Palo Duro/Amarillo

September 25-28, 2018

After successfully navigating our way out of Red Rock Canyon State Park we set our sights on Palo Duro Canyon State Park, the "Grand Canyon of Texas". After 240+ miles we arrived at the top of the canyon. The campgrounds are at the bottom of the canyon, the road down to the bottom has a two mile 10% grade but the road is plenty wide enough as long as folks stay in their lane. Our site was in the Juniper Loop with water and electric $25/night, we have the Texas Park Pass to cover daily entry fees into the Texas State Parks. There is no Verizon signal though reports have it you can get ATT, no trouble getting a satellite signal and there were a bunch of over the air channels. 

Site 104

As has become the norm when we are near bigger cities, head into to the town to do the tourist thing, take in a brewery and maybe have a meal somewhere. So what did we do on our day in Amarillo, a town that has a rich Route 66 history that we just had to see a few of the sites.

Our first stop was Cadillac Ranch where 10 Cadillac’s are buried nose first, a place where you can spray paint Cadillacs and not get in trouble.

After doing our artwork for the day we headed to the Jack Sisemore RV Museum for the cultural part of the day.  Free admission and a wonderful personal collection of old RV’s and camping stuff with some motorcycles and auto memorabilia thrown in. Not sure I’d want to full time in some of those old RV’s, sure is interesting to see how far we’ve come. The museum is on the site of the Jack Sisemore dealer which was recently taken over by Camping World, so far nothing said Camping World.

A stop at the Long Wooden Spoon Brewery for the boys to try some local brew. Curt made a stop afterwards at a local beer store to get some brew they made, Dave didn’t feel compelled to add any to the collection at home. What has been different about breweries in OK and TX is they haven’t been serving food at the breweries, I know it’s local/state regulations and some bring in food trucks just different and for us non beer drinkers it doesn’t leave much. 

If you’re doing the tourist thing in Amarillo you must stop at the Big Texan for a meal, so of course we did. This is our third visit and all have been good, much better than some similar places we’ve been to.

Over the course of a few days we hiked a few of the trails on the canyon floor, next time we come here I want to do some of the other hikes. Some hiking, geochaching and wildlife made for a fun few days.

Scenery along the canyon floor hikes.

There was some geocaching or figuring out where the heck we were.  We did end up with a few geocaches. 

Of course there is always the wildlife.

While there we enjoyed the dark skies and almost full moon.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time but like so many of the parks we’ve been to this trip the flies have been terrible. We enjoyed some great meals and fun evenings playing cards with Curt and Glenda, hard to believe our trip is now winding down.  

Until next time…

On The Road to Arizona

We left Wisconsin on a beautiful Tuesday morning, the first part of our ride was through Iowa's Driftless Area. More rolling hills until we reached US 20 and headed west. We picked up I35 and headed south. Our destination was an overnight in Ankeny at Prairie Flower COE to visit a friend.

Praire Flower Campground is located on Lake Saylorville and has beautiful sites. They are electric only, concrete pads, some with outstanding views of the lake. Some have shade and others none. Another great COE park...think we'll be back.

Site C82

 Last winter we became friends with some of the workampers at Gulf Waters, Paul and Cindy have become good friends and we always have fun whatever we do. Paul and Cindy have been volunteering at the Oak Grove day use area on Lake Saylorville, just next door to where we were camped. Unfortunately Cindy had already left for Mesa AZ and her winter position as office manager at Meridian RV Resort in Apache Junction. After setting up we found Paul down at the lake with a stringer of yellow perch. Needless to say Dave really wanted to get a pole out but it was already late in the afternoon. Paul treated us to dinner at Fong's Pizzeria in Ankeny, quite different and very good. Of course no pictures of the whole evening, too much catching up going on. Thanks Paul for a great dinner, see you in AZ soon. I've said it before but it bears repeating, we have so many friends already planning on being in AZ for some or all of the winter...it's going to be a fun winter.

On the road the next morning by 8:10, 380 miles later we arrived at El Dorado State Park in El Dorado KS...south I35 all the way with bypasses around the major cities.  The terrain has transformed from crops to range land, though we are zipping by I enjoy watching the changes of the countryside, the style of homes and the small glimpses of life I get along an interstate.

El Dorado State Park is about 8 miles off of I35, we took site 29 in the walkin area. Great Verizon and we easily got a signal with our portable satellite. We'll be here for two nights with FHU's, a little decompression time from all of our visiting.





We enjoyed our down day at El Dorado, took a walk through the campground and then rested my back which decided to bother me for no reason.

Our next stop was at Roman Nose State Park in Watunga OK, most of the time we love state parks, well this one not so much. Sites were tight in our area, in other areas they were pretty sad looking.

We were there over a beautiful weekend and the park was full. We did get out an enjoy a few trails in the park.

 Our next stop was Amarillo TX for an overnight at Oasis RV Park on the west side of town. We had thought to go to Palo Duro Canyon State Park for a few days but heard there was no internet so instead we took an afternoon ride into the park. Now don't get me wrong it was a great park and all but when you've already hiked in the UT/AZ/CO National Parks it just doesn't compare.

While in the area we of course drove by Cadillac Ranch and had dinner at The Big Texan, both Route 66 landmarks. This was our second time for dinner and we enjoyed another great meal...we could even take home leftovers this time.

For the last week or so we have been a few stops behind our friends Gail & Rick of the former blog Gypsy Turtles, we fist met them in the summer of '13 in Vermont.  Gail was the first blogger I met and encouraged me to take the blog public. So many great friendships have resulted from taking the blog public. Today we decided to stop on the west side of Albuquerque at High Desert RV Park where they are spending a few days.

 
It was great to see them  and again thank you Gail & Rick for dinner...see you soon. They are on the way to Yuma where they plan to winter...I know there will be a few more meetups over the winter.

Friday we head into Mesa, tomorrow our travels will take us to Winslow AZ and Homovoli Ruins State Park.It's been a fun trip south, still don't think it's set in we're not going back to VT. Seems like we're away for the winter again. Guess when we don't head north east in the spring it might set in. Life is good.

Until next time...