Okay, so this past week has been really busy for us. I hadn't seen any of my grandparents for at least a year, maybe year and a half. But Wednesday was the day I was really looking forward to: we got to see the play TEXAS! in Palo Duro Canyon! It was our 7th or 8th time to see it, but the last time we saw it was approximately 12 years ago when I was about 6. I only remembered bits and pieces of it, so I really expected to be able to remember everything I saw, haha.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. We started our "Texas" day by going to West Texas A&M University to the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, a museum which *obviously* focuses on the history of the Panhandle Plains. For $10, the museum was worth it! I thought, "oh, it's only this first floor and there's nothing else to it" and I thought we'd be done with it in 30 minutes. I was wrong. I didn't realize how big it was/is! My favorite part of the museum was, of course, the part focusing on Native Americans and cowboys. My dad and I watched a video about how INdians slaughtered and butchered buffalo, and just to be perfectly honest, it's absolutely disgusting, but absolutely fascinating. They don't let any of the buffalo (except maybe the skull) go to waste. They used every piece of the buffalo for survival. It drove home what killing the buffalo really meant: the Indians harvested their food, clothes, weapons, and shelter from the buffalo herds. The survival of the buffalo meant the survival of the Indians. It was utterly depressing to think how we whites were so blinded by greed and misunderstanding that we drove to extinction an animal that an entire culture depended on.
But anywho, the museum was really awesome and we got to see another video about the Battle of Adobe Walls, something Quanah Parker (the son of Peta Nacona) was connected to. You may wonder why I find anything about Quanah and Nacona fascinating, but that's because the town I live in was named after Peta Nacona, a Comanche chief. The absolute best part of the day though, was getting to go back to Palo Duro Canyon. I hadn't been there in about 12 years and I forgot just how beautiful it is. Our dinner wasn't served until 6, so we drove around for a good hour just sightseeing. AFter we ate a dinner served by the Big Texan (a restaurant in Amarillo famous for their *free* 72 oz. steak), we had to wait around for about an hour and a half to 2 hours. We went to the gift shop (where I got a really awesome TEXAS shirt), and signed the guest book, followed by pinning a pin to Nocona on the map of Texas. They had 3 maps there, one of the world, one of the U.S. and one of Texas; everyone who signed the book placed a pin on their hometown or where they came from. We were the only ones that night that I know of that pinned Nocona.
TEXAS, a musical drama set in the Pioneer Ampitheater (in the heart of PDC), has been running for 45 years straight! THey have a tradition every performance night (from June-August, 5-6 nights a week): they give away a miniature dinner triangle to whoever traveled the farthest. In all of the 45 years the show has been running, they have NEVER given a triangle away to someone from the continental U.S. THe night we went, a man from SAudi Arabia won the triangle (he had traveled over 8,000 miles). The play itself was absolutely amazing. The music is as fun as I remember, the dancing as mind-boggling as ever. For anybody who has seen it, even once, you know what I'm talking about! The only thing I disliked about this musical was the sexual innuendos. I don't recall those being in the original play(s), and my parents said that those things had been added in. In that sense, it lost some of its family friendliness. The show started at 8:30 (probably 8:40 after they got past the opening announcements), and of course, The Rider on the Rim started it all off. Poor guy was fighting the wind, the Texas flag, AND his horse, but he managed to pull it off. The show ended at around 11:15, with a grand finale of fireworks and all 6 flags of Texas running past on horseback (France, Spain, Mexico, the Confederacy, Texas, and United States). Oh, I meant to mention Quanah Parker's appearance! I really wasn't expecting him to show up, but his 2 scenes were really well done, even though the actor playing him wasn't an Indian. After we left the show, we filed past all the dancers, chorus singers, and actors who had done the show, and I got all the autographs of the principal actors (Tucker Yelldell, Kate Lucas, Uncle Henry, Aunt Anna, Elsie McLean, and Calvin Armstrong).
Yesterday we (with my dad's parents) went to Lubbock. Lubbock is where I was born and is the home of the Texas Tech Red RAiders (Get your GUns Up!). We went to the Science Spectrum, a place I haven't been to in YEARS. We had to wait for the OMNI movie, so we went through the Science Museum. It hasn't changed hardly at all! I remembered most of everything very well from when I was a little kid, but I have to say, I didn't find it as fun as I once did, maybe because I know too much about science now? NOthing really spectacular happened in the Science part, so I'll move on to the OMNI movie. We ended up seeing "Wolves", a documentary about wolves in Yellowstone and Canada and how wolves are being introduced back into the wilderness by people like those of the Nez Perce Indian tribe(s). My favorite part of the movie was the music. It was all Native American tribal music, and man was it beautiful! Now I don't buy into all the things they do...I mean, "brother and sister Wolf?" but I do find the culture of Native Americans very interesting...maybe because they've been miscontrued for so many years.
All in all, this week has been great, but I'm ready for some sleep in my own bed!
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