Sodas, windows, and other things.

We left our family and one of our furry friends (Boba, our Boxer) in Tulsa on 06/21 headed for Canyon, TX, a small town just south of Amarillo. On the way, we decided to make a stop at Pops Soda Ranch (http://route66.com) just outside of Oklahoma City. For those who do not know, I am an avid collector of glass root beer bottles and have tried and collected about 75 or so in the last 7 years. I have also started another glass soda bottle collection with my kids. Upon driving into Pops, I was floored. I have never seen such a selection! They have over 600 different sodas, most of them in glass bottles. So, we loaded up a case in no time (six root beers I had not previously tried!)  and went to head out. Oh yeah, I should also mention that they had a diner that had a line out the door and for good reason I am sure; the food smelled amazing, but we were on a timetable.

Well, as we were gassing up to leave, Martha tells me we have lost a window on the RV! I go and inspect the bedroom and was very confused as we had not hit anything or been away long enough to get robbed. So, we turn to the redneck's best friend duct tape!

Just a temp fix until we could get to our next stop. One more thing, our A/C in the truck decided it didn't feel like working, so we had to drive with the windows down. To make it go by a little easier, we decided to sing kids praise songs as loud as we could! We made it into Canyon just at sunset, and with the help of my good friend Roman, we secured the temp fix until a proper solution could be found.

The next day, since every place we called was closed, we decided to go hiking in Palo Duro Canyon (the mini Grand Canyon as it is called in these parts). The state park was only 11 miles from our front door, so it took no time getting there. We headed out on the trails leading into the majestic desert landscape, telling the kids all about erosion and what we knew about the local wildlife.

The kids did great until about the 0.6 mile marker (we had planned on a 1.5 mile hike). Then, the younglings started to miss air conditioning. We decided to push hard back to the visitor center and burned back up the canyon to much needed shade and water refills!

Later that day, we were able to spend some time at the lovely new home of our friends, the Asbills. The boys were extra excited as Roman and Angela have three sons very close in age to ours, and they were all fast friends despite having never really met before. Canyon also has an amazing coffee shop on the town square called Palace Coffee (http://palacecoffee.co), I could stay there all day. Some of the best coffee and atmosphere, not to mention great staff! Thank you so much to Patrick for hooking me up with the best cup of Joe in the best cup in the house!

Last night, we went to the Varsity Theater across from West Texas A&M, to see Monsters University. This gem is a one screen movie theater that has been open since 1947! It was really neat to see a movie in such a classic theater. Today, the boys and I went to Amarillo and checked out the Don Harrington Discovery Center, a hands on science museum for kids of all ages. It has been a great time this week hanging out with dear friends, exploring new places, and trying new things! In two more days, we will be leaving for Colorado, hopefully with all of our windows intact!