 99 miles, about 2 hours of driving, from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
Leaving the campground (and taking out the trash):
Heading to I-40 east:
I-40:
Leaving New Mexico:
Texas state line:
Entering Central Time Zone:
Welcome to Texas:
Rest stop:
Fuel stop:
$321 of diesel:
Roadworks blocked our access to the campground; we had to detour through the Loves truck stop:
And duck between cones:
Our destination:
Oasis RV:
Our site:
Merry Christmas; New Orleans Celebration in the Oaks
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, or Happy Holidays!
To mark the occasion, here’s a post out of sequence. We stayed in New Orleans around Thanksgiving this year, and while there attended the New Orleans City Park’s Celebration in the Oaks holiday lights. The blog posts about New Orleans aren’t scheduled to be published until February (yes, I’m rather behind; we do things faster than I can post about them!). But I figured I could bring this one forward to a more appropriate time.
This holiday celebration has driving and walking options; we did both. Here’s a map of the routes:
We started with the driving portion, where one drives along roads in the park that have holiday light decorations:
A timelapse video from my 360 camera of the drive:
We then parked at the mini golf in the park, and played a round (Jenn won):
Then proceeded to the walking part, wandering around the New Orleans Botanical Garden and environs, with lots of holiday lights:
Jenn reaching for a star:
A cute narrated Cajun Night Before Christmas story, with synchronized lights:
An amusing New Orleans variation of 12 Days of Christmas:
Model trains:
Amusement park rides were also included, but we didn’t participate in any (considered the train, but it was full, and the carousel, but didn’t want to wait):
It is a nice historical carousel, though:
A fun festive evening. Always interesting to see local variations of holiday lights.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
Tucumcari KOA Journey again
We stayed (again) at Tucumcari / Route 66 KOA Journey in Tucumcari, New Mexico. (Campground Reviews listing.)
We still hate buddy sites, but needed to stop here to pick up a package that was delivered after we left, so figured we might as well stay one night.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-10-18
- Check out: 2023-10-19
- 1 night
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temp 76°F, low 47°F
- Negligible wind
Noise:
- Nearby freeway noise
- No train noise
- Negligible neighbor noise
Site:
- #37, pull through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t
- Fairly level; used air leveling
- Gravel driveway about 65 feet long by about 10 feet wide
- Buddy grass about 20 feet wide
- Grass between sites about 7 feet wide
- Some trees
- Picnic table on grass
- No fire pit
- Did I mention buddy site! Do not like.
- Clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power didn’t work; used 30 amp instead, conveniently located
- We notified the office in the morning, and they promptly came to investigate the power issue
- 65 PSI water, fairly conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 38-43 Mbps down, 3-8 Mbps up, 96-134 ms ping
- Verizon: 0.05-0.3 Mbps down, 0.5-5 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
- AT&T: 83-95 Mbps down, 7-10 Mbps up, 32-61 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster by entrance
- Package delivery to site
- Cooked breakfast delivery to site (didn’t use this time)
Our review on Campground Reviews (from our previous visit):
Buddy sites, nuff said
This is an older KOA with new owners who are working on improvements. I see a lot of potential and will stay here again because it’s just so convenient to I-40, but the rates are a bit much for what it is currently. The staff here are all fantastic. Friendly, helpful, and on the ball when you report an issue. And who could argue with cooked breakfast brought right to your door? However, the biggest drawback is that most of the sites are buddy sites. They have nice, new concrete “patio” sites at the back of the park but ruined it by having them all be buddies. I cannot overstate how much I dislike buddy sites. We camped at Tucumcari KOA Journey in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Kix on 66 was very tasty and has that whole Route 66 retro vibe going on.
An interactive map:
Our site, facing another site:
We usually make sure we arrive before dark, but this was an exception; we decided to travel at night rather than stay at the truck service center another night, mainly to help catch up with our scheduled travels. Our coach on arrival:
Our site in the morning:
Utilities:
This was the first time we’d had a sewer hookup since we were here the previous time, before the Balloon Fiesta — 11 days. We did get a water top-up at the truck center, which was good as it was down to about 20%. After all that time, our gray tank was up to 67% and black to 83%, not too bad:
(We have since purchased a water bladder and sewer tote tank, and accessories, which will alleviate concerns about dry camping in the future.)
Other sites; the place was pretty full when we arrived, but emptied out early in the morning:
Video: Moriarty to Tucumcari, New Mexico motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 139 miles from Moriarty, New Mexico to Tucumcari, New Mexico. A rare night drive!