Bob & Elizabeth's Excellent Adventure

"Well there she sits buddy just a-gleaming in the sun
There to greet a working man when his day is done
Im gonna pack my pa and Im gonna pack my aunt
Im gonna take them down to the cadillac ranch"

The Boss would be proud - we headed over to Cadillac Ranch on Thursday.  One of Amarillo's top tourist attractions, this is 10 classic cadillacs buried nose down in a large field.   An eccentric millionaire guy put them there years ago.  People from all over the world have added their own touches from scratching initials to spray painting.   We had fun walking around them, crawling through them and sprawling on them for unique photo ops.  Check out the Amarillo Photo Gallery for a slide show.

On Thursday, we rounded off our day of sightseeing with a trip to the American Quarter Horse Museum and Hall of Fame.  This two story building is filled with interactive exhibits, sculptures, paintings and artifacts detailing the history and modern activities of this beautiful breed.  We spent a few hours touring the museum, riding the deprtment stoer ponies (hey, I know they're for kids but we're young at heart, right???)                  It was fun walking through the Hall of Fame, which included top horses and horsemen of the past, and checking out relatives of two of the Paint Horses I have owned.  An interesting  tidbit I noticed -  in an exhibit on the colors of a Quarter Horse it listed all the colors acceptable for a Quarter Horse.  At the bottom was a note that on rare occasion a foal might be born with spots of white all over it's body, a Paint.  What it didn't say was that years and years ago, before the Paint became a recognized breed, crop-out white was so frowned upon that breeders didn't want it known that their stock produced them.  Any such foals where spirited far away and given away unregistered or even drowned!  There's even an old horseman's rhyme which tells of the prevailing attitude of the day:

"One white sock, buy him.

Two white socks, try him.

Three white socks, deny him.

Four white sock and a white nose, take off his hide and feed him to the crows!"

Luckily for me and other Paint enthusiasts (and of course the horses themselves!) that changed and a new breed was born, the American Paint Horse.

After passing it by for the past two years, we finally made it to Palo Duro Canyon and it was spectacular, well worth a stop.  At 120 miles long and between 600 to 800 feet deep, it is the second largest canyon in the United States.  We started our visit with a drive down the rim to the splendor below.  Gorgeous red rock formations, wildlife, hard wood trees, a river and good hiking awaited us below.  The 16 mile round-trip drive begins with a twisting, turning road descending down 10% grades.  When we got to the furtherst most point in the road, we stopped at a day-use area and had a fabulous four mile hike filled with splendid views and wildlife sightings.  Immediately upon entering the trail we saw two wild turkys scurry for cover in the brush.  A short time later, as we were standing upon a ridge, we came across a doe bounding through the feild below us.  Thinking perhaps she was being pursued as a snack by some large predator, we stopped to watch.  Maybe we would see a mountain lion!  But, no, nothing was chasing her and a short time later she was out of sight.  As we continued along our hike and came to a stream down below what do we see? The doe, drinking her fill.  That's why she was running, she was parched!  After watching her for a while we sure were glad the imaginary mountain lion didn't get to her: her two fawns appeared from behind a nearby tree! Glad the family unit wasn't broken. We continued our hike through the glorious canyon and headed back to the trailhead.  We had a picnic lunch amid the wild turkys who appeared to have seen one to many picnic basket: they came within a few feet of us and were pecking the ground at our feet looking for leftovers!  As we were cleaning up another visitor stopped by - a lovely deer.  Again, the protected land and many picnics had caused this animal to lose its fear of man.  He came to within ten feet of us, stopping to munch a pretzel that Bob had dropped. 

Saturday night was warm and pretty, a nice backdrop for a cook-out at Reta and Jim's house. You remember Reta and Jim, they're the wonderful friends of Barb and Darrell who came to Quail Run on Barb's B-Day weekend. It was great seeing them again, they are a hoot! And, boy, do they throw a great party! Reta is a hostess extraordinaire and Jim sure cooks a mean burger. Just watch out for those grilled jalapenos - Bob had to eat an ice cube after his first bite! The food was great, the drinks flowed freely and we got to meet many of Barb and Darrell's friends that we have heard so much about.  What a fun outing.

A beautiful 80 degree day was the perfect setting for a bike ride to the zoo so we fired up the bike and off we went. Amarillo Zoo is a small zoo set in Thompson Park with exhibits of native American animals as well as a few exotics.  And it is FREE, my favorite four letter word.  We meandered around the zoo, enjoying the exhibits and the glorious day.   Although most of the big cats and bears were dozing in the sun, the peacock strutted his stuff and gave us a nice show and the spurred tortoise was hustling all around his place.  I've never seen one move so quickly, I was looking around for the hare.  A highlight was the Spider Monkey exhibit where we stopped for quite a spell. I love monkeys, after all I am married to the biggest monkey of all. heeheehee (p.s. don't tell him I told you so!)