22 hours of Amarillo - From sunrise to sunset to the bar

Jeeper · #1 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 4:14 PM**

I woke up early to shoot the Komen Cancer Foundation's Race for the Cure downtown. I ended up shooting for a few hours. I came back around dinner time to catch some sunset shots. After the sun went down, I went into my favorite bar, where a band from Austin was playing. I went back to my Jeep, grabbed my camera, and shot some more. Finally at 4am I went home.

Here are the photos from my Saturday.

The bar before the storm...

During the storm...

And after the storm...

Thanks for looking!

MobyLL · #2 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 4:57 PM**

Nice Jeeper! I think you did an excellent job of capturing the flavor of downtown Amarillo. I've always liked most of the highrises in Amarillo, not only as individual structures, but also how they complement each other with their varying architectural styles from different time periods.

BnaBreaker · #3 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 4:59 PM**

Nice set! Amarillo, with it's greenery and real live people walking around, looks significantly more inviting than Lubbock.

Evergrey · #4 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 5:15 PM**

That bar looks like fun!

Lexy · #5 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 5:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

Nice set! Amarillo, with it's greenery and real live people walking around, looks significantly more inviting than Lubbock.

I concur. This is a great tour and a very nice set of pictures I might add! I enjoyed it greatly.

stepper77 · #6 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 5:37 PM**

Thank you for the great pictures. I drove through Amarillo on I-40 once on the way from California to Tennessee and I was not in anyway impressed with what I saw. But, this gave me a better sense of what Amarillo is really like, at least in the downtown. There are quite a few nice buildings and I like the park downtown.

KevinFromTexas · #7 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 6:00 PM**

Nice. Your photography skills never disappoint. Keep it up!

Yep, Amarillo definitely appears to be the best in the west. Skyline-wise, it doesn't disappoint either. That Chase Bank building with the vertical lines is the tallest building in West Texas, 374 feet tall with 33 floors. It's actually the tallest building between Phoenix and the cities in Texas along I-35 of San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth and Dallas.

john_mclark · #8 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 7:44 PM**

don't you love people who don't want to be in pictures, anyways i love amarillo and your pictures are wonderful

softee · #9 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 7:49 PM**

Amarillo looks like a pretty good city to live in, it certainly looks good when compared to many of the surrounding towns and cities in that part of Texas!

MNMike · #10 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 8:33 PM**

Are those trees stressed from drought? It looks like fall! Good pics.

UrbanSky · #11 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 8:43 PM**

You crap on a regional rival town and do your damndest to put it down..then take only the best of Amarillo. NICE

flar · #12 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 8:44 PM**

Great pictures!

Jeeper · #13 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 9:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by UrbanSky

You crap on a regional rival town and do your damndest to put it down..then take only the best of Amarillo. NICE

I spent more time walking around Lubbock taking photos that day trying to find good shots than I did here in Amarillo on Saturday. It's not like I only took photos of Lubbock's back alleys and decrepit buildings, I took photos of all of their buildings, as I did here in Amarillo. I can't help it that their downtown is ugly. I welcome you to get off your high horse and Google some photos of Lubbock's DT that show it looking any better than how I portrayed it, and post em for everyone to compare.

Evergrey · #14 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 9:21 PM**

is there a rivalry between Lubbock and Amarillo?

olga · #15 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 9:25 PM**

Not gritty enough - just plain boring!

Great piccs though.

UrbanSky · #16 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 9:26 PM**

From your heading; "I give you Lubbock, Texas..and I appologize for it", to your one-sided negative comments and pics...sounds like you're the one in need of a high-horse check.. I like Amarillo and you have a great eye (for your hometown).

Boris · #17 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 9:38 PM**

Nice f'cking job dude. Makes Amarillo look hip.

Are you going to post these in the Small Cities Forum?

Jeeper · #18 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 9:50 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evergrey

is there a rivalry between Lubbock and Amarillo?

I'd call it a friendly rivalry. Being so close together and similar in size just begs for comparison, but in my experience they don't have much in common. It's something that I commonly debate with residents of Lubbock when I stay there, but it always stays friendly. I do concede to them that Lubbock's great asset, Texas Tech, gives them a leg up, not because of the school itself, but all the nice looking ladies that it brings in.

Oh and Boris, what do you think, lol.

MobyLL · #19 Posted **Jul 10, 2007, 10:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evergrey

is there a rivalry between Lubbock and Amarillo?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeeper

I'd call it a friendly rivalry. Being so close together and similar in size just begs for comparison, but in my experience they don't have much in common. It's something that I commonly debate with residents of Lubbock when I stay there, but it always stays friendly. I do concede to them that Lubbock's great asset, Texas Tech, gives them a leg up, not because of the school itself, but all the nice looking ladies that it brings in.

I'll defer somewhat to Jeeper on this one (and others who are more recent residents of the area), but to use cities of a much larger scale for the sake of analogy -- the rivalry is maybe something like pittsburgh / cleveland but if cleveland had the topography of cincinnati. or philly / boston if boston were located where nyc is.

Amarillo and Lubbock are similar in many ways (population size, ethnicity, poverty rates, climate, geography) and only a little over 100 miles apart; and yet quite distinct in that Lubbock has a major univ. which is a huge factor in life there and Amarillo seems to be more of a transportation / commercial center.

And they both compete for the business of residents of the numerous smaller towns around there with populations of say anywhere from a few hundred to 35,000 or so in providing medical services, legal services, shopping, entertainment, etc. that can't be found in the smaller towns.

Their rivalry with each other is enhanced by their isolation from other major cities. From either Amarillo or Lubbock you would have to travel about 250+ miles to either Oklahoma City, Albuquerque or Fort Worth depending on the direction you were going to reach a larger city.

dharper6 · #20 Posted **Jul 11, 2007, 2:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by UrbanSky

You crap on a regional rival town and do your damndest to put it down..then take only the best of Amarillo. NICE

It's possible to make any town look good or bad in photos. It's sort of like when you go looking for a new home...look around during the drabbest part of the year on a cloudy day, and if you like what you find, it will look even better on a clear, sunny day.

I'd like to see some photos of Midland and Odessa. I have relatives there and visit often (I'll make some next time). Both have some of the nicest housing stock of anywhere I've been in the country, but both fail to hold my interest due to the bleak landscape of that part of the state (even though the cities themselves are full of beautiful trees). I prefer Odessa because of the university and more progressive attitudes resulting from there being so many academics located there. The downside is that Odessa seems to be overrun with the national chain restaurants, while Midland has some great ethnic cuisine (e.g., Italian, Indian) owned by families. Both are experiencing a housing boom and increase in prices due to the oil and gas boom.