Our proposed trip to SE Colorado to witness the mating ritual spectacle of the Lesser Prairie chicken has gone somewhat awry. We left Denver at about 11:30 am after a delicious Pho Ga at our favorite Vietnamese Soup place - Pho Duy in Aurora. I felt really sleepy after having an enormous bowl of this stunning soup. I did some driving, but I am ashamed to admit I got too sleepy to drive, so Kevin took over. We drove down to Campo which is the little town just outside where the Lek is to be found. We had made good time. We could see evidence of last night's snow storm. Nothing could deter us!

Kevin had gotten directions to the Lek from the web. So off we went. The road started off paved and then turned into dirt. Not a problem- we turned Arnie into the 4X4 dynamo and off we went. More like, off we slid. There was no escaping it. The snow from last night's storm had started to melt and turn the road a nice big soggy and sticky mess. We drove for a little bit, and then the road got really nasty. So we decided to turn back. We did not feel like getting stuck in the middle of nowhere over a holiday weekend, and have to trek for miles to try and find someone to pull us out.

We were disappointed. This meant we could not report back on the romantic activities of the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC). So where would we go?

We stopped in Campo to reconsider, to check our maps and to decide on the fly- where to next? Remember we had been talking about and planning for the LPC Romantic Interlude for some time now. Now, we had to get our minds around this one small fact: it was not going to happen.

No problem.

"Let's go to Texas!" Kevin suggested.

And that's what we did. I am now live blogging in the Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Canyon, a small town just South of Amarillo, Texas. The weather is wet and soggy. The rain and snow has followed us South from Campo.

Our plan? Well, we take it as we find it. While we are in Canyon we thought we'd visit the Palo Duro Canyon State Park. They have an Easter service there tomorrow morning. After that who knows? We'll go where the feeling takes us. That's what a road trip is all about- it's not the destination it's the journey that's the fun part. As for the LPC? Well there is always next breeding season.

Check out info here about Canyon, Texas. For info about the Palo Duro Canyon State Park go here. And here.