The expedition begins!

I woke up at 5:45am – 4 minutes before the alarm went off. After a quick shower I loaded the final pile of stuff into the van, then Pamela, Chelsea, Sarah, & I went to Waffle House for breakfast. After breakfast we went to Kroger for sack-lunch makings and road food. At 7:30am, Pam and Chelsea went home to make my lunch while Sarah and I went up to the Scout shed. Elmer J. had beaten us to the shed.

By 8:10am, all Philmont participants had arrived and the trailers were all loaded. Johnny Phipps led a short chapel from Psalms – very fitting for our upcoming journey. After chapel, Hampton had a small presentation for Elmer L. It was a custom airbrushed T-shirt. On the front was “Elmer the Less.” On the back was “Caution: I brake for turtles!” We all took crew photos and loaded up in the 9 vehicles making the trip. We pulled out of the St. Barnabas parking lot at 8:45am.

Traffic was very light, as expected for a Sunday morning. The ramp from northbound I-35W to northbound US287 was closed for construction and we were forced to take a 4 mile detour. Our first stop of the trip was in Wichita Falls for restrooms – a 13 minute stop for 45 people! We stopped at a roadside park near Tolbert at 12 noon for lunch. The wind was terrible, causing much frustration for anyone eating potato chips. We were there for 32 minutes when Chris decided it was time to push on. We stopped in Childress for gas and in Clarendon for restrooms – this stop was MUCH longer than the first.

We took the back roads from Claude over to Canyon, arriving in Canyon at 4:10pm. We arrived at Palo Duro Canyon State Park at 4:20pm. Check-in was a bit slow. I didn’t remember to make lists of everyone’s license plate numbers, and we had to purchase a new group park pass as the old one was expired. We arrived at our campsites at 5pm and quickly got camp set up. Across the road from us was another small group headed for Philmont – a 718 crew from Louisiana. We also met a third group going to Philmont at the Texas Express show later – a 719 crew. We had enough time between camp setup and dinner to throw the Frisbee around a bit. A horny toad made an appearance just as in 2002.

At 6pm, the group loaded up and drove back to the Texas Play amphitheater for barbeque. I got our group tickets and handed the plates out by crews. The food seemed to be much better than I remembered from 2002 and it wasn’t bad then. We had chopped BBQ brisket, sausage, beans, cole slaw, potato salad, relishes, bread, and tea/water. After dinner, we wasted a bit of time listening to the singer and story-teller, talking, wondering around, and reading. Johnny found a good rock and took a nap.

At 8:10pm we went down into the amphitheater. The view of the red rock canyon walls beyond the stage is incredible. The band “Texas Express” was pretty good and played many country and classic rock songs. During their set, two deer in silhouette looked down on the crowd from the top of the bluffs beyond the stage. Later, Bill Phipps was caught dancing and was called up on stage to dance. He did really well(?) for a minute, then dashed off the stage at full speed. After the band’s first set, the solo performer from the courtyard came out and began playing his guitar and singing. No offense to the band, but this guy was excellent. He played more country and classic rock and some folk music, too. He played for almost as long as the band, and was then joined by the band for the last three songs. The show ended just before 10pm. After, a few of the kids wanted showers so Chris and I drove them down to the shower house. I finally got into the sack a little after 11pm.

The weather today started very nice in Arlington. By lunch in was sunny, windy, and hot. The same could be said for Palo Duro until the sun went down over the bluffs. It cooled off nicely and the breeze settled. A ¾ moon rose early and gave great light. The sleeping bags were not needed for comfortable sleep.

(journal of Shane Hoffman)