If I Were Going...: Texas-Oklahoma-Florida

I am a bit behind in my postings, so I am going to go all the way back to November 2015 to cover a brief part of a trip Scott and I took across country. It started with a planned visit to see Becca and Aaron in Oklahoma City the week before Thanksgiving. She wasn’t going to be able to come to Colorado for Thanksgiving and it had been several years since we had visited, so we decide to visit (with Caty flying in to join us). Becca got us all tickets to the OU/TCU game (which OU won despite sub-freezing temps).

Boomer! Sooner!

Our seats were definitely nosebleed ...

From left, Caty, me, Aaron and Becca

... and we were able (finally) to briefly meet up with my cousin Sherry, whom I hadn’t seen in 40+ years.

Left to right, Becca, Sherry, Caty and me

After planning that trip, the Florida Gators started to play exceptionally well, so we decided that we would head from Oklahoma to Florida to attend the Florida/FSU game. That put us in Florida for Thanksgiving, which we spent at Scott’s brother’s home. We visited Scott’s uncle in Sarasota before heading up to Weeki Wachee to join Donna and Rick Wilson and head up to Gainesville for the game (which was warm and an embarrassing loss for the Gators).

Go Gators!

But, this is a travel blog, not a personal blog. So, I am just going to highlight the travel components of the trip.

Texas

On the way to Oklahoma, we stopped a two well-known Texas State Parks – Palo Duro Canyon and Caprock Canyons.

Palo Duro Canyon is in the Texas Panhandle Caprock Escarpment near Amarillo. The second-largest canyon in the United States, it is roughly 70 miles long, has an average width of 6 miles (but reaches a width of 20 miles at places) and ranges from 800 to 1,000 feet deep. It is often called "The Grand Canyon of Texas," which I believe does it a disservice.

Palo Duro

It is lovely – especially for Texas, which is not the most beautiful state in the nation. But, it ain’t no Grand Canyon. Making the comparison just serves to disappoint anyone expected the grandeur of the Grand Canyon.

This is the real Grand Canyon!

Palo Duro Canyon was formed by the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, which winds along the level Llano Estacado until it dramatically runs off the Caprock Escarpment. Water erosion shaped the canyon's geological formations, including caves and hoodoos.

A meandering stream

The signature feature of the park is the Lighthouse Rock, which would make you assume that the brochures or signs would tell you where it is. Not so much. After searching, we finally saw it in the distance and found a sign indicating that it is a six-mile round trip hike to see it.

Pretty, but, still, not the Grand Canyon

Palo Duro is believed to have been inhabited for at least 15,000 years. Apaches lived there, but after it was visited by the Coronado expedition in 1541, they were displaced by Comanche and Kiowa tribes, which had the advantage of owning horses brought over by the Spanish. The land remained under American Indian control until a military expedition led by Col. Ranald Mackenzie in 1874 captured about 1,200 of the Indians' horses and destroyed them in nearby Tule Canyon. The Comanche and Kiowa conceded and left the area for reservations in Oklahoma. This is celebrated in some signs that I believe need to be updated to reflect the error of this kind of action.

Cattle country

In 1876, Charles Goodnight (yes, that Charles Goodnight) and wealthy Englishman John Adair established the JA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon. Goodnight helped manage the ranch until 1890. Over the next half century, the canyon remained in private hands, but was an increasingly popular tourist spot for local residents. In 1931, a major landowner signed a two-year contract with the local chamber of commerce to allow public access to the canyon. The upper section of the canyon was purchased by the State of Texas in 1934 and turned into the 20,000-acre Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Georgia O'Keeffe lived near the Canyon early in the 20th century (below is one of her paintings of the canyon).

Georgia O'Keeffe painting

Fossils of saber-toothed cats, bone-crushing dogs, mastodons, horses, long-necked camels, rhinoceroses, and tortoises have been found in the area.

After we left Palo Duro, we came across a flock of Sandhill Cranes ...

Sandhill Cranes

... but they flew away before we could get any good pictures.

And, away they go

Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway is a little farther east along the edge of the Llano Estacado.

Very Texas

The 15,314-acre park opened in 1982 and is the third-largest state park in Texas. In 1993, a 64.25-mile hiking, biking, and equestrian rail trail opened that stretches through the park through Floyd, Briscoe and Hall counties.

Teazle

The park hosts the Texas state Bison herd, but we saw only two bison. At the urging of his wife, Charles Goodnight had preserved several plains bison from those that were being slaughtered and it is this herd that became one of the genetic sources from which current bison herds descend. The state herd contains only Plains Bison that have no cattle DNA.

Bright red cliff

Caprock Canyons is quite pretty, but not spectacular.

Pointy mountains

Most interesting are the lines of various rocks in the escarpments.

This is fascinating

As we traveled through Texas, we also passed through Turkey, hometown of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Cool.

Old tour bus

Oklahoma

While in Oklahoma, we didn’t really do any sightseeing. But, I should mention that we had a lovely dinner in VAST, a restaurant on top of the Devon Energy Tower (Becca works for Devon). Not only was the dinner delicious and the night-time view spectacular, but Devon’s lobby had some of the most beautiful and tasteful Christmas decorations I have ever seen.

Happy holidays

It was a great environment for holiday pictures.

Left to right, me, Scott, Caty, Becca and Aaron

Florida

We made a few travel stops while if Florida. We spent the night in Cedar Key with a goal of gorging ourselves on stone crab claws.

Lookin' for seafood

Cedar Key, on the upper eastern Gulf coast of Florida, is known as a fishing village and, in past years, has been known for stone crabs. Imagine our surprise that the town was practically dead so close to Thanksgiving and that no one in town seemed to be aware it was stone crab season. All we could figure is that the people who frequent Cedar Key aren’t wealthy enough to shell out the big bucks required to buy stone crab claws. The town is quaint, with beautiful Victorian houses ...

Gingerbread

... and a small waterfront area (almost everything shuttered by 7:00 p.m.).

Quiet

The seafood we had was mediocre (already shucked oysters served with no hot or cocktail sauce?). It was pretty disappointing. I guess you can’t go back!

A bit disappointing

A highlight of the trip was a stop in Crystal River for breakfast at the Olive Tree. I asked for some feta and tomatoes and got this ...

Best breakfast ever!

Yum!

After Thanksgiving, we made a quick trip down to Sarasota to visit Scott’s uncle. On the way back, we stopped to view the entrants in a sand castle contest on the beach ...