With summer rapidly coming to an end, Wally & I, and some of our wonderful friends, Brad and Tara, thought we would end it with a bang, and go to the outdoor play "Texas" at Palo Duro Canyon for the last weekend production, and camp out afterwards! We had been wanting to do this getaway for a while and were super excited we followed through!
Our journey began about 5 o'clock Friday afternoon, packing all our gear (coolers, tents, pillows, etc...). We had to take Brad & Tara's Suburban because we had so much stuff (for just one night!) After loading up, we were on the road, making a quick stop in Tulia at the El Camino resturant for some delicious Mexican food (we had to practically inhale it though, because, and if you know Tara or I, you may not be too suprised by this, but we were running behind :)
We screeched into the canyon just in time for the show...which, if you haven't been to Palo Duro Canyon, you really need to go...it's beautiful! We were talking on the way, as we arrived, how random it is to be driving (a very boring, flat drive to be honest) and all of the sudden this huge canyon, with gorgeous layers of color, appears out of no where! That must have been a crazy discovery by the settlers of this area, for the scenery to change that drastically, and all of the sudden this giant hole appeared.
Anyway, we watched the musical TEXAS, underneath an awesome stormy sky (luckily no rain though), where God placed lightening strikes, right along with the script and story...it was cool. It made you proud to be a Texan...in fact, we got cracked up at just how proud all Texans seem to be of our great state....the cheers and yells were louder for the Texas flag, than the American flag, at the end of the show, when the horses come running by, with riders carrying the six flags of Texas.
After the show, which was over about 11, we still had to find a camp site, build our tents, and of course get the campfire going so we could enjoy some s'mores. This proved more difficult than it should have been....first of all, we only had one flashlight, and second of all (seen in pictures below) Wally & I had the craziest, most difficult tent ever to set up (we borrowed it, and maybe should have looked at it beforehand, so we could have figured it out a little better) But with Eagle Scout Wally and Mr. Outdoorsman himself, Brad, and Tara & I, we got our campsite up, and enjoyed some mighty good smores before bed (We were laughing about a two man tent taking four people to set up).
Although the ground was a little hard, and we didn't get as much sleep as we usually like, we awoke the next morning about 7 to watch the sunrise over the canyon (one of those sites that proves how wonderful our creator truly is). We enjoyed coffee with the help of a French press, and some good ole breakfast burritos (always better over a campfire....okay and maybe with the help of Brad's handy dandy little Coleman road trip grill)
We cleaned up, packed up, and headed for the finale of our trip, the hike to the lighthouse....unfortunately, we were under time crunch to get back to work so we didn't make it all the way to the lighthouse, but we definately booked it almost 5 miles in less than an hour and a half! (Wally has some awful blisters to prove it too!)
We had a blast on our short "before school starts back" bash...a beautiful canyon, and some great friends to share it with!
Enjoy the pics (some randoms from Shannon and Allison's wedding also included):
