08/06/01 Clinton (OK) – Canyon (TX) 435 km

This day we got up really early to avoid the heat. Our first stop was in McLean, Texas, where we wanted to see the Devil´s Rope museum (this is how the Indians called the barbed wire) but it was closed on Mondays. We stayed outside trying to resign to our bad luck and we saw some employees that were cleaning and organising some stuff inside the museum. They must have felt sorry for us since the invited us in, and they opened the museum just for us. The place is very peculiar: you can find every kind of barbed wire, and you can even buy a small frame with barbed wires inside. In fact, the history of Texas is very much related to stock farming, and hence to barbed wires. In the museum they have an astonishing thing: a letter that Clyde (yes, yes, from Bonny and Clyde) had written to Henry Ford, congratulating him for manufacturing great cars. That he had been able to prove it because his car such and such model (I can not remember) had never failed him and he had never had a problem with it. We wonder if it is an original letter.

Our next stop was in a very popular place of the Route; the Big Texan restaurant in Amarillo. We just had a beer, but the place is very well known for its 72 oz. steaks. If you manage to eat the steak with all the garnishing they put around in less than an hour, they give it to you for free. Even if I was hungry, after I saw the size of the steak, I though it would not be very healthy.

After the beer and for the first time, we went outside the Route to go to Canyon. This is where you can find Palo Duro National Park which has very dramatic scenery. When we arrived the sun was really beating down.

Afer we camped, we went to the town of Canyon. Cars moved to the left to let us more place to undertake them, surprisingly nice people! We went to the library and we used the internet service. We sent some mails and we red about the news of the world.

Afterwards we went to have dinner to the “Ranch House”, a restaurant that the ranger in the campsite had recommended us and where I had the famous Texan Steak. As it was typical in most of the restaurant we went to, they had the salad bar ( where you can have as much as you want of salad and vegetables) and the free refills ( you can have as much non alcoholic drinks as you want). We went back to the campsite and we saw the musical TEXAS that it is played in the canyon itself, profiting from the good acoustics provided by the mountains. The musical tells the story of the first cow-boys that arrived and settled in Texas, and taking into account the limitations of the place, there were special effects and all. It was very focused on tourists and we did not like too much. Before entering the “theatre” there is a map of the word where you can put a pin indicating where you come from. We weren´t the first Basque people to be there, but yes the only ones from San Sebastian. Even if you are not seeing the musical, you can go and place a pin. More amusing than the musical seems to be the barbeque that is organised before, with a band playing music and all (they played “chicken dance” and that kind of stuff) , and everybody was dancing !

By the time we went to bed the temperature had gone down significantly so we went to bed very happy.