Cadillac Ranch

I've been going through four months of digital photos (thousands of em) on my computer and camera TRYING to get them organized/deleted/printed. 

UGG..digital is a blessing and a curse. 

I forgot about these photos of Cadillac Ranch I visited while in Amarillo, Texas last month. 

Cadillac Ranch is right off the highway on a frontage road. If you aren't looking for it, you'd probably drive by without ever noticing it. The only reason I saw it was because their were a dozen cars parked along the side of the road.  

You have to walk a couple hundred yards off the road to go see these half buried cars. 

If you go, bring some spray paint. While I was there I saw at least four different people adding their own graffiti to the cars. It's an ever changing art project. 

This sign made me laugh though....it was on "this side of the fence"

ACTION...Blatant disregard for the law...ha! 

It was kind of neat to see and I liked the idea of visitors adding their own artistic touch. 

I just wish they had picked up their mess :( 

The Mountain Bike...for all you husbands out there, come take a look!

While we were at the canyon over the weekend, there were TONS of mountain bikers! We were constantly having to step off the trail to let them by. It was awesome watching them zoom by but I don't know how they did it. It was rough terrain. I'd have rather ran the trails than rode a bike. (Of course lots of people think I'm crazy for that.)

I didn't think their bikes were anything special but DR saw a few of them and thought they were really impressive. Which says a lot considering DR hardly rides his bike. But he's a guy and he's knows about this stuff. So he had to explain to me what was so awesome about this bike. I'm sure any guys out there who may read this blog will be much more impressed with this bike than I was because I just really don't know what it is I'm looking at here. 

Here we see the bike's hydraulic disc brakes...like the kind of brakes found on your car. 

And it has a pivoted rear end with a shock absorber which allows for a lot more cushion on rough terrain. 

In short, less bouncing on your bum. 

DR says this costs more than his first three vehicles combined....and you still have to pedal it!  

Retail it cost $4500...but lucky for this guy he was able to buy it 60% off. Odd that a total stranger shared such information....it must be a guy thing. 

(do the math....mmmm)

WHOA! That's $1800..and that's without tax! 

(more math....mmmm)

With tax it's $1926! Holy Cow!! That's a heck of a lot for a bike!

Okay, now I'm much more impressed with this bike. 

  So, are you impressed? How much would you spend on a bike? Me? Probably about $20! But...I don't ride bikes. On the other hand I'd easily put down a couple hundred for a great pair of running shoes. 

Palo Duro Canyon

Although our hotel was in Amarillo last weekend, we spent much of our time about 30 miles south of the big city in the town of Canyon, TX. Canyon has a fabulous history museum, The Panhandle Plains Historical Museum.  I won't bore you with photos considering I've already bored you to death with all the museum trips we've been to. PPHM had a fabulous exhibit on the history and establishments of the gas and oil fields in Texas. There was also a great dinosaur exhibit and my boys were especially fascinated with a video an Indian butchering a buffalo with stone tools. Check out their website and they have some video casts to watch if you can't make it to the museum. 

But the big draw for Canyon, Texas is the Palo Duro Canyon State Park and is hailed as the Grand Canyon of Texas. 

What a sight! I've been to the Grand Canyon and though Palo Duro is much smaller it is still very impressive! 

There are numerous trails and opportunities to explore the canyon. But if you visit be prepared to bring plenty of water. It may look like there are lots of trees and shade down there but there isn't nearly as much as you'd think on the trails. 

The family and I spent two mornings hiking the park while it was cool. 

I'm not sure what this photo is all about. My monkeys were watching Super Why on PBS that morning so I imagine these are their best Super Reader stances. They look formidable to me! 

As we were walking on the trail Yap pointed up at the rocks and told us we all needed to whisper so we didn't cause an avalanche...which only prodded DR to start a shouting conversation! LOL, and then Yahoo spent the whole day saying, "Ssshhhh....rocks fall on us!" with a serious expression on her little face. 

Our first trail we walked from the top to the bottom of the canyon which was about a mile and a half long. This was the view of the road through the canyon we drove the second day. 

The scenery was just gorgeous, especially first thing in the morning. 

Isn't he handsome? :) 

After two mornings of hiking we were sweating, worn out and ready for breakfast. As we ended our last trail and were loading up into the car ready to leave for good we met a gentleman that told us about one more sight we had to see before we left the canyon. 

He told us we had to see the cave because the kids would love it! See that dark shadowy place on the left side of the picture...above the trees? That's the cave.

Most people probably thought we were terrible parents dragging a two year old through hot canyon trails and up into a cave, but really, she had it easy because this was how she got around most of the weekend. Yep, I'm a pack horse! 

It was a quick climb up to the cave although a bit steep. Once at the top the cave is only about 30 feet deep but there is a hole at the top where the wind blows through and there is a very cool breeze rushing through cooling off the worn hikers. 

My car was full of red dirt and I had three hot, cranky, hungry kids but oh, for a view like this...it was definitely worth all the hassles of traveling with little kids. 

Recycled Art at the AMoA

DR and I have learned that rather than taking one long vacation that two or three long weekend trips through the year work best for our family. With young kids getting drug here and there, missing naps, staying up late in hotel rooms more than 3 days of a vacation gets exhausting for everyone. I'm hoping that when the kids get older that vacations may get longer and further away. Anyone care to comment on what my future vacations may hold? 

Anyway, this weekend we went to Amarillo, Texas which is about a 4 hour drive from home. One of the places I really wanted to go to was the Amarillo Museum of Art. 

My favorite artist is Georgia O'Keefe and she spent her early years as an artist teaching and working in Amarillo. Most of her early work were small watercolors before she moved onto huge oil paintings. I've seen the big ones but I'd never seen any of her early watercolors...and the Amarillo Museum had TWO!! I was so excited. As soon as I stepped through the museum entrance I asked where they were.

Ggggrrr....one was out on loan and the other, being almost 100 years old, was rarely displayed to the public. But I did come away with a free poster of one of the paintings...good thing it was one of my favorites!! 

I forgave them for denying me the O'Keefe though after going through their collection. They had a fabulous Asian Art collection and had a really neat exhibit by local artists of recycled art. Here's just a few of em'. 

Spider made out of curlers, wires and florist eggs. I'm not sure what a florist egg is but I assume it's the big yellow thing used for it's body. My mom hates spiders...I wonder if she'd like this though? 

I want a chair like this!! The seat is woven with old leather stamped belts. Anyone have some belts they want to send me?? I bet it would even be comfortable to sit on. 

What a gorgeous rooster painted on an old window! 

The museum was three levels and each level was a circle with railings to look over into the center of the museum. From this empty middle hung this sculpture. The pom poms were made from newspapers and colored tissue paper hung from fishing line that was strung with drinking straws. There are also chains (attached to the rails) made from wine corks. I love this exhibit!! It makes me want to start raiding trash cans around town! 

This one is probably my favorite. Have you ever read about Mother Teresa? An amazing life! This is made entirely from found objects, even the paint was found or bought at garage sales. In the upper left are the words, "I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use. -Mother Teresa". I feel like that sometimes. 

I think this one is probably DR's favorite. I'm trying to talk him into helping me construct a tool family for our front yard complete with likenesses of me, him and the kids. He just rolled his eyes at me. What? That isn't such a weird idea! 

This exhibit got me thinking and I'm wondering what I can scrounge together creatively into a fabulous work of art. I may have trouble though..DR has forbid me to start stashing away junk for possible uses. I already have some ideas brewing though!