Green Hills in OK

I guess I associate Oklahoma with the Dust Bowl and expected it to be flat, barren and dusty. So I was surprised to see how green and hilly it is, at least where we were. Once we got to the Texas Panhandle, it got pretty flat and dry, but the Dust Bowl was in the 1930's, so undoubtedly they use  better farming methods nowadays.

We arrived in Tulsa mid-day and spent the afternoon cleaning out the A/C unit, which had begun to drip profusely inside the trailer. We've never used the trailer A/C as much as we have on this trip. David figured the drains had plugged up, forcing water back inside. Hopefully it's fixed.

The next day it was raining hard, so we went to the Will Rogers museum and learned all about his interesting life. We especially enjoyed seeing old clips of him using his lasso. He could do some incredible tricks with it. Tragically he died in a plane crash at age 56. We also tried to see a couple things on Route 66, but there wasn't much to see on the stretch we were on except a blue whale, and it was still raining.

In the afternoon we went on a self-guided walking tour of Art Deco buildings in downtown Tulsa. Many buildings were ornate on the outside and

even more amazing on the inside. David was underwhelmed. I thought it was neat.

The following day was beautiful and we rode our bikes along the river trail through town. This river trail isn't as nice as the one in Little Rock--it's more urban and part of it passes by oil refineries, but it does have some nice parks and views. We saw lots of birds, including white herons and a colony of white pelicans.

Along the trail we came upon the huge Route 66 sculpture depicting a car full of people coming face to face with a horse and buggy. We tried to go on a single-track trail at Turkey Mountain, but it was too narrow for me and besides, we had already ridden long enough.

In the afternoon we visited the Gilcrease Museum with its exquisit exhibits of Native American and Western art, Remingtons and Russells and Mexican masks, but no photos are allowed inside.

In OK city, we rode our bikes on their river trail, but it was a bit disappointing, mostly paralleling a road through town. The OK River looked muddy and had trash in it.

I did get a good look at a scissor-tailed flycatcher (state bird of OK) perched on a tree beside the trail.

The day before we had a wonderful guided tour of the inside of the state capitol and gained some insight into local politics.

The OK City National Memorial was striking and moving and situated on the exact site where the Murrah building stood before it was bombed in 1995.

A chair represents each person killed. A park ranger was on hand to explain the events of the day and its impact on the city. Also there's museum, but we didn't have time to visit it.

The Centennial Land Run monument is a pretty amazing set of sculptures about a day in history--April 22, 1889--in which about 50,000 land-hungry settlers rushed at a signal given at noon to claim a 160-acre parcel of land in federal "Unassigned Lands" that had been Indian Territory.

A bunny hopped across the grass and found some shade to escape the heat.

The National Cowboy and Western Museum had a reconstructed Western town, Western movie clips and trivia, an exhibit of hundreds of different kinds of barbed wire

and all kinds of other exhibits about the American West. You could easily spend all day. We spent a couple hours.

We spent our last day in OK in Lawton. At Fort Sill National Historic Landmark we learned about Buffalo Soldiers, Indians and fort-related history. We saw the guardhouse where Geronimo was imprisoned a short while

 and visited his grave.

After years of fighting the white man, Geronimo spent the remainder of his life on a small farm with his family near the fort but was free to travel, even participating in Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows and selling autographed photos of himself.

The 59,000-acre Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge was another OK surprise with its lichen-covered red rock hills and rolling prairie. The visitor center had a good video, excellent exhibits and a place to finally recycle the aluminum sparkling water cans I had been accumulating.

We drove around, watched prairie dogs and visited Holy City, where a passion play takes place once a year. It was too hot to take a hike.






On the way to Amarillo, we drove through small towns that looked like they had seen better days. Driving through Amarillo on the Interstate, we could see every fast food restaurant imaginable lining the road. We only had the afternoon there and the A/C had started leaking again, so David borrowed a ladder, got on the roof, disassembled the unit and cleaned out the drains for the second and hopefully last time, at least for this trip.

The cats are beginning to enjoy aspects of their new lifestyle.

Arkansas--The Good, the Bad and the Bobcat

After Memphis it was time to find some nature. We did just that at Cane Creek State Park, where David had located a trail he wanted to ride. But first we drove on small country roads past vast fields of corn and other crops. We visited the White River National Wildlife Refuge but only took time to see the video and a few exhibits at the visitor's center because it was too hot to leave the cats in the trailer without A/C. Next we stopped at the tranquil park-like Arkansas Post National Monument with its huge trees and large expanse of lawn surrounding a lake with bayous on either side. We watched the video about the 300-year history of the post--at one time or another and sometimes more than once it was French, Spanish, English and American.

I took a short walk and spotted a small alligator while David returned to the trailer to make sure the cats didn't overheat.

At Cane Creek I asked the woman checking me in if the bike trail was easy and in good condition. "Yes, if you have a mountain bike," she said. Well, turns out she didn't know what she was talking about. The following morning after riding about 3 miles of the 15-mile "easy" trail and pushing my bike up very steep hills, I decided it wasn't my idea of fun. David liked the challenge, so he continued, and we planned to meet on a later section of the loop trail that was a dike. How hard could that be? I still had a few miles of woods and a mile or so of road to get there.

Then I started on the dike, but it was covered with grass and was a soft, unpleasant surface to ride on. Also, it was hot and humid in the sun with no shade, so I decided it was time to return to the trailer. After several attempts, I got David on the walkie-talkie. He had gotten to the dike, was extremely hot and didn't have enough water. When he finally got back to the trailer, he was exhausted and overheated. By the time he had gotten to the dike he was tired and then had a couple miles on the squishy surface in the hot sun among thigh-high grass (it got shorter closer to the road where I was) without the benefit of an electric-assist. A little while after he talked to me on the walkie-talkie, a growling bobcat jumped out at him from within the grass, none too happy about being disturbed from his siesta. David shouted at him and kept riding, hoping the bobcat wouldn't pursue him.

After our communion with nature, we enjoyed a pleasant respite in Little Rock, which itself isn't devoid of nature. Our campground was (basically a parking lot) right next to the Arkansas River, and we walked across the Clinton pedestrian bridge

to the Clinton Presidential Library.

A docent gave a good tour through the building with its massive amount of information on Clinton's time in office and more.

There was even a fabulous exhibit of Chihuly glass.
Then we walked around downtown in the sweltering heat.

The next day we did a 27-mile bike ride that I thoroughly enjoyed along the Arkansas River.

It was mostly pavement, mostly off-road and quite scenic, taking us through downtown and in and out of parks.

Great trail, and it connected to other trails for even longer rides. We saw two fawns frolicking and two adult deer eating beside the trail, completely unafraid of us.

Later we visited the state capitol, an imposing building (most state capitols are but this one was particularly so) with marble columns, huge chandeliers, massive rotunda, glass ceilings

and the first woman's bathroom I thought worth photographing. We didn't get a guided tour, but the self-guided brochure was excellent.

We went to the Central High School National Historic site where nine young black kids tried to attend an all-white high school igniting a firestorm of protests and violence in 1957. The governor tried to keep them out; Eisenhower sent in federal troops to protect the kids and control the situation. The high school still functions. There is a visitor's center across the street.

After Little Rock we spent a day at Hot Springs National Park, where we had a pleasant wooded campsite that both cats appreciated. We strode up and down Bathhouse Row where people used to visit the baths for their health in the mid to late 1800's believing the hot water from the hot springs to be therapeutic.

At least one house is still a functioning spa and another, the visitor's center, is restored to its previous glory and interpreted by the park service. We walked around in the brutal heat and took a short mountain drive but really didn't find much here to interest us for more than a day, especially because it was too hot to hike and then started raining. Other than the bathhouses and scenery, it seemed very touristy. Well, any place with a wax museum is bound to be touristy.

Our final day in Arkansas was at Fort Smith. Our two excursions here were to Miss Laura's Social Club, the visitor's center and historically a brothel, and

Fort Smith National Historic site, which had a massive amount of information arranged in a rather helter-skelter fashion about the lawlessness of the 1800s in the Indian Territory. Judge Isaac Parker was tasked with overseeing the court in this area and sentenced many outlaws to death by hanging.

All in all an enjoyable time in Arkansas. Time to move on to Oklahoma.

Elvis, Miscellaneous Memphis

Of course we went to Graceland. Whether you like his music or not, Elvis had a phenomenal career, and it's quite interesting to learn about, but you only get to see the bottom floor of his home.

The rest is mainly a museum of his many accomplishments as well as displays of his outfits and other memorabilia.

You can also see his planes and cars. In fact, you could spend all day if you wanted to see everything. We spent a couple hours.

The day we got to Memphis we went to Mud Island park, which shows the entire lower Mississippi River in inches (a mile=an inch) in pavement with all its twists and turns. It depicts the towns along it and other points of interest. Interesting, especially with the real Mississippi right beside it.

We visited Sun Studio but got there the same time as a huge tour bus and decided it wasn't worth the money to be crammed in with lots of people on a tour.
We tried going downtown--the action happens on Beale St, but it was cordoned off, and there was a nearby festival, which took up all the street parking. We didn't really want to pay expensive garage fees, so we just drove by and parked at the riverside park. I suppose we could have walked up the bluff and then 6 or 7 blocks, but it was too hot.

Instead we looked at the river

and a statue of Tom Lee, who saved 32 people from drowning by rowing people ashore after their boat capsized.

Our campground had a big laundry with free machines, so we were able to get all our laundry done. Neptune was eager to get out and explore. I had him outside on a leash when our neighbor across the road opened the door and walked outside with her dog. He saw Neptune immediately and shot over in a flash. Neptune saw him too and ran to the trailer, but the door was closed. I couldn't run as fast as Neptune, and got there after the dog, who, by then, was chasing Neptune around the steps while the leash was getting fouled. About this time David opened the door and let in Neptune, and the owner of the dog appeared and apologized. The dog was on the small side but bigger than Neptune, and unlike Tinsel, our previous cat who would have taught the dog a thing or too, Neptune's first instinct is to run. Neptune has not completely warmed up to this trip. Every time David starts cooking fish on the stove, Neptune dives behind the couch because he thinks the smoke alarm will go off. In fact, every time David reaches his hand to the ceiling, Neptune's eyes get wide and he dives behind the couch for the same reason. Plato can't fit behind the couch, so when he's scared, he hides under the bed.

We also went to Overton Park and walked around a bit and then visited Dixon Gallery & Garden.

The gardens were nice enough but not really worth the time to get there.

The gallery had some modern pieces

and a few awesome paintings.