Amarillo This Morning Had Me Time Warping Over A Decade

In the picture you are looking at the Texas Panhandle whilst heading southeast towards Dallas/Fort Worth on Highway 287, a few miles past Amarillo.

This photo was taken in early September of 2001. I was returning from a solo roadtrip to Washington for my mom and dad's 50th Anniversary, along with a few other reasons for the trek north.

The past month or two I have been appalled a time or two as I go through my webpages altering the code. Some of these webpages were made whilst I was still in Washington, making some of them maybe 15 years old, or older.

So, what has appalled me? Well, for one thing, it appalls me how many of the webpages I have totally forgotten making. Even ones made in the last 5 years. Like I have no memory of making such a detailed webpage about Austin for my Regions of Texas part of my Eyes on Texas website.

Apparently I webpaged in antiquated framed style my 2001 roadtrip to Washington. That is where I found the Texas Panhandle photo.

Another thing that has appalled me is reading things I long ago wrote and realizing how much much of my attitude towards Texas has changed over the years. Some of what I wrote seems a bit embarrassing to me now, to read, years later.

The text that I wrote to go with the Texas Panhandle photo is not a good example of the old text that I have found a bit embarrassing. The Texas Panhandle text I still found to be a bit amusing....

South of Amarillo, heading towards Dallas/Fort Worth, after a month of mountains, now nary a mountain in any direction, clouds providing scenery. In the movie True Stories a character explains Texas by saying that when God made the earth He worked hard, making mountains and oceans and valleys and trees and all manner of scenic wonder to please Man, but by the time He got to Texas He was tired and didn't have any energy left to do anything with the land. And so He left it that way. And then had to make a special type of Man who liked it that way, and so God invented the Texan....

In Texas Dipping In To Chilly Water On The Next To Last Day Of September

Morning of the next to the last day of September, 2010, dawns bright and semi-chilly at 60 degrees.

I heard from the outgoing Washingtonians last night as they made Amarillo by evening. They did not eat the 72 ounce steak at the Big Texan Steak Ranch.

And now I've heard from Amarillo this morning as the outgoing Washingtonians head out of Texas heading into a bright red morning sky.

I watched a smart phone demonstration yesterday that has me now seeing why I might want one. Previously I thought a smart phone seemed like a lot of bother.

Yesterday, when I left Mercado Juarez, I headed west on Northside Drive, wanting to see if I could make sense of something I saw the day previous while biking the Trinity Trails. My curiosity was more than satisfied by what I saw. It will require another bike ride on which I hope to get some good pictures.

In the meantime I am going swimming in some chilly water.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Palo Duro Canyon is the Grand Canyon of Texas. It's also where Charles Goodnight started a huge ranch that continues to this day. Charles Goodnight's life helped inspire Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park is the setting for an over the top Texas spectacle called "Texas".

"Texas" is sort of an outdoor musical drama telling the story of the settling of the Panhandle.

Palo Duro Canyon is near Amarillo.

That part of Palo Duro that you see sticking up in the photo is called The Lighthouse. You can hike or bike to The Lighthouse. It takes about 4 hours to hike roundtrip. Much faster to bike.

Palo Duro Canyon has great mountain biking. Several years ago I talked Gar the Texan into learning how to mountain bike. This had mixed results. And a lot of bad wrecks. Gar the Texan's parental units live near Palo Duro Canyon, I believe in a town called Canyon.

Below watch video of me and Gar the Texan mountain biking to The Lighthouse in Palo Duro Canyon State Park.