AMARILLO may seem cut off from the rest of Texas, up in the northern Panhandle, but it stands on one of the great American cross-country routes I-40, once the legendary Route 66 roughly 300 miles east of Albuquerque and 250 miles west of Oklahoma City. The name comes from the Spanish for "yellow," the color of the soil characteristic in these parts. An early promoter of the city was so delighted with its potential as a site for lucrative buffalo hunting (for those who braved the Apache and Comanche threat) and as excellent ranching land that he painted all the buildings bright yellow.

Today, sitting on ninety percent of the world's helium and hosting a world-class cattle market, Amarillo is a prosperous but surprisingly uneventful city. The small " old town " consists of a few tree-lined streets and staid old homes; some of the less twee antique stores along Sixth Street (the old Route 66, known locally as "Old San Jacinto") serve equally well as museums of pioneer life. Following I-40 six miles west to exit 60 (Arnot Road) brings you to Cadillac Ranch ( www.libertysoftware.be/cml/cadillacranch/crmain.htm ). An extraordinary vision in the middle of nowhere, ten battered roadsters stand upended in the soil, their tail fins demonstrating the different Cadillac designs from 1949 to 1963. Since the cars were installed in 1974, they have been subject to countless makeovers at the hands of graffiti artists, photographers and members of the public (encouraged by owner and patron, eccentric helium millionaire Stanley Marsh III, on whose land the cars are planted); occasionally they're shiny blue or red after having been painted for a photo shoot. In 1997 the whole installation was moved two miles west to this present site as the city had begun to encroach and spoil the horizon.

Amarillo is also host to the world's stompingest, snortingest livestock auction (tel 806/373-7464), in the stockyards at S Manhattan and Third avenues, on the east side of town. The auction proper, held on Tuesday morning, is open to the public, as is the adjacent Stockyard Caf (tel 806/374-6024).

If you enjoy playing cowboys, it's fun to visit one of the many grand old Panhandle ranches to have diversified into tourism. Some just open for the day; others provide (usually expensive) accommodation (call Amarillo's CVB for particulars). The ranchers who entertain you are often natural showmen and women, whose welcome is utterly genuine, though they'd rather be working the animals for real than running a theme park.