November 2, 2006

November 2, 2006 This morning we drove south to Canyon, TX for a quick visit to the Panhandle Plains Museum on the campus of West Texas State University. The museum has a few exhibits on what seems like almost everything including oil drilling, fossils, old cars, windmills and art. Despite the wide diversity, it works well. The museum also had an outstanding mineral exhibit on loan from Houston that had some very fine specimens. From Canyon we take the back roads southwest across the Llano Estacado, the southern high plains. This area was part of what was known as the Great American Desert until they got the bright idea of using windmills to pump water from underground aquifers. We see the result on the drive from Canyon; we pass one giant cattle feedlot after another. I have never seen so many cows in one place. We also see fields of cotton; it is pretty to see the fields of white puffs. The cotton must be close to pickin’ as white lint is lining the edge of the road. You can tell that drought is around the corner if the water pumps fail as we see tumbleweeds crossing the highway and collecting against the fencing. After four hours we cross the Pecos River and stop at a private campground in Roswell, NM.