This morning we started the day by driving out of Palo Duro Canyon State Park and wandering into Amarillo for breakfast or lunch at Youngblood’s Cafe. The cafe was highly hyped on the internet but it turned out to be extremely mediocre. My chicken fried steak was nominal but the fries were flimsy and soggy. Peg’s cheese burger was very good but she got the same fries. The prices for all this manna were low; we escaped only $22 poorer, minus tip.
We picked up some fuel for our departure from the stunning state of Texas tomorrow. We have picked up Route 66 (also normally called I-40) for our passage back to San Diego and it looks like we are headed from here to Tucumcari, NM. We then headed back to Palo Duro where we decided to pull over near the park trading post and take a very short stroll to a wildlife viewing blind. If we hadn’t cruised through the trading post parking lot yesterday, we would not have seen the tiny sign directing sharp-eyed tourists to the blind.
Up until today, the wildlife we have spotted in the park has been limited to five wild turkeys, roadrunners, cardinals, mockingbirds, vultures and hawks as we have explored the magnificent canyon terrain. Today, however, we got to hide in the blind and scope out the dozens of other species that have been bribed into the park bird feeding station. We spotted canyon wrens, more cardinals, some very chubby doves, a couple varieties of finch, spotted towhees, a brown thrasher, a cedar waxwing, rock wrens, pine siskins, more golden-fronted woodpeckers and a few species we couldn’t identify. The blind is only about 15 feet from the feeders and folks who don’t make a racket or move about spastically can be treated to an amazing bird display. As we left the blind, we crossed paths with a collared lizard but he was only about 5 inches long so he yielded.
Today is our last full day in Texas. We came into the state on January 9 and we have been superbly entertained for the last two months while exploring this great place. The state is massive and there is a lot of driving but the roadside scenery is mostly gorgeous. We found we like it around San Antonio, Rockport, Galveston and, particularly, Columbus. Copper Breaks and Palo Duro State Parks offer up stunning scenery and abundant wildlife. The national wildlife refuges here are filled with all kinds of creatures.
Being from California, I am terrified by tornadoes and we certainly did not like finding we were in the nasty zone when we were at Lake Conroe but we didn’t end up in Oz so it turned out okay. If I had one wish for this state, I would wish the Texans would stop littering their highways and byways or find a way to clean up the roadsides because abundant, ubiquitous plastic shopping bags, drink and food containers, black and while bulk trash bags and a gold mine of aluminum and glass beverage containers sure clutter up the foregrounds in all the views from the highways. It is tragic that this beautiful state is speckled with crap thrown from the vehicles of uncaring jerks.
You can see some of what we saw today if you click here