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Not without some difficulty I managed to tear myself away from SA and go on a ramble. The beautiful fall weather is too good to waste entirely on work. Joyce had other things planned for the day so Tuesday afternoon I fired up the Pathfinder and headed up FM 207 in search of the site of Adobe Walls. I’ve read several different things about that historic site, most recently a book about Billy Dixon, perhaps the most famous figure associated with Adobe Walls along with Quanah Parker. The route took me through Panhandle, Borger and Stinnett, and area of the Panhandle I hadn’t been through before. It wasn’t any different from the rest of the area for the most part but still an interesting drive from straight, flat plains, winding down through the Canadian River valley and back to the level again. Wind mills have sprouted up in this part of the world like mushrooms and I passed through a wind farm with one less than a hundred feet on either side of the road. I stopped to listen to them and found they make a sound like a passing car as the blades go around. That might be objectionable if one were close enough to them but it didn’t compare with the noise from I 40 we contend with.
The Adobe Walls monuments are down County Road F that goes straight east from FM 207 through the Turkey Track ranch until it drops down into the Canadian River valley. I stopped at the travel center in Amarillo on the way to see if they had a map or directions to Adobe Walls. They did but the lady there told me there wasn’t anything out there to see. When I came to a sign that said Adobe Walls with an arrow pointing across the road and could see nothing but a barbed wire fence I thought she must be right. I drove a little farther down the road to where it deadends in the ranch and I found a broad open area that contained three monuments; one to the Indians, one to the buffalo hunters and one to Billy Dixon. The monuments were put there and are maintained by the Panhandle Plains Museum in Canyon. The site was donated to the museum by the owners of the ranch some time ago.
Kari and I visited the Amarillo Botanical Gardens Saturday. Joyce and Rebecca turned me down when I invited them and I had about decided not to go when Kari called and suggested she go instead of Rebecca. I had never been there before and was impressed with it. It is small compared to the Arboretum or the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, but it is really nice. There were many pretty flowers and their monarch way station had a satisfying number of monarch butterflies. The grounds are laid out nicely and they are adding new features.
Saturday morning I helped Joyce plant bulbs. We tried to position some rocks around those that weren’t planted very deep to thwart the squirrels. After previous plantings the rascals have dug the bulbs up and left them exposed.
Wednesday morning we got a lovely shower of rain and I was forced to sit out in the sky room, drink coffee and watch it rain most of the morning. The sun came out in the afternoon and I cleaned the lily pool but had nothing else to show for the day.