Chisholm Trail

There were high wind warnings, so I stayed 2 nights in Enid, OK. On Sunday I drove through Kansas and Oklahoma, it was windy, but I could still drive through it. On Monday morning the wind was so strong that I had to hold onto the door of the coach when I went outside. The only place I went on Monday was to get gas and groceries, and to buy a DustBuster to clean the coach.

Tueday morning I left the RV park just a few minutes after 7am. I wanted to get an early start because the weather channel was saying 30% chance of thunderstorms.  Luckily, I only drove through a few minutes of light rain. Along the highway I passed through Kingfisher, OK - the birthplace of Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam's Club. The town has a new Walmart Supercenter with a statue of Sam Walton in front.

The early start gave me time to stop at the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan, Oklahoma.  This museum had a lot of interactive exhibits and an art gallery. At one of the exhibits you had to answer questions about a cattle drive to see if you could get the cattle to the train on time and without losing too many. I'm happy to report that I did pretty good. You could also make your own brand, with some big stamps they had, but they only had 4 symbols to choose from. I'm sure some of these things are geared more for kids, but I enjoyed walking around and participating in the exhibits and relearning about some things.  They had two theatres, one had moving and talking life size figures and the other was a movie with wind, rain and dust blowing onto us, very real. I really enjoyed this center and was glad I stopped.

How's this for a travel trailer?

We should all be grateful for our modern RV's.

Some art from the Gallery

I should have written down the artists names to give them credit.

Around 12:30, I crossed the Red River into Texas, the river was all dried up and was just red dirt. I still have a long way to go in Texas. I will meet up with Diane & Karl and Karl's family in San Antonio on Thursday and on Friday we will drive to South Padre Island. Then I will have 5 days of no driving, just relaxing on the beach.

The RV Park I picked for tonite has a RV mechanic on site. I needed someone to take a look at my steps to the coach. They would not retract and I had to drive with them out today. I did not like driving like that, but I had no other choice. They did not have the parts to repair it, but they were able to retract the steps and disconnect them so that they would stay under the coach. I will check with LazyDays and the warranty company and get it fixed on the way home. I had mentioned to LazyDays that they were making noise before I left Florida, I thought they fixed them.

This RV Park is very nice - lakes, cattle, horses and beautiful scenery in North Texas Hill Country. I will have pictures and more info about this park tomorrow. I walked around the park while it was still sunny and came back and took a short nap and started on this blog. I then decided to go sit outside by the lake at dusk, I couldn't get any decent evening pictures. I couldn't figure out how to turn the flash off and all of the pictures were coming out very dark. I listened to a bird singing, not sure what type. And listened to the bullfrog singing and I could hear the cattle bellowing, but they were on the other side of the lake and I couldn't see them. This would be a nice park to stay for longer than one day, and you can fish in their lakes without a fishing license.

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Does she look like she is adjusting?

Windy Kansas & Oklahoma

A few miles from the RV park in Emporia, Kansas is the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Cottonwood Falls, KS.  I arrived there this morning just before 9am, picked up a trail map, talked to the Ranger for a few minutes, toured the barn and walked on the trails (around 2 miles). It was a clear and sunny morning.

 Barn Cats @ The Tallgrass Preserve



The preserve has a daily bus tour at 11am and I think it goes out to see the Bison and their new babies. I didn't charge my camera last night and it stopped working after a few pics this morning and I didn't want to wait 'til 11am, so I left the preserve without seeing the new Bison.

I drove on the secondary roads all day today, driving through small towns. It was very windy today, so I slowed down and took it easy. There was not a lot of traffic, a few people passed by me, and some stayed behind me. Maybe I was blocking the wind and making their drive easier.

Last year, I read a book about the "Dust Bowl" in the 30's. I can't imagine living with this wind all the time and having to work outdoors in the fields or on the range.

Winfield, KS has a very nice downtown area that seems to be thriving. There were several retail stores and restaurants and people walking along the streets. Unfortunately, I didn't see this in too many small towns along the way. Many of the small towns have vacant storefronts in need of repair.

I stopped in at the new Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center in Enid, Oklahoma and learned about pioneers and a land run. On Sept. 16, 1893 the government opened up an area for settlement and the pioneers all ran or road their horses to a spot they liked and marked it as their own.  I suppose I read about these things in grammar school, but didn't remember. I was also following the Chisholm Trail for part of the day, and will continue on this trail tomorrow and hopefully stop at some of the museums along the way. The railroads played a big part in the development of this area, so I am hoping to get some pictures of train depots.

Taking my time... going on the slow roads

just like this guy that was on the trail this morning.

9762 - 10018 / 256 miles   gas prices 3.68