Day 10 Sunday August 26th – Amarillo to Dallas, TX.

Well, this was the last day of this year’s trip. Normally the drive back from Amarillo would be very boring, but I decided to take a trip down memory lane and to see something new. The new was Palo Duro Canyon. All the time I have lived in Texas, I have never been there, so I decided to go today. Left Amarillo and if was sunny and 66 degrees but soon ran into a fog bank a few miles south of town. It was foggy for about 30 miles. Check out the picture of the exit to Palo Duro Canyon. As you can see, I still have not seen it!!! I also decided to take a longer route and go by my grandparent’s old house in Hamlin Texas where with the exception of a few differences; it was like a time warp. The street is still gravel, the house looks the same, the neighbors houses still look the same. I then took the old highways of Texas 83 and 180 before they built the interstates. These highways take you through all the smaller once thriving communities of Anson, Albany, Breckenridge (where my grandparents are buried) Palo Pinto, Mineral Wells (where the old Baker Hotel stands 14 stories above the city) and Weatherford. This was a time before people wanted to zip on by via the interstate system. There is a lot of cotton up there still and the crops are starting to flower. It was a long day, but very enjoyable and brought back a lot of great memories. Drove 468 miles today for a total of 3271 miles this year.