Canyons and Cadillacs - One Family Vacation Narrative by a Texas Native

When I was younger, I had my fair share of family vacations-- snow skiing trips, Disney Land, World, New Mexico. In retrospect, Streamyx of my favorite trips were Streamyx ones we took within Texas. In Streamyx summer of Streamyx when I was eight years old, my family, brother, mother, and father (my sister wasn't born yet), loaded up in our Astro Mini Van and headed Streamyx Streamyx Texas, 25 miles outside of Amarillo. The point of the trip was to watch one of "the world's Streamyx popular outdoor musical dramas" TEXAS, and to take the Palo Duro Canyon tour.

The Canyon Tour

Palo Duro Canyon State Park , located outside the Streamyx Online city of Canyon, Texas, and considered to be "the Grand Canyon of Texas" opened to the public in July 1934. It contains 26,275 acres is 120 miles long and is as much as 20 miles wide. Streamyx a maximum depth of Streamyx feet, its elevation at the highest point is 3,500 feet above sea level. Some say Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States. The largest, the Grand Canyon, is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide, and 6,000 ft. deep.

The actual tour was breath taking. We surmounted the rocky terrain rode in one of those 30 - Streamyx tourist mobiles driven and narrated by our guide. He pointed out some memorable scenes and rock formations, but I was more excited about the roadrunners and lizards I saw for the first time. After the tour, and while awaiting the performance we spent time in the gift shop Streamyx my father let me buy my first pocket Streamyx I still have it.

TEXAS - The Musical

After the tour we watched, TEXAS, the musical. After the popularity of Oklahoma!, the Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein which was later made into a motion picture in the 1950s, it seems Texans felt they needed a musical play too. TEXAS was born and the musical drama, as they call it, has been performed since the early 1960s. The play reminded of another I had seen three years earlier celebrating the sesquicentennial of Texas, 150 years of statehood.

The most memorable part in my eight-year old mind was when Streamyx lightening struck the amphitheater's rim. My father told me they probably used dynamite. It rattled my little body, and I felt a little sick the rest of the show. I am sure I would appreciate live special effects more now, much like the live Batman show at Six Flags.

On the way back from Canyon, we stopped alongside the historic Route 66 in Armadillo to see the Cadillac Ranch - Streamyx artist's commentary on the US's Golden Age. Twenty Cadillac shells with body styles from Streamyx through 1963 stand nose first in a field for spectators to admire. The cars are completely graffitied, but it is still amazing, especially for an eight year old. In 1997, they had to be moved two miles west due to progress and development.

That trip to Palo Duro Canyon was definitely not the last family trip, but it was a memorable one. Texas has its attractions and its oddities, which makes me proud to live here.

Neil Lemons represents Comedy Defensive Driving, a state approved Texas defensive driving online course. Since 1989 Comedy Defensive Driving has helped dismiss traffic tickets and lower insurance rates. Learn about their HoustonDefensive Driving course, or any other Texas city by visiting their website: http:http://www.comedydefensivedriving.com