Previously On...

You know what?  I don't like chronological order today.  Let's shake things up a bit.

Mom and I just got back from dinner, which was just at a little restaurant that was part of hotel.  It had decent Mexican food.  We had been aiming for one of the restaurants recommended by Roadfood, but it was closed. There's been a spate of bad luck with restaurants, particularly Mexican restaurants that we wanted to eat at.  More specifically, the last three we've intended to eat at have been closed.  The Mexican food gods are angry.  It's the only explanation.  Dammit.

I just want to let you all know that originally I was going to say "PREVIOUSLY..." before each segment of the day, but decided that would get annoying for everyone involved pretty quickly.  It was a clever idea for a millisecond.  Then I was going to go with "Last time on Law & Ordah" but I can't afford the right to use it.  As you can see, I've cleverly avoided it for now.

So before dinner, we pulled into the hotel after a long, long drive.  How long, you ask?  Remember waaaaay back in that third post, the one that was the first actual post about driving and travelling?  There was a number in there.  A number about the amount of miles our GPS told us to drive.   Today, we beat that number.  After we got on the highway out of Amarillo, Martha May (Whovier) told us that we needed to drive 282 miles.

Let me say that again.

Martha May told us we needed to drive 282 miles on Route 40.

And there was much cursing.

We'd just completed that drive.  It was long.  Texas is really flat.  I mean, really flat.  You can see for miles.  There are a lot of wind farms.  It's rather like crops of super-tall spinny white things.  Pretty sweet.  But not.  I really wish there was more to talk about.  But there wasn't.  I could indulge you all with a clip of Mom and I yodeling as we drove.

I won't.

Previously, before our little soujourn along route 40, we decided that we should head down to Palo Duro Canyon.  What's that, you say?  You've never heard of Palo Duro Canyon.  Really?  I mean, really.


We hadn't either before planning the trip.  It turns out that Palo Duro is the second largest canyon in the US.  If you need to ask what the biggest one is, I suggest you Google the terms "grand" and "canyon" together.  Something should come up.

Palo Duro is astoundingly lovely.  It's gigantic, panoramic, and doesn't have the hordes of people like the Grand Canyon.  Which really is the best part.  There are moments when you honestly think, 'well, if my car breaks down, I'm gonna die.'  (This is what we call hyperbole, by the way.)  I made Mom keep a sharp eye for rattlesnakes.

As you can tell, we didn't see any.  How can you tell?  You would have heard me screaming all the way in New England.

I honestly can't do Palo Duro justice.  There's no way to describe the sense of open space, the deep ruddy wine reds that spill across the soil to form serpentine patterns, the powder blue of a slightly clouded sky and the shocks of sunshine yellow leaves clinging to trees that are just beginning to sleep.  So instead, I'll give you a picture.

Can you click on the picture to make it bigger?  Hold on.  YES.  You can.  Click to make it bigger.

It still doesn't do it justice, but I suppose it'll have to do for now.  So Mom and I drove down and through the canyon.  Every once and a while I would yell and she would stop so I could take pictures.  She was very tolerant.  It probably helped that I would take a few pictures with her camera, too, when she asked.  I was particularly fond of what I dubbed "the yellows."  The yellows were the trees that lined the river.  Mom thinks they're cottonwoods.  Either way, they're very, very yellow.

My favorite yellow.

It's just at this yellow that the best part of the day happened.  As usual, I was taking several photos that were only altered a tiny bit when Mom called my name very urgently.  I had a mini heart attack.  When you're as ridiculous as I am, there's a rattlesnake under every pebble.  Every.  Pebble.  Instead, she was pointing out at the road, where I laid eyes on a rather unusual sight.

I'd like you all to meet Phillip the bobcat.  Yes, I named him Phillip.  Yes, he is a wild bobcat that just so happened to meander across the road.  He was actually relatively cooperative when it came to taking pictures.  (Lie.  He liked the tall grass that only showed his ears and parts of his face.)  It was very exciting, though!  I had to remind myself that this is not the type of kitty you pet.  Because that would have been bad.  Though I'm sure Mom would have stopped me.

So we hung out with Phillip a bit before he disappeared back into the brush around the road.  Too many people beside us had pulled over.  Clearly, Phillip is not a Leo, or he would have enjoyed being the center of attention a little bit more.  Then we drove out of the canyon and started heading back to Amarillo for lunch.  Lunch was at a little place, the Goldenlight, across from the aforementioned closed Mexican restaurant. It is on the National Historic Register.  It was good, relatively fast, and cheap.  A good decision.

Now, I know you're all dying to know what we did before Palo Duro. 

We ate breakfast.

Fascinating, isn't it?  Breakfast is just one of those meals.  It simply ensnares the mind and the senses.  (I hope you read that in Alan Rickman's voice, because that's how I heard it in my head.)  It was a nice slow start this morning.  Tomorrow morning will not be, as we're driving across almost all of Arizona.  It's gonna be a day.

Mileage today:  353

Total mileage: 2387

Total Angry Bird levels beaten:  73

As always, there will be more pictures on Facebook at a later time.

For everyone who has left feedback, on Facebook, by email, or here, thank you so much!  I'm so glad that you're enjoying the blog.

And now, before I end the post, a public service announcement:

BRUSH YOUR TEETH (or you'll get cavities).

Yet another postscript from Gretchen: Meeting Phillip was quite exciting. Becca was actually taking pictures of the flood indicator on the road when this bobcat strolled (there is no other word, except, maybe, sauntered) from one side of the road to the other about 30-40 feet in front of us. By the time Becca stopped looking at her feet for rattlesnakes when I called her name, he had moved into the grass. Becca still managed to get a good shot or two, but then he disappeared. Still, he was the highlight of the day.

My Mexican food frustration grows. Three times we tried a Triple D or Roadfood Mexican restaurant, only to be denied. I don't care if it was Sunday or Monday night; these places should have known we were coming. I was going to compare tamales and chiles rellenos across the Southwest. Oh well.

It will be interesting to see what tomorrow's blog will be like. We're not sure we'll get any touristing in because it is a haul across the remainder of NM and then all of Arizona. See you tomorrow!