The United States: A Travel Log by Major Brannen: Canyons, Colorado, lots of miles

Hello everyone, I am blogging tonight from Telluride Colorado, and staying with Aunt Laurie Uncle Tom, Audrey and Ella! I haven't posted in four days, so this will be a tad lengthier.

This past Sunday night I stayed at a KOA in Lubbock Texas, posted the last blog update, and went to a drive-in movie theater across the highway. This was really cool, besides the fact I felt like a looser going to the movies alone, because I thought that drive-ins did not exist anymore. I saw Super 8 which was OK and The Hangover 2 which was pretty predictably disappointing and funny at the same time.

The next day, I ate lunch with JT and Daniel Rose's brother Ben, who is a student at Texas Tech. We ate Mexican food and had a few beers and a good chat.

That afternoon, I visited a cotton seed oil mill. I didn't take any pictures, but the uses of cotton seed oil are pretty cool and its very healthy (tasteless, unlike most oils). Not only is cotton seed oil healthy for you (no trans fats), ALL of the by-products are sold to other industries and thus nothing goes to waste. The massive piles of cotton seeds were very impressive in their on rite (oh about 100 feet tall, and about 8 or 9 of them (just the seeds)). I will not continue to bore you with stuff about the cotton seed mill.

After the mill I hit the road to Palo Duro Canyon State Park which is southwest of Amarillo Texas. For those of you who are note Texas State Park buffs, Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States by volume.

When I arrived, I immediately set up the camper, but for some reason if felt a little uneasy; almost like I was being watched -and it wasn't the bikers camping across the road. I realized after a while there was a deer standing about ten yards away from me (god knows for how long), blankly staring as if he were actually interested in what I was doing. Seeing a deer this close, that wasn't scared of me, made me giddily smile. I jokingly gave her the dog whistle, and said "here boy," and what do ya know she came closer. Then, I noticed something... this deer was drooling. I thought to myself, "man I sure hope she doesn't have rabies or something." But then I remembered that the area had not had a rain in almost 8 months, and also that I didn't ever see that river that carved this big ole canyon (because it no longer existed)....hmm I bet she his thirsty. I got her a bowl from my cabinet and poured her some water, and she immediately came and lapped up the bowl of water.

Quite a feeble, ribby deer, and thirsty nonetheless

She got very very close; this is not zoomed. She kept smelling in the camper. I assume that she smelled some food or something. I will keep this in mind as I transition to bear country.

From the base of the Canyon floor. I have realized that since I can't take pictures of myself, I without realized that the truck and camper represents me in all of the pictures.

The next event in the canyon was that night. I was awoken by lightning and my power going out to the AC hookup. I said, well Crap.... this is great, this place is in an 8 month drought and I get here when the only storm of the century is coming through. I thought, it won't be that bad, and plus the ground is sandy and dry so I'll be fine. WELL. I couldn't sleep a wink. I kept on thinking "how am I going to get out of a canyon flash flood...." So i decided to think positively, "I guess I won't get struck by lightning, and if these mesquite trees fall, I doubt it would do any real damage; I bet the percentages on canyon tornadoes is pretty low." The lightening was popping non-stop, but after about two hours of hard rain, it ceased and the power came back on and I drifted to sleep thinking my dear doe friend wouldn't need me anymore.

That morning in the canyon, I was having I nice after packing/shower breakfast when my old doe friend shows back up for some more....hmmm not water. Well now just overnight Mrs. Doe thinks my water isn't good enough for her tastes, she wants a piece of strawberry pop-tart and a crunch of my carrot. Not only did she crash b-fast she brought three of her best friends along to pester me. I swatted at them, did a deer warning call...nothing deterred these ladies. While I was concentrated on the three deer in front of me, one came over my shoulder and tried to take my carrot... I spun around, and she jumped. I finally figured out that they responded only to foot stamping, which I have observed female deer do when they are aggravated or confused about the identity of another animal. They eventually moved off and I pointed the camper to Spearman Texas.

Buzzed wheat field, as far as the eye can see

I stopped in Spearman Texas to meet another one of Tom's friends from the past, and to tour his state-of-the-art cotton gin. Mr. Key is a great guy, spent about 2.5 hours with him at the gin and then we enjoyed some Texas BBQ brisket and ribs and I headed to Pueblo Colorado to meet up with Carter Johnson at Karen Witten's family's ranch.

This is the road that Mr. Key's cotton gin is on, every road out here is like this: long, strait, and seemingly endless.

Sky-Scraper (grain bin) in Spearman Texas

To you Mr. Bridges... Dad (I mean Julie Because I know he doesn't look at this thing) send this to Mr. Bill

After long hours across the flatness of the Texas panhandle (I think the panhandle is more properly named the top-hat because it looks nothing like a panhandle), I see a fire in this drought stricken land... I was excited to see some action, so I slowed down and checked it out... until I realized it was a gas station that was on fire...... then I quickly sped away.

I spent about 4 hours in New Mexico, going to Colorado. I saw a Volcano, and a bunch of volcanic formations. I have pictures but I couldnt find them on the camera... Ill update later. The mountain on the left hand horizon is a volcanic formation

Went through a mountain pass... It dropped 30 degrees and I was in Colorado! The weather was quite interesting in NM too went from 100 degrees to 68 in about 20 miles.