Palo Duro Canyon or Bust!

What a day yesterday was!

It started in Austin under gray skies. I drove down 71 just west of Marble Falls. Now if you are not in Texas you may not know that Marble Falls got 19 inches of rain on Wednesday. You also may not know that Marble Falls is the wrong place for this much water to come down from the heavens. When I passed through there appeared to be no end to the rain in sight. It was amazing to see the Hill Country this way.

There was one frightening moment. The rain was really coming down hard and I didn't see the water covering the road until I hit it. Couple of heart stopping moments and I drove on.

I've never seen the Hill Country so green! Before I left Houston a friend, learning of my route, said, "Oh, you're going to see a lot of brown." I wish that had been true.

Somewhere between there and Abilene the rain began to become sporadic. Every time that I thought it had stopped it started right back up, but the drops became smaller and the cloudbursts became shorter. Finally I could see occasional flecks of blue sky among the clouds.

I don't think I've ever been happier to get through anything.

Somewhere north of Abilene the sky started really clearing.

I passed an oilfield. The landscape was speckled with rocker arms rising and falling like wierd insects sucking up the earth's life force.

I passed a wind farm. Here giant propellers were set on top of a mesa like a giant's playground. It looked totally surreal. Salvador Dali would have loved it. It reminded me of the Pinwheels for Peace project. (If you haven't heard of it give it a google and check it out.)

I drove all day, literally, and ended up at Palo Duro Canyon. Talk about amazing! One minute I was driving along across flat prairie land, the next the canyon suddenly appeared to the right of me.

I drove around the Palo Duro Canyon State Park and even stopped and walked a bit. I wasn't really ready to hike around or take pictures. At the least I needed a change of shoes to be ready to go rockhopping. I didn't think I would be here so soon.

I headed into Canyon, Texas about 12 miles away and drove up and down one of the two main drags trying to decide where to stay the night. I was feeling a bit grungy and stiff.

Remembering my purpose I looked around for some of my landmarks. Hudspeth House Inn is located on the 4th Avenue along with a Holiday Inn, Best Western and West Texas A & M University. Elizabeth Hudspeth was one of Georgia O'Keeffe's fellow teachers at West Texas Normal College, now West Texas A & M. I thought about stopping there, but I wasn't sure that I was up to it yet.

So, I filled up the topped up the gas tank for the third time that day and went eeny-meeny-miny-mo between Best Western and the Holiday Inn which were conveniently located side by side across the street from the gas station. Best Western won out.

I thought about going out to eat. I thought about going back down to the truck and driving around. I thought about a lot of things. My final decision was a long hot bath and bed.

Best Western is not a bad little place to stay. The room was immaculately clean. There was a small fridge, a microwave, DVD player and all the basic necessities, too. I went to the truck and got a yogurt and some granola to have for breakfast. I forgot my mayonnaise at home, so I had my second dry bologna sandwich of the day washed down with a Coke from the vending machine for dinner.

Got up this morning and took a long shower. A quick call to Hudspeth House over my yogurt and granola breakfast and I'm good to go.

I'll stay at Hudspeth House tonight. I'll tell you about it later. Right now I've got to get back to the canyon.