Albert

This is Naturally Yours art gallery and gift shop in Lipscomb, Texas. We met Debbie-one of the women who runs the gallery-and she invited us for coffee and the best home made cobbler we’ve ever had. The place is alive with artists who visit on Saturdays and fill her kitchen with conversation. She cans all sorts of fruits and vegetables which are for sale in the shop also.

The third Saturday of each summer month they host a dance. It has become a big event with a couple of hundred people coming to a town with a population of 44.

Lipscomb and Naturally Yours is a must stop if you’re anywhere in the northeastern Texas Panhandle.

The third Saturday of each summer month they hold a big dance. It’s been going on for 12 years now and it’s bigger than ever.

Okay, so this place is tiny. Really tiny and also out-of-the-way but it is very cool. They have developed something of an art’s scene. There is a monthly elevated dance platform dance during the summer. Lots of people come for it. In the fall they celebrate with a fall foilage tour and gallery tour.

The streets are quiet and dusty. It’s strange, it’s almost a ghost town, but it’s cool.

Be sure to look at my entry about Naturally Your’s in Lipscomb.

George (photo by Leo Wesson—George walking in the rain Big Bend)

One of my dearest friends ever loved Big Bend more than any place on Earth. He would go down every chance he got. Near the end of his life he wouldn’t go anyplace else, and I guess he didn’t want to waste a trip on anything less than Big Bend. He was 77 and he would go down every summer and camp out in the back of his truck (not a camper) for 3 or 4 weeks. He would go in August because there was no one else down there.

Somehow I never made it down there with him and now I’m sorry for that. He died a year ago from bladder cancer.

I’d still like to get there sometime.

Since I was a kid we’ve been going down here for picnics, hiking, and camping. We’ve always gone because there’s fewer people that hang out here than other nature spots like Palo Duro Canyon. Few people means fewer drunks, less noise, and few cars. The road down to the river never has been paved which is nice too. It’s a good place for solitude.

Stolen from the website:
For thousands of years, people came to the red bluffs above the Canadian River for flint, vital to their existence. Demand for the high quality, rainbow-hued flint is reflected in the distribution of Alibates Flint through the Great Plains and beyond. Today this area is protected by the National Park Service and is the only National Monument in Texas. The monument can only be viewed by ranger-led guided tours. Tours are offered by reservation only, please give us plenty of time to arrange a tour. Call the park at (806) 857-3151. No fees charged.

It’s a decent place for fishing and boating. The water has really gotten low over the past 10 years or so. That’s a bad thing because it’s also the primary water reservoir for Amarillo. More than the lake I like to go to McBride and Alibates Canyons. They get very few visitors and make for a nice place to hike, bike, and animal watch.

The last time I went to this place is the last time I’m going to this place. The food was pretty poor. April paid for a salad at the “famous” salad waggon and it was very basic and much wilted. I had the shiskabobs (the menu namesake for the resturant) and half the meat was raw and I paid $13 for about 10 bites of steak. April and Destiny had the chop sirloin and it seemed to be the most fatty burger patty you could ever want, just swimming in grease. The waitress never came to the table before after we got our food before all of us were finished eating.

When I was a kid we got a K-bob’s here and my parents ate there all the time. The loved it. We went in expecting to find an old fashioned steakhouse with great steaks for good prices and down home Southern table service.

Oh the place only has one bathroom for each men’s and women’s and they are one seaters so expect to wait in line if you need to wash your hands or drain the vein. And god help you if the person in front of you has to drop the Cosby kids at the pool.

I’ve been on a bit of a diet for the last couple of months but today was the last day of school for Destiny so I thought it would be a good reason to break. This place has just about the best mixes in icecream. I had some Black Forrest thing. Chocolate icecream, brownies, cherries, the whole bit—mixed before your eyes. Expensive though.

Sunflower took my camera away from me yesterday, so you guys will just have to wait for an actual location picture.