World United States Texas Canyon

Gulliver's Travels Gulliver's Western Travels Spring 2012

On the Way to Palo Duro Canyon Apr 25, 2012

We left Eisenhower State Park around 8:00am. This part of Texas is very green and lush. The fields and meadows are filled with wildflowers. I love the way the farmlands undulate as we go along. The further west we drove, the drier it became. It is still somewhat green, but there are patches of brown. It is much greener than last year. Driving along Texas roads I am tickled by the signs I see along the road. We passed a metal sculpture store. They had giant chickens and the often seen silhouette of the smoking cowboy. This particular place had a metal donkey out front with the sign, “Kick the Ass Out.” Hummm, who could they be referring to???? Giant statues of horses, beef, and chickens were everywhere. We saw a huge Hereford Statue with a small fence around it. Why did they need a fence? It wasn’t real. The billboards are so Texan. There is the common “Free 72 ounce Steak Dinner” at the Big Texan Café in Amarillo. They had billboards everywhere, from at least 100 miles out. I was charmed by the “Jesus is our Lord and Savior” Truck Stop. I think that was in Amarillo as well. When you go through these small towns, I always look for the local high school mascot. There were many cougars, wildcats and mustangs. I liked the “Fighting Cyclones” of Claredon. That paints an interesting picture. Recently we have encountered some anomalies with our GPS. We were looking for a Wal-Mart in Denison. Twice the GPS routed us to an empty field. We later found it on the opposite side of the Interstate about 4-5 miles north. Today, we were within 12 miles of the Canyon. We turned on a road that advertised itself as “airpark ranchettes.” We came to a closed gate, only 8 miles from the park. Access was only for property owners. There wasn’t room to turn around, (You can’t back up with a car in tow) so we unhitched the car and got headed back to the more appropriate direction. NOTE: Pay attention when your GPS says something about restricted highways (I thought it meant the park road). We only had to go around the Canyon about 20 miles. Now I have downloaded several geocache sites in Palo Duro Canyon Park. I am wondering if the GPS will work. I can’t get phone or TV. We shall see. When we checked in, the park attendant told us that is was good we had made reservations so early. The campground/park was being closed up. There is to be a wounded warriors run and President George W. Bush would be participating. We have the campground pretty much to ourselves. There are a couple of tent campers and the park host. It is really empty. We have already seen the turkeys and deer that entranced us last year. Oh…we were given the very same spot as last year. We didn’t ask for it, it just happened. I think it is the best spot.

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