After Hours Stroll

The heat wave is on in the Southwest Plains. I landed in Amarillo, Texas late today where the temperature hit 104 degrees. Some place in Oklahoma (my next destination) registered 113 degrees with more of the same predicted for tomorrow. Ah, but it's dry heat!

I've been trying to walk a bit on my road trip to keep the muscles from calcifying. 5 hours in the car day after day and you can begin to feel like the Tin Man without the oil.

With the high temperatures of late, I've been waiting until after 8:00 PM to venture out. At 8:30 this evening it was still 100 degrees in the Panhandle. But it was a dry heat!

I walked a 2 mile loop trail inside Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Known as the Grand Canyon of Texas, Palo Duro is quite beautiful and a dramatic relief from the miles and miles of flat open plains nearby. At the end of the Sunflower Trail (no sunflowers) I saw 3 birds flutter from a trail side tree and land in a tree on the opposite bank of a dried up river bed. It was too dark to see them with any clarity but I could make out the silhouette of an owl. I had come across a family of Eastern Screech Owls. We chatted for awhile with calls back and forth; what a joy.

An aside from the day. I stopped on historic Route 66 to gas up along the New Mexico/Texas border. It was midday and as hot as it was going to get. When I got out of the car to pump the gas and old man was filling up his pick up truck at the adjacent pump. We exchanged pleasantries and when I said I was thankful for the sunshine he countered with, "If the day were any better it would be a sin."

This is the positive side of poor circulation. Even at a 104 degrees and wearing a long sleeve shirt, an old man thinks there's room for a couple of more degrees to make it the perfect day. That is so long as it is dry heat, mind you.

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