Heading East

After leaving our friends at Sumner Lake, we continued east on US 60 into the Texas Panhandle to Canyon, TX, about 20 miles south of Amarillo. We tried everything to find a place to stay - public land (none in Texas,) free camping lists, Moose and Elks, even half price Passport America - everything! Well, everything except a full price RV park, of course. We ended up at Walmart for the night where we spent about $60 inside and filled the RV with gas for another $140.

Our reason to stop in Canyon was to visit Palo Duro Canyon nearby. Although the weather was looking rather iffy, we unhitched the car and took off. The visitors center closes at 5 and because we lost an hour crossing into Texas and we missed the building on our way down the canyon, we only had about 15 minutes there. But I always think they build visitor centers at the most picturesque spots.

Sometimes Ron insists that I be in a picture. He managed to snap one between cloud banks.


On our way down into the canyon, we saw quite a few of these 'wild' turkeys. Last time I was here, I saw dung beetles! Now THAT was exciting!


There are six of these dips along the drive. We can only imagine the red tide that must flood them when it rains. You can see how they plow the mud off to the side.


At the end of the canyon drive is a campground where we did see some sun. I liked the look of the red, red rock with the green trees.

After that, the clouds moved back in and Ron quickly returned through those six dips just before a downpour with hail. That was pretty exciting, but my favorite part was the thunder. It just echoed across the canyon and seemed to go on forever. After the storm passed, I wanted to go check out the dips, but Ron wouldn't go for that.

After a decent night's sleep, we made 'Amarillo by Morning', switched to I40 and headed for 'OK-la-ho-ma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain.' Since it was sweepin' so hard, we only went another 20 miles and stopped at the city park in Sayre. It's quite a place - water and electric for $12, swimming pool, and golf course for $10 a day ($12 on weekends.) We didn't take advantage of any of those, not even the hookups since our batteries were full, but it's a nice quiet spot.

The wildflowers are amazing along the highway. At first I thought they might have thrown out seeds, but we also saw them on our drive on back roads around town. This is just a poor sample.


And Ron made a friend in front of the courthouse. . .


Which was featured in the movie The Grapes of Wrath.