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.