"Happiness is Lubbock Texas....

...in your rear-view mirror." With a nod to Mac Davis, this was the song stuck in my head today. And about noon, as we rolled north on I-27, we actually had Lubbock in our rear-view mirror for a while. I wasn't as happy about it as Mac was... to have written a song about it and all... but we did have an agreeable day for travel and the miles melted away as that tune played, over and over again, up in my head somewhere.

Today, Tuesday, our move was from Post Texas to Canyon Texas, a distance of some 160 miles. We were rolling a little after 9am. The route was easy -- US-84 to the 289 Loop around the east side of Lubbock to I-27 north. I haven't looked this up, but I-27 has to be right up there as one of the shortest Interstate Highways in the USA. It's total distance is only a little more than 100 miles, from Lubbock to Amarillo... that's it. And it never crosses a state line, so it's an "Interstate" in name only. Lightly traveled and smooth, we were in Canyon before 1pm.

I drove directly to the State Park, about 10 miles east of the town of Canyon. The main gate is at the top of the canyon. The campgrounds are all at the bottom of the canyon, a thousand feet or more down. We found a place up-top to park the bus-house, unhooked the car, and drove down to check out the road, clearances, and the two campgrounds recommended for big campers, Sagebrush and Mesquite. The road down is posted as a 10% grade, is narrow and includes a couple tight blind turns, but was fine otherwise. Only a handful of campers were in both campgrounds. We picked a spot in Sagebrush, drove back to the gate to pay, and retrieved the bus-house.

When in Zion last fall we came up with a technique for driving the fat bus-house on skinny, curvy, mountain roads. With a two-way radio in each vehicle, Dar drives the car out ahead of the camper, oh, maybe a 10th of a mile or so, and on blind curves radios back info about any cars going the opposite direction -- an early warning system that made the drive down easier.

Once in our campsite, leveled, and set up, we pulled out a couple chairs and soaked up the warm sun and the traditional "arrival-ale". Temps were well into the 70's this afternoon, but that looks like it's gonna change soon. There's another storm coming this way. It's dumping snow on Denver and the Front Range today, and will be moving southeast, bringing cold, rain, and snow to the Panhandle Region tomorrow. According to the weather reports, we're right on the line between light and moderate snowfall. This is still March, afterall, and while it might be Spring according to the calendar, Winter can assert itself well into April.

We have no cell phone or internet access at our campsite down in the canyon. During our stay here we'll be filing journal entries, uploading online photos, and gettting email an an irregular basis. I normally create journal entries in a text editor anyway and cut/paste the text into the blog when connected to the internet. It's a minor hassle really. I've said before that NOT having internet access is a good thing once in a while -- it helps control my Internet Addiction Disorder. We can pull in a few Amarillo TV stations and can always get Sirius radio if we get bored.

Camping in a Canyon...
Thom