Hi Friends! How are you?!

It has been a hot minute since I’ve posted here! I’ve been meaning to and have so much to share, but life sort of got in the way. 🙁 I promise I will make more of an effort to be more consistent moving forward.

For today’s post, I wanted to share some more Texas Shenanigans that the Hoch and I got into this past weekend.

When Hoch and I first moved to San Antonio, one of the first things I did was look up where Childress, TX is located in relation to us. Most of you have probably never heard of this small, historic town, but I had because my great grandpa (who used to live with us when we were growing up) shared so many stories from his childhood there.

I found it was a good 6.5 hour drive north of us near the border of Oklahoma. So not a short drive by any means….

Which is what stemmed the idea of this little road trip. The Hoch and I enjoy camping and hiking so we started looking up a few parks in the area and decided we’d make a long weekend out off it. A mix of nature and city. 😀

Here’s how our trip went…

On Day 1, we woke up at 4am to make the 8 hour drive up to Amarillo, TX. Yeah we may sound crazy, but morning drives really do fly by! We split up the driving and napped the rest of the time and before I knew it, we were there.

Our first stop was to Cadillac Ranch, a public art display on the side of the highway west of the city. It’s a line of ten junker Cadillacs buried nose-down in a dusty farm field. People stop and spray paint them different colors if they wish. We assumed since it was noon on a random Wednesday that we’d have the place to ourselves, but it was a lot more crowded than we were expecting. It was different and a neat way to start our trip tho!

We didn’t stay long since it was windy and cold and we were getting hungry. So we left and found a popular BBQ place in Amarillo, Tyler’s BBQ. It wasn’t the best I’ve had, but it was pretty delicious and did hit the spot. And it made Texas Month Top 50 BBQ Joints which says a lot since there are sooo many BBQ places here in TX.

We then made our way to our first State Park of the trip, Palo Duro Canyon State Park. We had booked a cabin for 2 nights. The cabins were built by the CCC back in the 1930s which was pretty cool. They were fancy and included electricity, heating & air conditioning, a fridge & microwave, a table & chairs, and full size bunk beds. So this was #glamping at it’s finest!

As soon as we got settled in, we went out for an afternoon hike. The scenery was amazing and tho the park was fully reserved, it didn’t feel like it! We’d ran into very few people during our hikes. And it was dog friendly as well. We saw several people hiking with their dogs.

Our second day there, we enjoyed a full day of hiking (about 13 miles worth!) followed by an easy dinner of Manwich (Sloppy Joe sauce that my mom always used when we were kids) and star gazing which was amaaaazing!!

On Day 3, we woke up early and headed straight to our next destination, Caprock Canyons State Park. This park was bigger and felt even more remote. And we got to see Bison and Prairie Dogs! Both of which I think are sooo cute!

I don’t know if we were just tired from all the hiking at Palo Duro, but aside from the animals and star gazing (which was better at Caprock), we both enjoyed Palo Duro a bit more than Caprock Canyons. The trails were a little better and the overall feel of it was more our style.

We only camped one night there which worked out well because that last morning, the temps had dropped and it was super windy! So we decided to pack up and head out without making any breakfast.

We headed straight for Childress, TX (home to around 6,000 people) which unfortunately was also cold and windy. We didn’t spend too much time there, but we did explore the old downtown, a local park, and the big highlight for me, the cemetery.

It was a small cemetery, but well done. There was a small shelter that included a map and book of the deceased. I went in and found the only Ramseys there and sure enough, they were my GREAT GREAT grandparents!! Now how cool is that!?

Being able to piece the stories that grandpa told us with the actual town was really an honor. Something I will never forget!

After Childress, we then headed for our final stop of the road trip, Dallas, TX. I had been before, but was looking forward to going back. Dallas is a really, neat city and I had only skimmed the surface of all the things you can do there.

We stayed in a hotel downtown (that first shower after camping is always THE BEST) and then went out for a nice dinner and drinks with a girlfriend of mine.

It was a fun way to finish off our trip!! A perfect mix of city, nature, and of course the whole point of the trip, my family history. 🤓

Who else loves a good road trip!?! Has anyone been to any of these parks before?

Hope y’all have a wonderful day and be on the lookout for a future post from me soon with some Go-Pro footage from this trip!

Kimberly