Good morning from the Texas Panhandle, where it’s cloudy, cool, and windy. We are in one of those reclaimed areas that chain hotels take over. There are eight in this tangle, with some sad, old properties remaining to be developed. These are mid-level chains, and one has the impression that many of the lots will remain stubbled and bare with the occasional empty building. It’s not an attractive landscape, more forlorn, and if we were here for more than a night, it would drain my empathic ass.