SOLITUDE, BEAUTY AND KIDS?

Tuesday, May 16 – We took a short drive to Lizzie Mae's Mercantile.

Marsha wanted to see if there was anything she couldn't live without. She found this cute birdhouse. The door knob is the perch for the bird. NO…she did not buy it. But she did leave with two other purchases for Christmas gift no less.

The place has everything. Even an indoor water fall. Prices seemed very reasonable. A nice place for you ladies to spend a little time at.

We then took a ride down to the Historic Route 66 area. We didn't actually see anything worth writing about. At 6:00 we meet our friends, Bonnie and Kenny, at the Elks Club. We met these two at the Lubbock Elks the night of the fish fry. They were coming this way and decided to stay in the same park as us.

The Elks have just finished a complete renovation. They did a great job. All the labor was donated by members, and all but $10,000 was donated for the materials and supplies. The group there was very friendly.

The four of us then headed to the Country Barn Restaurant.

This place was really nice.

WOW…was the food delicious. MUCH better and cheaper than the Big Texan Restaurant we ate at on Monday.

Can you guess what this glass hallway lead to?

YEP…the restrooms. Man was it difficult to find which door was the women's and which the men's.

Wednesday, May 17 – We headed back to Palo Duro Canyon today. Our plan was to hike the Sunflower Trial and the Rojo Trail. We started out on the Rojo Trail, a short 2-mile round-trip.

Before connecting with the Sunflower Trail, a 2.5 mile trip we connected to the Juniper Cliffside Trail instead. This is a 6-mile trail through the cliffs boarding the northern edge of the park.

We were enjoying the solitude and beauty of the trail until we rounded a canyon cliff and heard a racket. “What the heck is that?”, we asked each other. Well, we soon figured it out when a group of 3^rd, 4^th , and 5^th graders appeared on the trail in front of us.

“Sorry, said the teacher, but there are 150 youngsters bringing up the rear.” YIKES! It was funny, we took it in stride, moving off the trail so the noisy, tired, sweaty kids could pass. We could still see and hear them when they were across the street way on the other side.

We continued with our hike leaving the kids behind. Unfortunately, they left reminders of their hike behind.....hmmmmm.

Sad thing is…they had two adults at the end of the line. You mean they didn't see this? We've often said we need to bring a plastic trash bag along on our hikes....today would have been a good day to do just that!

We stopped for lunch on a picnic table under a tree. Interesting how a crew got this picnic table in this secluded area. I'd hate to have to haul it back out of this trail.

We enjoyed a little sandwich and apple slices. Paul used the Swiss Army Knife Carrie brought him back from Denmark. Thanks Carrie.

The cool water tasted good too! It's considerable warmer today compared to our hike two days ago.

We eventually connected to the Sunflower Trail for our return trip to our car. This was a very nice trail along the river. There was very little flowing water due to the terrible drought, but occasionally we were able to spot water.

This part of the trail was in the woods which offered us a nice shade from the hot sun. We hiked along a wall of red cliffs, large trees, and the cool stream back to our car.

It always amazes us where cacti can grow. Right out the side of solid rock.

Along the road there are six river crossings. Number 6 is the only one that had water flowing over the road.

  

It was a good hike. Not as far as our previous jaunt on the Lighthouse trail, which we both agreed was a good thing on a much hotter day. We were both tired and looked forward to relaxing around the MH for the evening.

Paul did go over and help the neighbor man who was experiencing a few minor problems with his MH. He enjoyed helping and talking with this fella'. He, his wife, and four children are traveling the country of a missionary type trip. They are called Passion to Action (P2A) and have their MH painted up to call attention to their purpose. They have an interesting story and have been traveling together for 3 years. They have been featured on Good Morning America. We are amazed how this family of six live in their 40' MH.

We know many of you (especially Ohioans) won't see the humor in the next picture but we think this says it all for Texas.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!