"We're off to the red river valley..."

Stuart and I leaveAmarillo with the Quebe sisters’ unique brand of Texas music blasting and warm memories of the best hospitality this side of my parents’ own home on our minds. A snowstorm is currently dumping upwards of 12” of snow on much of northern Arizona and New Mexico, necessitating a new plan for our drive to Las Vegas. We are now heading ~21 hours from Texas down south to Las Cruces, NM then on through Tucson and Phoenix before getting to Kate’s house. The last 24 hours have been amazing, as Mr. and Mrs. Binkley (Bink and Cindy) provided us with fresh showers, home cooked green chili stew/margaritas/tamales/breakfast, some fresh laundry and some great conversation. Before delving into that, here’s a replay of the past 48 hours:

-       -   Left NC at 10 p.m. after picking Stuart up in Charlotte, hitting Gary and Deanne’s for coffee and a vehicle swap, and then leaving town with the intention of hitting Amarillo early enough to spend an eve w/ tres and get a good night’s sleep. In hindsight this was a smart move, as we’re now looking at a much longer trip than we first thought

-      -   4:30 P.M: 19.5 hours after leaving, we arrived in Amarillo to the above-mentioned green chill stew/tamale/enchilada meal and some great hosts in the form of Tres’ parents. The evening continued w/ a tour of the city and ended up in a bar called the Spotted Pony. The spotted pony is a local dive most famous for being the site of many a fight and a recent shooting that left an out of towner dead. Thankfully our experience was rather benign, save the story Tres’ friend Josh a.k.a “True Grit” told us about flushing rattle snakes out of their dens w/ a weed sprayer full of gasoline! Some lone star beer in a can rounded out a great eve and we were sacked out by 12 in need of some sleep

-       --Woke up this morning to some French press coffee, poached eggs, bacon and homemade apple-pecan waffles! After breakfast we made our way out to the beautiful Palo Duro canyon..The spot is amazing, reminding me of the western slope of Colorado, save a slightly smaller cliffline. Photos above and on my facebook page speak to the beauty of the canyon. After leaving the canyon we visited the “Cadillac Ranch” a place that is best described in picutres, as words cannot do it justice.

 N    Now it’s about 5 p.m., Stuart is driving past a particularly rank cattle farm and I am holed up under a blanket in a vain attempt to write a blog post that will keep everyone entertained. I’ll try my best to do so, though Gary’s Honda Element is currently being wind blasted and it's hard to concentrate..also, Stuart just ran over a cat so I'm bummed.