We've got to make Palo Duro Canyon by Sundown

We've covered a lot of ground in the last few days.  To get it all in, I will present a story in three parts:

• PART1: Taos is tacos without the "c"
• PART2: We've got to make Palo Duro Canyon by Sundown
• PART3: Highway 87

[standard disclaimer for the slide shows: Click on the bottom of the image and use the nav bar that pops up to start the show. Don't click on the big play button in the middle, it will redirect you]

Part 1: Taos is tacos without the "c".

We said goodbye to Jim and Frona on Tuesday morning and started our three day trip towards Austin.  Our first leg would take us down hwy 285  to Taos where we planned to check out the Pueblo and spend the night before moving on towards Roswell around lunch time.

The drive to Taos was spectacular.  The majority of it was spent on an elevated plane with snow covered peaks on all sides.  We made good time through the mountains - our only stop was in Fairplay, CO (which i learned includes the town that was the inspiration for the tv show South Park) for lunch at the "Beary Beary Tasty" cafe which was as advertised.

We arrived in Taos a little before 5 and found that it was pretty much already closed up for the night so we decided to grab a quick bite to eat and head to Santa Fe instead.  While we were looking for an open eatery Joey observed in frustration that "I keep thinking I see Taco places but they all just say Taos".

We did eventually find a spot to grab some so/so tex-mex before heading on to Santa Fe.  We arrived in Santa Fe around 8 pm, and stopped by the public library (which we randomly parked in front of) to find lodging.  We ended up staying at the Old Santa Fe in which was only a few blocks away (across from the Verterans memorial).  We walked around the old Adobe downtown Santa Fe a bit before calling it an early night.

Part 2: We've got to make Palo Duro Canyon by Sundown

On Wednesday morning we had a delicious complimentary breakfast at the Inn (breakfast burrito bar and waffle batter for do it yourself fresh waffles) and headed out to explore Santa Fe on our 2nd consecutive beautiful day (tying a record for our trip).  Unfortunately we only had a few hours in town as we had to make it to Palo Duro Canyon, our newly conceived next destination before the campground closed to new arrivals at 8:00 pm.  We made the most of our time by exploring the downtown, and checking out the work of the Native American artisans who display their work along the Square.

We left Santa Fe around 12:30 headed for Texas.  We were briefly chased outside of town by a desert storm, which caught us, dumped rain and hail on us, and then went on its way.  Other than that, the weather was perfect for the 6 hour drive along I-40 to Amarillo.  

If time had not been a factor we would have rather taken old route 66 which runs roughly parallel to I-40, but we were in a race against the night.  We did, however, take a brief interlude along the old route as we passed through the town of Tucumcari and stopped at Dell's restaurant for lunch (I had the J special - two enchiladas and a chili Relleno, with both red and Green Chili.  Joey had the Chicken fried steak.  He said it was good, but i'm pretty sure I had a mild heart attack by proximity).  Tucumcari itself was interesting - a good example of what happens when a town is bypassed by the interstate (see pics of the old main drag in the slide show).

After lunch we headed on our way and despite a minor setback when we forgot to factor in the change from mountain to central time, arrived at out campsite with 30 min to spare.  We set up camp, played a few games of chess, ate a light dinner (1/2 cucumber, 1 potato, 1/2 onion between the two of us) and went to bed.  This was our first night camping without rain which was nice except that we could now hear the wildlife around us (i'm pretty sure there was a raccoon jamboree happening right outside our tent).

We woke up this morning, did a quick hike on the trail behind our campsite and got on the road toward Austin.

Part 3: Highway 87

We got on highway 87 around 8:30 this morning and headed southeast towards Austin for the next 9 hours.   We stopped for "breakfast" (i had a BBQ beef sandwhich) at the nu-griddle diner in Plainview which sported a special non-smoking section tucked away in the corner of the restaurant.  We opted for smoking so as not to be sequestered from the general population.

Highway 87 pretty much passes through a whole lot of nothing, but we did get to drive through Happy, TX (the town without a frown) and sample our first taste of TX BBQ in Brady.  The BBQ setup was pretty neat: 1 - walk up to the pit outside and select what you want and how much (everything was by the pound).  2 - the guy working the pit tosses your meat on a cafeteria tray with a paper liner (no plate). 3- pick up additional sides (everything comes with beans) inside, grab a beer (domestic only) and pay. 4 - sit down at the communal tables stocked with paper towels, supersized bottles of BBQ sauce, and loaves of wonder bread. 5 - watch dear hunting program on TV and enjoy.

We arrived at Doug and Celina's house around 7, got cleaned up and headed to 6th street to take in the Thursday night scene.  Doug and his friend went to see a pre-planned show, while joey and I took in the sites.  It was a lot of fun, literally every bar had good or at worst passable music and every girl was wearing cowboy boots - what more could you ask for?

This is our first of three nights in Austin. Tomorrow, we'll be headed into town to see Doug's band fulfilling their weekly residence at a local bar.