Amarillo

I am in Amarillo all week for the third year in a row. This is the week of the Amarillo Farm & Ranch Show, the Texas Corn Producers Board meeting, Texas Peanut Producers Board meeting, and the Texas Commodity Symposium that the Texas corn, peanuts, wheat, sorghum and cotton organizations host each year.

It never fails that each year we come up here for this crazy week of events - it gets extremely cold or snows. A couple of years ago on my way to Amarillo from Thanksgiving in Arkansas, I got stuck in a blizzard and slid of the road. I had a full size mattress in my Tahoe (which fits perfectly) and nearly had to spend the night on the side of the road as the snow and wind howled outside. Last year a cold front hit right as the farm show started and I nearly froze just walking in from the parking lot.

It snowed Sunday night as we drove up here from Lubbock, and there's a winter storm brewing to the west that may dump even more snow.

After a few trips through the northern Texas Panhandle over the past couple of years, I have concluded that this is where wind and weather begins. It's always colder, hotter, windier and harsher than anywhere else.