April 27, 2011

We ate a late breakfast in the dining room of El Rancho, and headed east. We detoured into Santa Rosa, an old Rt. 66 town. We had been there before, but missed seeing the Blue Hole. Signs pointed us in the right direction, and we stopped to take some pictures. As you will see from the sign, it is 61 degrees in the water. As a comparison, the average temperature of Lake Superior in the summer is 40 degrees. Scuba divers come here to practice. A young man told us that they have sealed off the opening at the bottom so no divers can enter, though the water still flows out.

That occurred because five divers have died there.

We crossed over into Texas and are now in the Central Time Zone, just one hour different than Ohio. We checked into a Sleep Inn, and drove to The Big Texan steakhouse for dinner. Geezers (ha! probably our age) were walking around serenading the diners. After sirloin steaks, baked potatoes, tossed salad and rolls, we left stuffed and went back to our motel for the evening.

Tomorrow we will go to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum on the Texas A & M campus.

Pictures from today: The Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, NM and The Big Texan steakhouse, John next to an Alaskan Brown Bear(out of order), the 72 oz. steak--if anyone can eat it and all the sides, it is free.