Amarillo
Trip Start
Jul 22, 2008
1
12
14
Trip End
Aug 06, 2008
Amarillo, Texas
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Elkin's Ranch is a working cattle ranch along the edge. After we got there, they took groups of us in open Jeeps about half way down the canyon to an outdoor pavilion. There they served us a large breakfast, then had entertainment. It was a cowboy playing guitar and singing. He was accompanied by a skinny old gold miner looking type guy. They sang funny western songs and told silly western themed jokes. After they drove us back up to the ranch, we headed on over to the Palo Duro State Park. It would have been very impressive to us, had we not just come from the Grand Canyon. In Palo Duro though, the park road drives along the rim, then right down through the middle of the canyon. It was interesting to see both from the top and bottom. We staying in the car, and enjoyed most of this park from the road. Then we were off to the south east side of Amarillo. We had reservations at the Bar H Dude Ranch. It is a working cattle ranch, but has bed and breakfast and horseback riding. We couldn't come out west without going horseback riding. We got there a little after lunch, and immediately the kids wanted to go riding. They convinced Jose to go with them. I stayed back to relax. Our accommodations were clean, but quite a bit run down, but we had a whole house to ourselves that could sleep 9.
When Jose and the kids returned, Bethany came in to tell me that there were two Shetland Ponies and their two babies outside. They were so cute, and friendly.
They fixed us dinner at the dining hall. As we were getting our plates ready, Bethany said "there's a buffalo". Not only was there one buffalo, there were 8 adults and 2 babies!
They just wandered around the house for a while. It was amazing, and a bit scary to be that close to free roaming bison! Jose and the kids went for a short hike down to the creek. When they came back Christian told me that they came across a momma skunk and her four babies. They said that they got really close, until the momma raised her tail!
It's a good thing that they ran then. Could you imagine being closed up in a car for three days with three people who had been sprayed by skunks????? I'd have flown home by myself! The kids didn't know what to think about not having a tv in our house. We kept them entertained through. Jose spent quite a bit of time teahing the kids roping skills. We also quite a bit of time in the evening chatting with the only other folks staying at the ranch who were an English woman and her 17 y/o daughter. I had been hoping to hear coyotes, so after dark Jose came out and made coyote calls, to see if they would answer.
The English folks came running over, scared, thinking it was real! We told them the truth, so that they could sleep. Then however, we proceeded to scare the kids by pointing out how far we were from anything...and that's exactly how most of horror movies start. We then got to sleep with the lights on for the rest of the night. Next morning we grabbed a quick breakfast so we could get on our way. BTW, bill for the night for house rental, dinner, breakfast and three horseback rides totaled $176. Can't beat that!
Now we're on our way home. I have no other tourist stops planned, just driving.
It seems long already. It took us all morning to get out of Texas, and we won't get out of Oklahoma until 7pm or so. We'll probably drive past dark, and go into Arkansas before we stop for the night. Not much to see so far. Continued our drive through Oklahoma and Arkansas. Went through Memphis after dark, and are now at a Holiday Inn in New Albany Mississippi along 78. I'm sure Jose will want to drive straight through tomorrow (he didn't want to stop tonight).
