Palo Duro Canyon Texas with Don and Debbie

September 14 – 17, 2006

About 100 miles from Dalhart is Pampa, Texas. Our friends Don and Debbie Taylor live there. We met Don and Debbie at Fun Valley about 5 years ago and they have become very special friends to us. Of coarse, we couldn’t pass by Pampa without visiting Don and Debbie.


Debbie thought it would be fun to spend a day at Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Most of the panhandle of Texas is very flat, but then you come to the Grand Canyon of Texas – which is Palo Duro Canyon. You’d never know you were still in Texas.

 
It was a hot day, but since Texas summers have many scortching days in the 100s, 90 degree temperatures really weren’t that bad. We hiked about three hours. It was an easy hike compared to some of the Colorado hikes we had taken with Don and Debbie, but it was hot.


As you can see, the Canyon is very colorful with interesting rock formations. We hiked to “the Lighthouse”, a formation that looks like two lighthouses standing side by side. When we got there, Joni wimped out again.   

She almost made it to the top, but there were just a few spots that were steep and slippery and the footing was narrow. You can see the "trouble" spot in the picture. She had to scoot down on her fanny to get back down.

 
While on the trail, Debbie noticed a SNAKE!!! And SHE PICKED IT UP!!! Brave Lady!!!

While in Pampa, we also got to visit Debbie’s parents, Clark and Jean. We met them in Fun Valley also. They usually spend the whole summer there, but were unable to go this year, so we were glad to be able to get to see them.

Visiting The Tim Jones Family in Dalhart, Texas

September 7 – 14, 2006

Delton’s brother Tim and his family (wife Kim and sons Carson and Grayson) recently moved to Dalhart, Texas from Decatur, Texas. We were happy to stop and visit them on our way back to Texas. As luck would have it, Delton’s Mom Josie, and two of her sisters, Betty and Ruth, were visiting Tim and Kim at the same time. We played a lot of “Murder” (a board game) and ate lots of good food.


Tim retired from the Navy last year and has taken a job as the anesthetist for the hospital in Dalhart. Many patients with serious medical problems are taken to a larger city for treatment, so Tim’s work schedule is light and varies greatly from week to week. He has a lot of free time.

Since Dalhart is a small town, there is not a lot to do there. They must even travel to Amarillo (about a 1 hour drive from Dalhart) to go to Wal-Mart. But, they have found a very worthwhile activity – GOLF! Delton was very happy to help Tim, his wife Kim and their son Grayson with the basics of golf. We played often while we visited them and can easily see that with all the time they are spending on golf, they will be winning any Jones Family Golf Tournaments in the future. SORRY – we have no pictures. We kept forgetting to bring our camera to the golf course.

We enjoyed our visit a lot but missed seeing Carson. Carson is a freshman at A&M. Too bad he didn’t go to a good school like Texas or Texas Tech!!!!!!!!!