2,600 miles on a Honda - part 4

Thursday, 3 December 2009

The next morning i woke up and headed back into Amarillo for breakfast at The Big Texan. Which is the place where if you can eat a 72 oz. steak in an hour, it's free. However when i pulled into the parking lot it was packed and a line had formed out the door. It was Thanksgiving morning and i didn't feel like waiting in line for breakfast so i left.
I also stopped at this leaning water tower. I'm not sure why it was leaning, but i think the town did it on purpose???
The whole day i would be on I-40 which got a little boring so i decided to see how many miles i could ride no handed. I made it 21 miles without using my hands then had to stop as i crossed into Oklahoma to take a picture. Then i rode another 28 miles no handed before having to get gas.
I planned to camp at Foss Lake State Park for the night and as i was getting gas i talked to a guy and his wife. They said they had camped there before and suggested a good spot. Then the guy tried to give me $20 for gas and stuff. I guess i must have looked poor and dirty and couldn't afford a hotel room. Or maybe it was just a nice gesture on Thanksgiving. Anyways i said no but thanked them for the camping advice.

I rode to the lake and it was great. Camping was free and the only one other family there was in their RV. They had spots right by the lake with electricity, running water, a fire pit and picnic table. I picked the best spot by the lake, set up my tent then grabbed soap and shampoo and went for a swim/bath. The water felt like it was about 40 degrees.

I decided to have a fire that night and while i was collecting wood, a cat started following me. I assumed it was from the RV since they were the only other people out there.
When i got back to the tent i started the fire then had freeze dried lasagna with meat sauce for Thanksgiving. It was really good.

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2,600 miles on a Honda - part 3

I stayed in Amarillo the night before so i only had 30 miles to ride to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. My plan was to get there early enough to go hiking, then camp in the canyon, which it turns out is the 2nd largest in the US after the Grand Canyon.
When i got there i still wasn't 100% sure if i wanted to camp out in 25 degree nights but after talking to some people standing by their tents who said it wasn't too bad if you have a good sleeping bag. So i went back to the main office and got a camp site to stay for the night. Long story short, they gave me a duplicate number as someone else, i had to move once for this old married couple, who were a bit snobby and almost had to move again for someone else but the park ranger straightened it all out.

I was so proud of myself at my first camp site. Finally using the knowledge from all those times watching Survivorman i made a soft insulated grass mat under my tent to sleep on.

I was so proud of my first camp site

After setting everything up i went hiking in the park to look for the Lighthouse Rock, which is what Palo Duro Canyon is known for. I took a shortcut, then left the trail to climb one of the fairly steep mountains to get a better view of where i was going. I kinda got lost but i'm glad i did. I had an awesome view and saw things i never would have seen, like big horn sheep. At least i think they were big horn sheep. They were at the top of the mountain, heard me and took off, down a rocky face that would have taken me 30 minutes to get down. They were a half mile away in about 20 seconds.


So after a few hours i finally got off the mountain and back to my camp site. That's when i had to deal with moving my tent for those people. It was a pain but i made an even better mat to sleep on and then started boiling water for dinner. Around that time is when the second family showed up and wanted me to move again. Luckily i didn't have to.

During the day the weather was great. It got up to around 75 degrees. But at night it dropped to around 25. I thought i would be the only one dumb enough to be camping out but a lot of people showed up. It was a cold night and i did hear some coyotes howling around midnight.

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