Day 2- July 11- Traveling

We left our motel fairly early after having a continental breakfast. We headed out to Palo Duro Canyon and had a short hike to a cave that Patty had been to before. It was really cool, and I got some good photos. The pictures are just going to have to come later. We could have kicked ourselves when we found out that there were vacant cabins we could have stayed at right in the canyon. This would have saved us from driving back to Amarillo after the play last night. We were not in the canyon long, and were soon on our way. We had lunch at an old restaurant called the Eklund Hotel in Clayton, NM. We stopped at more than one Walmart on our day's journey. I laughed because Patty knew of every Walmart between here and her aunt's house in Colorado. We stopped at a winery in Canon City right before they closed. And we made it to the last run of the narrow gauge railroad at the Royal Gorge. We were able to go up and see the gorge and we saw the suspension bridge over the gorge. What a view! Spectacular! I got a photo of it to be posted later. We were coming through Salida and we just happened to see Patty's father in the parking lot of his motel. So, we went up to their room, and I met both of her parents. We did not make it to Nathrop until about 9:30 and Gwen and Steve were already in bed, but awake and waiting for us. I later learned that they go to bed early because they get up about 4:30. We had a busy day and we were tired and ready for bed too.