Oklahoma is a land of rolling to flat, fertile plains and low hills with intermittent canyons and mesa.

The region In the West and South that we drove through is known as the Prairie Plains, and more specifically, the High Plains.
The semi-arid High Plains are a sub-region of the Great Plains, they are higher in elevation with mainly prairies and grasslands and are known for the steady, and sometimes intense, winds that prevail from the west, and extreme temperatures in the summer as well as in the winters. 

Historically they were the range of the bison and of the culture of the Plains Indians, whose tribes included the Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche.
Nowadays this area produces most of the state's coal and a great deal of oil, while cattle graze on the wide open plains, and farms in the lower valleys produce wheat, corn and sunflowers.

Wheat mill

As I mentioned, we had only 100 miles to go and it wasn't long before we pulled up to the city of Sayre, where we had planned to stay for 2 nights.

Sayre, a typical rural Oklahoma town, has not much going for it but it has a City Park with a small, cheap camping ground and ... wait for it .... an adjacent 9 hole golf course! Ha! How could we resist?

Although still very windy, cold and overcast it at least didn't rain and we quickly hooked up and settled in.

But not before a hair-raising experience though! While driving around the campground to find the best spot we almost drove over this tiny grey kitten:

Safe in Merlin's old basket

If James hadn't slowed down for a turn and saw something moving on the asphalt we would have crushed it! '...Shudder...'!
Fortunately, after knocking on some doors in the RV- park, we found the people who'd 'lost' the little guy .
Apparently a feral cat had given birth and abandoned the kittens, but somehow had come back and moved this one again? I'm glad they're taking it because Merlin didn't want anything to do with it!

After all this excitement, and thankfully happy ending, we spent the afternoon visiting the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site just 15 miles North of us on the Black Kettle National Grassland.



The site protects and interprets the setting along the Washita River where Lt. Col. George A. Custer led the 7th U.S. Cavalry on a surprise dawn attack against the Southern Cheyenne village of Peace Chief Black Kettle on November 27, 1868. The attack was an important event in the tragic clash of cultures of the Indian Wars era.

The site of the attack, today

The strike was hailed at the time by the military and many civilians as a significant victory aimed at reducing Indian raids on frontier settlements as it forced the Cheyenne back to the reservation set aside for them.
However, Washita remains controversial because many Indians and whites labeled Custer's attack a massacre. Black Kettle is still honored as a prominent leader who never ceased striving for peace even though it cost him his life.

The beautiful visitor center features exhibits about the battle, the soldiers and the Cheyenne, as well as a very informative film and a bookstore.

After a little drive through the country side we went back home. During the night the wind finally stopped blowing, the clouds went away and the next morning the sun was out for a gorgeous day!
Perfect weather to play some golf! 

 
Our RV was parked right next to the (9-hole) Sayre Golf course. We had a great view of the first holes, and the clubhouse was only a minute away so we just walked over. 
It turned out that for $15 pp/per day we could golf as many rounds as we liked!

It was a fun little course and after playing 9 holes we went home for lunch and a little r&r .....

That afternoon we drove the 12 miles to Elk City for a visit to the National Route 66 Museum.

This most famous highway ever, crossed eight states from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. The  Museum focuses on the people who lived, worked and traveled the "Mother Road" and offers visitors a classic walk through all eight states,

As luck would have it, or not, the main building was closed for renovation, but for half the price we could at least visit the Museum of Transportation, the 'Old Town' museum, where Oklahoma pioneer life is recreated, the Rodeo Museum and the Agricultural Museum.

                        

Compare that to our 5th wheel!

In the Beutler Brothers Rodeo museum

Although there was a lot to see I think I've about seen all the old pioneer stuff there is to see by now.
Unless it's something really specific I don't think I'll do another one of these again .... enough already! 
 

After we got 'home' James went for another round of golf (surprise, surprise) and I took the rest of the afternoon off to read and check upon our next day's destinations.While surfing the web I learned that had we arrived a day earlier, we would have had to evacuate into a storm shelter since they had a tornado warning the evening before we got here.
Phew, although it would have been sort of exiting, I think we got lucky there!

As seems to be our 'routine' we headed out around 9 am the next morning and continued our way north to the Kansas state border.
It was a beautiful, calm and sunny day and we enjoyed the easy drive over the quiet highway.

After about 80 miles of peaceful rolling prairie, and the occasional cow or two, we made a short stop in Woodward to visit the Plains, Indians and Pioneers Museum.

I know, I wasn't going to do it anymore but we thought this one would tell us a little more about the Prairie specifically so we gave it one last try ...

 

Unfortunately it turned out to be a local version of more of the same o' same o'. Oh well, ...

The only thing noteworthy were the outstanding murals on the outside and in the 'rotunda' of the building's entrance-way.

Lets just say that I've now seen all the old town and pioneer stuff that I ever want to see and I will never, ever, go into any of these museums again. Ever! I'm done! (take note of these famous last words)

Another 50 miles further north we crossed the state border and had only 20 more miles to go to the town of Coldwater where we'd camp for the night.
So, here's where I'll leave you for the next post, with a last picture of rural Oklahoma. 

Kansas, here we come!

Ok, here's the much awaited (right, who am I kidding?), first episode of our travels! 
The total trip, according to Google Maps, would entail to 1550 miles, 25 h without traffic. Ha! For us that's more like 7 days or so!

Our first day's end-destination was the Walmart in Odessa where we planned to 'dry-camp' in the parking lot after stocking up on groceries and whatever else would tickle our fancy.

Since we were pretty much packed up, the only thing we had to do on the morning of our departure was dismantling the water, sewer and electric and off we went! On the road again! Yahoo!!

A last view of the Chico mountains in Big Bend National Park, from the 'hill' before Terlingua's Ghost Town, before driving the  familiar 1.5 hours to Alpine, where we made a short stop to fuel up and hit the lumber yard for a few small items.

Alpine

We arrived in Odessa around 2pm and after gassing up and taking a wrong exit we finally arrived at the Walmart superstore.
It didn't look too inviting, being located in the busy, and noisy, commercial district of town, so we decided after we'd done our shopping, to drive on for another 25 miles to the small town of Andrews. 
I knew from searching the 'Free-Stays' web there would be a small City Park. Apparently nothing special, but probably a lot quieter.

Directions were a little vague, and it took us a little longer than anticipated, but eventually we managed to find it. It turned out to be a small parking lot, next to the Chamber of Commerce and the Veterans Memorial of Andrews County, where you can overnight for free.
Hookups included!

Not a bad deal and just fine for a single night!
We'd picked up some food-to-go at a Chinese fast-food place, and after cracking open a nice cold beer, we happily settled in for the night.

After an excellent night we were up bright and early, and continued our journey through what is called 'the pan handle of Texas', towards Amarillo.

Not much of a scenery I'm afraid, but rolling fields of dry grass. 

This region's true value lies deep underneath the surface and is only given away by the existence of the slowly moving pumps:

Oil. And lots of it! Although this area didn't seem to be as bad as others we smelled the occasional whiff of it. Bleh!

       

 We stayed on the 385 until Lubbock, passing right through the centers of a few small towns, the ones of the 'don't blink or you'll miss it type
.......

But all with the inevitable, characteristic water tower .....

..... and took the I-27 from there until Canyon, just under Amarillo where we exited for our destination for one night, the Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

The Park is known as the 'Grand Canyon of Texas', due both to it's size and its dramatic geological features, including the multicolored layers of rock and steep mesa walls similar to those in the Grand Canyon and is the second largest canyon in the country.

Deep, colorful ravines and eroded badlands:

Notable canyon formations include caves and hoodoos. One of the best-known and the major signature feature of the canyon is the Lighthouse Rock.

Instead of hiking one of the numerous trails, we took the (paved) road in and steeply down to the canyon floor, since we were only staying for the night and didn't have much time. I have to admit, we're not much of hikers also ....

We visited the, excellent, visitor center and stopped at various viewing points, including one with a viewing 'blind' where I took some pictures of the 'locals':

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Since the Park was fully booked, we stayed at the Palo Duro Rim Campground which in hind-side was a good choice. 

I wouldn't have liked the steep and very windy drive down (10% grade!) to the bottom of the Canyon with the RV behind us. 

No sir-ree!

It started to blow something fierce in the evening hours, we could see thunderstorms unloading lots of rain all around us, and lightening flashes continued all through the night.

We didn't get a drop of rain though and although the wind was still very strong the next morning we decided to move to our next destination regardless, since it was only 100 miles away.

And since that was going to be in Oklahoma I'll save that for the next post. See you there!

The day after the storm

Since we were holed up in the RV for two days due to snow, yeah, that's right, SNOW,  I finally had time to work on the blog a little.

It's about time, I know! 

I'm still working on our travel adventures, but I'm happy to let you know, we made it safe and sound from Lajitas to Lead, South Dakota and are all settled in.

We'd enjoyed a couple of beautiful sunny days, great for hooking up etc, when the day before Mother's Day we got hit with a freak, and very strong, spring snowstorm!

It snowed for 48 hours, fortunately we got very 'fine' snow-flakes, and we ended up with 10" of nice powder! (and fortunately a lot less than the 1 to 2 feet they predicted)

I must admit, I loved it! It has been almost 2 year since we'd had any, and since we were warm and dry and cozy, and we knew it was only going to last for a few days, I enjoyed every minute of it.

The view from our back window

I'd made a huge crock pot full of pea soup and baked a nice peach and blackberry pie, we watched a golf game on TV all day, and worked on a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

After 10 days of travel it was nice to just sit back and take it easy.

Our only concern was to keep the dish free of snow so James put something together with a heating element and a piece of reflective aluminum insulation which, together with a blast of WD-40 on the surface of the dish, did the trick!

We'd brought the big slide back in again because the weight of too much snow might rip it, but kept the small one over the slide out. Every now and than James braved the elements to give it a sweep, just to be sure.

(using another of his clever 'inventions' to do so)

The temperature didn't get above 26F, so everything pretty much froze:

And got covered:

Other than that, like I said, we didn't do much. Merl' also took some 'snow days' off .......

                                                          

  

... and was helpful as ever with the puzzle:

Monday morning we woke up to sunshine and a beautiful blue sky:

We did manage to freeze and crack the small water filter (outside), but that needed to be replaced anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
Other than that, we did fine, we kept warm and dry and (knock on wood) even more important, we kept having electricity!

       

James was picked up by a co-worker around 10 am to get to work since the truck was pretty much snowed in, and the roads could still be a little icy here and there. Not something you want to tackle with a heavy, 2-wheel drive, truck!

By the way, yes, James is working again. He found a great job, working for a contractor in Lead, and despite not hearing from the guy for a while before we got here, everything worked out fine in the end!

I've got most pictures of our travels from Lajitas to here sorted out, and I'm working on putting everything together. 

I think I'm going to post a blog for each state we went through, so keep an eye out!