Appliance Shopping, Palo Duro Canyon

Having the day off on Friday gave me some time to spend with Mama appliance shopping after the weather cleared. We had pretty well settled on buying in the scratch and dent section of Sears when we went to bed on Friday night. I was a little disappointed at the prices because I had a lower budget price in mind for a washer and dryer.
Saturday turned out to be a busy day because we got the paperwork for the house we are renting signed and the realtor we are working with arranged for us to get a key for the house that afternoon. So we got to move a few things out of the back of the car and into the garage of the house. We did not take too many things in because it was incredibly dusty after a year of sitting vacant – brand new but vacant.
Anyway we needed extra keys so we went to Home Depot to get some keys made and as we walked in the door we saw a brand new Maytag dryer with a price banner offering the dryer for $250. Neither of us had considered Home Depot for appliances but we ended up find a matching washer for $250 also. The price I had wanted to budget for the pair was $500. So we bought the pair and loaded the dryer into the little van. The washer is on order.
That in itself was kind of unique because I had decided on a whim – I thought – to take both of the back seats out of the little van as I was unloading the boxes that had been in there since we left Hot Springs when we had repacked the van for our trip to Amarillo. God knew what He was doing. I’m just glad I followed directions for once. Because of leaving the seats in our garage, the dryer easily fit in the van.
We unloaded the dryer this morning and cleaned some on the house then we left for Palo Duro Canyon. Turns out is only about forty minutes south of us. It was impressive! I asked to buy a year long pass for the Texas Parks system as we entered the park but the ranger on duty said the computer s were down and he would not be able to process the pass for us. Instead he let us into the park for free. He told us, “It’s not your fault the computers are down.”
It is impossible to describe how big this canyon is but according to the map legends we were reading one ridge of the canyon we were seeing in the distance was over three miles away. The scenery was spectacular; washed out limestone gullies filled with juniper trees, cactus and Texas scrub bushes. In the distance the yellowing cottonwood trees announced the presence of water in a creek or the beginning of a river.
The formations were varied in color, shape, and height. They were made of clay, sandstone and limestone and as we drove down into the canyon we had to cross five low-water crossings slightly overflowing with continued runoff from the earlier days of rain and snow.
One thirty minute hike from the road to a precipice through a rough gully to another precipice for another view of the massive formation wore Mama our so badly that she talked about it for the next several hours.
It was the firmament showing His handiwork. It was great.