Travel day! Shorter than yesterday, but probably going to be a very boring drive. I kind of hope so – the excitement yesterday was a bit more than I wanted!

Well, you don’t always get what you want … coming out of a fuel stop at a Pilot in Amarillo, TX, I notice the truck shifts hard getting on the on-ramp, and seems to have no power. Damn! Now what? I’m on the highway, and everything seems ok once I get up to cruising speed, although I can’t seem get the truck to go more than 65 mph. Hmmm … then I notice trees in this part of the country have a decided bend towards where we came from – I’m guessing wicked head wind, so I don’t worry too much about it. Soon enough, we’re outside the State Park, at the Zip Line place where we are to pick up our packets. We’re early. Over an hour early. Oh, well, I guess we wait!

In due time, we get our packets and head into the park. Show the green wrist band, and we are IN. Let’s go get set up! It’s a steep downhill into the canyon, so I pull the shift lever to 1, to slow us down on the steep grade. The transmission doesn’t downshift. Hmmm. Get to the bottom, and I find out why – no second gear! Again! This happened last October, on the last day of our last trip, and we had the transmission rebuilt  – I’m pissed! Well, we’ll deal with it Monday – too much to do in the days between. Welcome to PDCSP!

Oh, yeah … that evening, at 21:35 (that’s 9:35 PM for you non-24-hour-ers) we hear BOOM! An explosion so loud it rocks the whole trailer back and forth a half-dozen times – what the hell? Then I remember – PDCSP does some sort of show on weekend nights, and they start it off by firing a cannon. About an hour later, it’s followed by more explosions, not nearly as loud though, thank goodness. Fireworks to end the show. Yeah. Ok, there’s a BURN BAN in effect. If I lit a firecracker, I’d probably go to jail. But the park? Well, the show must go on! Welcome to PDCSP.

I do have pictures!

And here’s one at night: