PALO DURA CANYON, Amarillo, Texas

What a great day to go to a canyon! The sun is up, humidity low, blue sky and white fluffy clouds.  The Palo Dura Canyon is the second biggest canyon in America—second of course to the Grand Canyon.   But who has ever heard of it?

Our first stop is the visitor center to learn something about it and from that vantage point we had a splendid view up the canyon. 

  This canyon is approachable.  It is not so deep or precipitous as the Grand. There is a road that meanders 16 miles along the bottom of the canyon. Trails on either side of the road take off either to go up the cliffs or travel beside the stream.  Campgrounds and picnic areas are set up within the canyon.

There are 6 places the canyon road crosses the stream. It looks like originally all of the crossings were fords, but the first 2 or three now are new bridges. There are water depth posts beside the bridges showing up to 5 feet on the gauge.  The other crossings are still fords, so at this time you cannot travel the whole route.  Apparently they have had a lot of rain recently, and the flash floods have washed out a couple of the crossings.  You can see where the power of the water has laid flat the surrounding vegetation all along the creek.

Because of the tremendous rains, all but 2 of the trails (which we took) are closed due to MUD.  We tried a third trail but I slipped right at the entrance and nearly fell.   It is like our NC red clay only slipperier. (is that a word?). 

Even at that we soaked up the beauty and enjoyed the hiking.  We took our sandwiches and a beer into a brand new picnic area and enjoyed our lunch.

We then headed back.  Laundry, getting the TV to work, and showers finished off the day. 

Well, I have learned about the miracles of modern technology.  In 1999 when I tried this and again in 2003 I was able to create POSTs to my BLOG as an email (Outlook Express) even when there was no immediate network connection. Each night I could capture what I had done and was thinking at that time.  Fast forward to 2015 with GMAIL and cloud computing, and guess what? Unless you can connect to a network, you can't create an email!!!   And if you don't have a good connection (i.e. high bandwidth)  you can't include pictures!  That irritated me for several days and then I decided to figure out a "work around".   So now I can create a WORD document of the prose, work on my photos on my PC and IF and WHEN there is a good enough connection, I can copy/paste the prose and insert the pictures.   I feel like I have stepped back more than a decade in the convenience of technology!  So...you will get my BLOG info whenever I can get a good enough connection.   Sorry about the lack of timeliness....dorene

 Vicksburg, Mississippi

Now that I have my pictures together I can tell you about our visit to Vicksburg.  Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to see Vicksburg because I believed there were beautiful antebellum houses on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River.  I have no idea who ever taught me that. At any rate, Chick and I set out to discover Vicksburg and if possible, find these homes. 

Most people who come to Vicksburg today frequent the four large casinos on the riverfront.  

There is also a National Military Park to commemorate the historic Seige of Vicksburg. This 46 or 47 day siege of the town by General U.S. Grant signaled (along with Gettysburg) the final major defeats  of the Confederacy.  The story of this epic battle is graphically described in a museum occupying the old Railway Depot .  

General U.S. Grant

It turns out the Mississippi  River changed course many years ago and no longer comes through Vicksburg.  Instead the much smaller Yazoo River flows by, and what used to be the broad Mississippi river bed is today occupied mostly with industrial buildings.  Along this riverbank, however, is a series of murals depicting the history of Vicksburg and its people that we really enjoyed.

Murals

"Old Town"

River Boat with Railroad Depot on Riverbank

While Vicksburg on the whole is not a pretty town (it appears they are working on making the “historic downtown” more attractive to tourists), it certainly does have quite a few of these homes.  We spent a couple of hours meandering around looking at the houses and enjoying them.  It was definitely a stop worth taking on our journey and I am glad to see the houses really exist.  They are mostly Bed and Breakfasts now, so if you are heading that way it would be fun to stay at one of them. 

 

Today is Sunday, May 24th. We have driven 1652 miles so far, and are listening to Peter, Paul, and Mary sing 500 Miles as the evening sun (8:30pm) shines beautifully into the side window. Tomorrow we will spend the day in Palo Dura Canyon so I should have some good images from that.

Our first overnight at Lake Hartwell in South Carolina was totally uninspiring. It was like stopping in a hotel, but we didn't have to carry suitcases.  The next afternoon we arrived in Opelika to visit Barbara Fletcher in her new home. What a great place she has!  Not only is the home the perfect size, it is situated in a Robert Trent Jones residential area with all the benefits of a country club without the country club fees. And someone else keeps the lawn as well! What a deal!.

We visited her daughter Jennifer's farm. While Barbara's beautiful granddaughter kept us in line,

 I got to see some of the great animals on the farm:  Potbellied pigs, chickens/roosters, a donkey, horses, and adorable baby bunnies.  Here are a few of them:

We then enjoyed a wonderful meal at Barbara's complete with a dessert I should never have eaten, but enjoyed every mouthful. 

HIT THE ROAD, JACK!

Another two days on the road, through rain and storms and we finally made it to sunshine in Amarillo, Texas where tomorrow the next step of the trip begins. 

Setting up housekeeping

Saturday I put 4.6 miles on my "fitbit" (counts my steps) just moving "stuff" from the house, up my driveway to the travel trailer in the cul de sac. Tomorrow I fill the fridge and freezer, and stow the clothes and Tuesday after I get my hair cut, we take off. First stop will be south of Charlotte near Anderson, SC at Lake Hartwell KOA.  Soon I will have a few interesting pictures to include but here is "SNOOPY II" ... our home now until July 1, if all goes well.

Planning Done

Just finished the last parts of the itinerary. We have campgrounds reserved for all of the trip and a dinner reservation at El Tovar at the Grand Canyon for May 29th. This is a second attempt for an "anniversary dinner" at the Grand Canyon. The first was April 29th, 1999. We had the dinner but the snow was so thick we couldn't see the canyon.  (Yes I know my anniversary is April not May but maybe this time we can see something.)