Swingman wrote:

....
Had an Oil and Gas leasing crew in Lamar for the better part of two years
back in the early 80's, so I made one or two trips a month from Houston.
Mostly flew to Amarillo and drove ...
Mighty fine folks in that part of the country, and made some good friends
...reminded me of around Web and Dimmit county, in South West Texas, with
the big ranches and open spaces.

We used to go across the state line to a small bush track in KS for quarter
horse races on Saturdays. Lots of funny stories/memories from that period in
SE Colorado.

Well, as you're undoubtedly well aware, the exploration around here is
getting to be pretty slim, although the higher gas prices are beginning
to show some effect...most of what is going on now is opening old holes
that weren't good enough back in the 50's - 60's, mostly for lack of
sufficient oil vis a vis gas...a few new wells are being drilled now.
All the majors have left the area entirely. The Hugoton field is being
reworked by a bunch of independents w/ doing things like lowering header
pressures even to the point of pulling vacuum...

The track at Syracuse is still there although I noticed that it looked
like the one outside Holly hadn't operated for a number of years...

We're about 180 mi almost straight N of Amarillo...we're just to the
westward edge of the dryland farming region although there's a lot of
circle irrigation, too. As you say, good folk although sparsely settled
as one goes further west into the drier country...

If you ever do the trip from Amarillo again, highly recommend detour to
the Black Mesa area on the OK/NM/CO border west of Boise City...neat
mesa country not too far out of the way and you can head on up 287 w/
just a little jog from Campo...