8. Goodbye and on to Amarillo
Our good time with relatives and sight-seeing had come to
and end and it was time to continue. Our farewell committee saw us off..
Since we got to Texas Jackie has been asking where the oil
wells were. We finally found some of them as we traveled north on Rt. 287.
Along the way there were fields of various crops, some
fields had Monsanto signs which might mean GMO’s, silo’s and wind generators.
We did see some buffalo and a building named the Pease River
Cowboy Church.
We stayed in Amarillo two nights which gave us a day to do
some sight-seeing. There is always too many things to see in one day so choices
have to be made. We went to Palo Duro Canyon. Here are a couple of pictures
that describe the geology.
Some have called Palo Doro the Grand Canyon of Texas. Yes,
it’s not as big as the Grand Canyon but at 120 mile long, up to 20 miles wide
and greater than 800 feet deep it’s no slouch either. The name is Spanish for
“hard wood” because of the many mesquite and juniper trees. As much as we enjoyed the city touring, with
all its hustle & bustle, it feels great to see some natural beauty. We may
not be exactly in God’s Country but I think we are getting pretty close.
As we road along we saw a formation that looked like it had
a light. A closer look showed that erosion had created a “tunnel” through it.
An even closer look showed some
hikers working their way back to the road.
In the summer of 1874 the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon was
found between the army led by Ranald Mackenzie and the Cheyenne, Arapaho and
Kiowa Indians. The casualties were light but the the Indians lost their safe
refuge in the canyon and the majority of their winter supplies. Mackenzie’s troops captured 1500- 2000
horses, which slaughtered to prevent the Indians from recapturing them. Without
the supplies and horses the Indians couldn’t hold out over the winter and many
returned to the reservation. You can read more about his at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Palo_Duro_Canyon
There in an amphitheater in the canyon. Not as big as Red
Rock in Colorado but similar. There has been some heavy rains that damaged some
bridges. The high waters were gone but there was several “water crossings”
where the water naturally washed over the road.
On the way back to the campground we stopped at an antique
RV museum. For those that might be interested you will find more pictures on
Shutterfly.
However, I can’t resist putting in is the “Gornike Bus” seen
in the movie “RV” and a couple of
motorcycles for you cycle people.
So, having had a pretty full day we decided to end it by
going to “THE BIG TEXAN” for supper.
That’s right, IF you can eat their 72 oz. steak dinner in 60
minutes you get it free. If you don’t, you pay $72.00 for the chance to try
There were two guys trying when we were there. I doubt if they made it. When we
were leaving they about 15 minutes had gone by, there was a lot of food left
and the guys were really slowing down.
There are people that do finish the meal. In fact, there is
a record holder. Now hang on, Molly Schuyler, 120 pounds ate the Big Texan in 4
minutes & 58 seconds AND ate two in 14 minutes & 57 seconds.
Jackie & I remembered a friend saying that “Moderation
is the key to successful living” (something we didn’t know when we were
younger) and ordered a regular meal. Now they weren’t the smallest and we had
plenty to take home. In fact we had our left overs for lunch.
There is a lot to see at the restaurant. Here’s a happy customer and a look at the restaurant and the displays.
To top all this off, we were picked up and brought back to
the campground by limo. When we arrived one of the staff told us about the
restaurant and limo. Apparently they know that travelers are tired and won’t
necessarily won’t go out after arriving at a campground or hotel/motel, so they
offer this service. Here is the guy that drove us to and from.
A great ending to a great day.
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