Borger, Again

September the eleventh of 2016 and we are headed south through the wheat fields of Kansas.  The further south we get the fewer plowed fields we see and the more pump jacks that come into sight.  Farm land is giving way to ranch land that is overlaid with oil wells, tank batteries and natural gas compressor stations.  Texas is in our sights.

Speaking of farm land.  I think I mentioned it in a post earlier in the spring but, everywhere we have been across the south and into the plains, there has been massive amounts of hay bailed up and stacked in fields.  The rain and temperature has pretty much been perfect in the spring and early summer that almost everybody seems to have gotten in two harvests.  The surplus looks so big I don't think they will be able to give it all away.  But hold that thought, this becomes a big deal in early 2017.

The distance between Dodge City, KS and Borger, TX is just right.  We like to keep our driving time to around 4 hours.  That keeps us unhurried in the morning and gets us where we are going in time to get in on something to do.  Plus, we are driving during prime business time, if something should happen then we have services available to us and time to do something about it without it being late at night.  Although, our concerns about catastrophic tire failure are much diminished with our recent upgrade in wheels and tires.  Today's destination is just three and a half hours away, perfect.

Our little home town is an oil town and its history is the history of oil.  The town has risen and fallen with each oil boom and bust.  But in the 60+ years I have been around I have noticed that the rise of the town is never quite as high as the rise in oil and the depth of the fall of the town seems to be deeper than the fall of oil.  So the more time that goes by, the greater the net loss of the town.  Neighborhoods are shabbier with not one of them ever going through a "revitalization" phase.  Businesses seem to be hanging on by their fingernails with no real money to reinvest or modernize.  There is a new, state of the art hospital and Walmart just completed building a brand new super center.  While this is great, they both abandoned buildings that nobody is inclined to re-purpose.  The old hospital has already been razed with nothing left but a bare lot.  The former Walmart building is nothing but an eyesore.

In the old, main part of town there are a number of abandoned buildings, two of which are large multi-story hotels from the heydays (1930's).  Both have been long overdue for demolition and one is finally getting it.  When we were in town in early July work was just beginning to strip the building down to bare bones so that the rest could be knocked down.  Much progress has been made between then and our return this September.

July 2016

September 2016

 The photo on the left is from when we were in town around the first of July.  Photo on the right was taken on our return trip in early September.  The photo below is from September also.  It shows the back of the building and the faint remains of the original signage, "Hotel Black", that had been covered for the last several decades while Phillips 66 was using the building as an office complex.  Being built in the era that it was, this place was chock-full of asbestos.  So the demolition was way more complicated and expensive than meets the eye.

Faint remnants of original signage, "Hotel Black", ca 1930.

It won't be long before it is just another bare lot but that is better than being a derelict building infested by God knows what.

Since we are in town for only a few nights we are choosing to stay in the city's park, Huber, and forego full hookups.  Plus, the heat has diminished somewhat and we can manage by running only one air conditioner at a time.

Our favorite spot at Huber Park.  We get morning shade but full, blazing sun the rest of the day.

One of our must-do's when we hit town is to have a meal at Lorene's Mexican Kitchen.  It is waayyy off our eating plan but we, well, mostly John can't resist.  He has to have a chile relleno.  They are unlike a relleno we have been able to get anywhere else in the country.  In fact Lorene's has ruined us, we don't enjoy rellenos fixed any way except Lorene's way.

Chile Relleno in top of photo.  This stuff is a heart attack
on a plate but we just can't lay off of it.

So a couple days of checking in with John's mom and brief  encounters with old friends and we are pulling in the slides and raising the jacks.  Time to start moving east.