November 1, 2006

November 1, 2006

Amarillo is the home of Aimee’s sister and her family. Her sister came here for college and never left. We stopped by their house for dinner when we arrived yesterday evening and caught up on family news.

In the morning we drove south with the car to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Palo Duro is supposed to be the second deepest canyon in the US next to the Grand Canyon. We take a quick tour of the Interpretative Center and then drive the six-mile loop thru the canyon. Amazingly just a tiny stream carved this deep canyon albeit over millions of years. On the drive we also see turkeys and mule deer.

In the afternoon we head northwest with the family to Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch where our brother-in-law works. He gives us a tour of this city-size orphanage. Since many of the children are troubled and come from broken homes, this impressive facility employs many counselors who use innovative techniques. The highlight of the tour is watching a group session using horses. The teenagers are assigned a task of getting this horse to walk an obstacle course without touching the horse. Little do these kids realize that instead of learning about horses, they are learning to be friends, and how to work together to solve problems. Pretty cool. Seeing the facilities they have, I would have liked to grow up here. On the way back to Amarillo we have the family over to our house for a tour.