Travel should, ideally, be a blend of relaxation punctuated by those moments of surprise and wonder that you will remember forever. It was several years ago that we first set eyes on the Grand Canyon and to this day it is still a difficult sight to comprehend - it did not really seem real, it was so vast. Somehow you felt like your eyes were not capable of taking it all in and you needed to stitch together a panoramic view.
Our stay in Texas was to be another Canyon, Palo Duro Canyon State Park. This was a different sort of place to the Grand Canyon but no less amazing. The canyon itself is much smaller, which is fortunate because we were going to be staying at the bottom in the RV. This fact alone made it almost more impressive than the Grand Canyon, the bottom of which is accessible only to competent hikers and certainly not anyone with a five year old. However, first you need to get to the bottom down a steep 10% gradient - no mean feat for a 10 ton RV.
The campsite was beautiful. There will I promise be pictures taken with a proper camera to follow.
It was a marked change from the South - despite the heat the low humidity meant that it was much more tolerable. The site was reasonably busy so of course Hatty got on her bike to see if she could make friends.
Luckily there was one very good friend. His father came to talk to us several times too. I have written often about how awkward our conversations sometimes are with other parents, particularly those from Red States (and in several respects they do not come much redder than Texas). In this case he was actively seeking conversation so there was no avoiding it. So among the things we have now done we can add "talk to a SWAT officer from Houston about parenting and how it is love that defines a family, not blood".
However, if humans were remarkable they were nothing compared to the animal life. As the title suggests one of the first we met was a tarantula. J had seen it the night before and had taken pictures to prove that he had seen it, which was completely unnecessary because it was still there in the morning just outside the RV.
Once the sun came up it started to stomp around our pitch - we watched with fascination and a healthy dose of fear.
J in particular has an aversion to spiders but has tried not to pass this on to Hatty. We repeatedly tell her how spiders are our friends because they dispose of flies and other pests. This was certainly a time to practice what we preached.
Not to be too flippant but a large part of the acceptance of the strange and different is just being aware that you are living with it and how normal it all seems. Perhaps too with spiders - the tarantula largely ignored us although it did visibly react to Pippin (who was curious but not to same extent as she would have been with a chipmunk or the like). Eventually it found a hole and descended for the day.
The final part of acceptance is giving it a name - J insisted on naming the spider Fred and that it was a female. We would see Fred again later that day and we saw many other spiders in the campground although not all of them were alive - the spiders have much more to fear from their surroundings that we have from them.
Fred was only part of the abundant fauna that visited our campsite. We would be see wild turkeys, rabbits, bats and most remarkably fireflies. I have never seen a firefly before and could not have told you with any certainty where one would find them until they wandered onto our pitch. I saw the lights at a neighboring pitch first and assumed they were some sort of LED on the RV until the light wandered over to us.
Palo Duro is a remarkable place. I had flown to Amarillo, about 30 miles north and this had provoked surprise from many people. Granted, Amarillo is unremarkable but more people should be going there and continuing south for the beauty of this place. Indeed, we had such a good time in this park despite the problems we had with the RV. Rosie's slide-outs had stopped working and without them extended she feels very cramped. Every once in a while I would try to figure out what was wrong but without success and a very expensive repair bill loomed over us.
Still, we tried not to think too much about it and spent most of our time outside. The park has plenty of trails including a gentle one that starts from the campsite itself and goes down to the river. Though dusty this place has plenty of green thanks to the water and it was clear that they were still recovering from some of the recent downpours to hit Texas (warmly welcomed by some of Hatty's new friends from Texas).
We also tried one of the longer walks - another enjoyable experience.
There was plenty of opportunity for budding photographers to hone their skills.
We left the Canyon happy though still concerned about the RV so we stopped into a nearby RV center. I was dreading it when I walked in to their parts department and asked if someone would look at our RV's slide-outs. Someone came and had a look in the cab and also found the slide-outs unresponsive. He said he would look in the engine compartment and eliminate the easy things.
He walked off to get a few tools and the gloom settled in but in a few minutes I looked up and saw he was indicating to try it again. I turned the key, pushed the button and the hydraulics sprang into life! It was a simple as a loose battery connection and for good measure he fixed our faulty windscreen wiper. I tried to give him some money but he would not accept it and just wished us well on our journey.
So Canyon, TX is now one of my favorite places. It provided the perfect blend of relaxation and excitement. The scenery was spectacular and the animals abundant and surprising. The only more memorable experience we have had with some wild-life is the small matter of being visited by bears but that is looking ahead in the story to our next stop in Colorado so you will have to wait. In the meantime, embrace the challenge of learning to love the tarantula and Fred, wherever you are, happy hunting.
