July 9, 2016
We have spent the entire day relaxing in the
campground. We walked around the other
camping loops, including the equestrian area.
Since we were tired from traveling and it is nice and cool up here on
the mountain we decided to stay a second night.
July 10, 2016
We went to Mass at the little church in Pecos, then returned
to the Pecos National Historic
Park so Roger could
transmit for awhile. Out next national park is called Fort
Union, about an hours drive from Pecos.
I surely do like the New
Mexico sky. It
has the prettiest fluffy white clouds against a beautiful blue background. It causes me to raise my eyes up to the
heavens, which is such a good thing to do.
It puts life in a better perspective.
Near Las Vegas,
New Mexico, I was surprised to
find flat level prairie land with not a tree in sight. It was about 25 miles before we saw short
trees and shrubs again. Then the prairie land returned. This pattern repeated itself as we traveled
throughout the day.
We arrived in Ft.
Union and learned that
the fort was established in 1851, after the US/Mexican War. It was designed to protect citizens traveling
on the Santa Fe Trail from Indian raids. One of the things I found most interesting
was a separate hospital building. In its day, it was the largest hospital west
of the Mississippi River. The staff treated civilians as well as the
military troops and their families.
Fort
Union was the storehouse
for as many as 40 other forts through out the southwest. It was also the place
where the dragoons and mounted riflemen became the 1st US Calvary. Ft. Union
served as an important, active location for almost 40 years. But once the railroad was constructed to Santa Fe, the fort had
“outlived its usefulness” and was abandoned in 1891.
As we continued out travels Roger pointed out that it was
nice to see buttes that are green. So
many we have seen before are dirt without any vegetation. We reached a canyon
with a river at the bottom called the Canadian River. We sure wish we knew how it got its
name. It was very late when we arrived
in Logan. Gratefully, they had plenty of campsites at
the campground. As it turned out, this
is the nicest one we have stayed in on this trip, as far as facilities go. All of the sites have very long pull throughs
at least 50feet long. Each has a covered
picnic area with brick walls on two sides, as well as electric and water for
only $10 per night. What a deal! There is a really nice boat dock at the
launching area and numerous picnic areas.
July 11, 2016
We decided to take the interstate route to our next
location, thinking we were more likely to find a Laundromat, as well as cell
phone service and internet.
Looking out the big front window of the RV, where the
prairie land meets the sky, it looks like we could fall off the face of the
earth. So many places seem lonely, hot
and dry, with only scattered greenery in the far more prevalent beige grasses.
There are very few people living in these remote areas and those that do, we
can’t imagine what their source of income might be.
I suppose, if you are born and raised here, you would have
gotten used to the openness of the landscape and a tree-filled land may feel
claustrophobic. Being able to see for
miles and miles might be comforting. But it makes me nervous and sometimes
bored and longing for the eastern part of our country.
We crossed over into Texas
at 11:30, but the only way we could tell is by the signs. Out view remained the same for a few more
miles. Then we noticed a few small
hills. The only variation in the
landscape was a large windmill “farm” with hundreds of windmills. They went on for over 25 miles across the
prairie land. I wondered what it cost
versus the electricity they produce. At least they are in an area where hardly
anyone lives, so there probably haven’t been any complaints about destroying
the view. Other than a few cattle herds
grazing near the interstate and I doubt they care one way or the other.
We finally started seeing farm land just west of Amarillo. How great to be back to civilization
again. It gave me a feeling of
hopefulness. We got a great deal on gas
at Sam’s, only $1.78 per gallon.
Unbelievable! Next we located a
laundry and spent the next couple of hours cleaning our clothes. To celebrate,
we went to a local steak restaurant named Hoffbrau and had an early
dinner. Roger had seen it from the interstate and could tell it was local,
rather than a chain restaurant. We had
rib eye steak, which was delicious! What
a treat!
After a Walmart stop for groceries, we downloaded our blog,
then headed toward Lake
Meredith, where there is
another national park. On the way, Roger
checked the temperature. I was shocked
to hear it was 110 degrees. I knew it was hot, but had no idea it was that bad.
I wonder what the heat index was.
We passed another windmill “farm” with about 80
windmills. The nearer we came to the
park, the more rugged the surroundings.
The prairies gave way to shrubs and some small hills and valleys. It was 7 pm when we reach Alibates Flint
Quarries, about 30 miles north of Amarillo,
Texas. Here the mountains were higher and the
valleys were lower. Of course the
visitor’s center was closed at that time of day, so we located an RV park that
accepted Passport America
and had electricity so we could run the air conditioner.
July 12, 2016
We returned to Alibates
Flint Quarries
National Monument, very
curious to learn more about his unusual site.
It is so hard to believe that Paleo-Indians quarried flint here over
13,000 years ago. But they also traded
the flint, which was noted for its hardness, to other Indians. Turquoise, from Arizona, shell jewelry, pipes and obsidian
found at Alibates quarries verifies the large range trade with peoples of the
west and north. The park ranger told us that
this may have been the very first form of commerce in what is now the
continental Unity States. The name
Alibates came from a man who worked in support of preservation of the
quarries. This was the very first National
Monument in the state of Texas. We learned that National Monuments are
selected by the President, where as National Parks must be approved by
Congress.
Before we left the park, Roger spoke with a man outside who
was tanning a buffalo hide. He
recommended a small restaurant in Amarillo
called the Golden Light Café. He sells
buffalo meat to them. Then he donates the hides to the National Parks, who pay
to process them and use them for presentations and displays.
We located the café easily and ordered the buffalo burger with
fries. It was quite good. The basket of
french-fries was huge, and it was only ½ an order. We ate our fill and still took french fries
“home”. The menu told the history of the
café, which opened in 1946. It has
changed hands five times, but still does a good business. It is the oldest continuously serving
restaurant on old Route 66.
On our drive through northeastern Texas, we see a combination of fertile green
fields of corn and periodic tall white windmill “farms” on a flat, open range. Most of the undeveloped land is still a
golden brown in places where irrigation is not present. Just west of Allenweed, Texas,
we started seeing rolling hills again, which was very pleasant. It broke the monotony of the flat land and
gave a little feeling of anticipation:
what is over the next hill? It
just happened to be a rest area that was built into the side of a hill, quite
unique and practical; helping keep utilities costs down, I’m sure.
When we reached McLean,
Texas, I noticed the grasses were
taller and had a greenish tent, mixed with the golden brown. There were a few more, taller green trees, kind
of like a very slow “awakening”. Then,
believe it or not, just as we crossed the Texas Oklahoma state line, vegetation
became greener and the number of trees increased.
We left I-40 at Sayre and headed north to Washita
Battlefield National Historic Site. Again, it was closed when we arrived. We
found a really pretty city park, where we spent the might. Though the town of Cheyenne is small, it is a very clean, well
kept community. It is so peaceful, that it seems completely opposite of the
heritage from which it was derived.
July 13, 2016
We returned to the visitor’s center this morning and learned
about the “Battle”.
It sure seemed more like a massacre. It was one of Custer’s very frightening
decisions. Chief Black Kettle was a peaceful chief. He had signed treaties to
protect his people. But Custer attacked the village before dawn. What a
horrible choice he made. Though there
was a small band of warriors who were camped down river that was a raiding
party, Black Kettle loved his people and wanted them to survive. Instead, he lost his own life that fateful
day, November 27, 1868.
At 10:00 we headed to Oklahoma
City. Gosh! It
is great to see greener grasses again. I
have surely missed them. But I had not realized that we have Southern
Plains. When ever I heard or read about
the plains, I visualized the Northern Plains of Montana. It shows how lacking I am in my own
country’s geology. But it also shows I
can still learn new things, which I find very encouraging and hopeful.
It appears that eastern Oklahoma is devoted to farming and/or cattle
ranching. But there are still areas of
undeveloped plains. The soil is a very
deep red color, which creates a wonderful warm contrast to the surrounding
light green vegetation.
We have passed another large windmill “farm”, just west of Weatherford, Oklahoma.
I have to admit that they spoil the scenery for me. They seem so out of place
with the natural environment around them.
As soon as we reached Oklahoma City,
we went to the Oklahoma City Memorial of the April 1995 bombing of the Federal Building. It is modern in design, but
has a wonderful symbolism. There is a
black granite “pool” only ¾ of an inch deep, with constantly flowing water from
underground pumps. This color granite allows
it to reflect light in both the daytime and at night.
Bronze backed “chair” symbols are situated on the lawn next
to the pool. There is one for each of
the people who died. The individual
monuments are in 9 rows, representing the floor of the Federal building where
they lost their lives. The second floor has small chair memorials representing
the children who were in the nursery on that floor. There were a total of 168
victims, 19 of whom were children.
Roger located the person who was in charge of the memorial,
as well as the security supervisor. He explained his desire to activate this
park on the National Parks On the Air program. They were very helpful and
readily agreed. Then he contacted the
ARRL representative who is coordinating the program. He also readily approved
of the activation and was very excited.
Roger told him it would be a little over an hour before he would be
ready, as we were going to do a tour of the Capitol Building
first. (It still amazes me when Roger is
able to accomplish something like this.
I just don’t have his degree of faith. But it is very inspiring! I had anticipated at least a long delay in
getting approval from three different agencies.
But, no. He just assumes success
and then achieves it. )
The Capitol
Building, itself is very
impressive and designed similar to many such buildings, with columns and a tall
staircase out front and a dome on top.
But I was surprised to see a tall oil rig right in front of the
building. On the tour, I found out that
this structure was the first, original oil rig in the State of Oklahoma and the oil
industry has had a great influence in the state since the early 1900s.
The state seal has a star within a circle, which actually
made me think about the Texas
“lone star” state. But it really is not
alone, because there are stars between each point representing all of the
states that were already part of the United
States when Oklahoma
was approved for statehood. The five points stand for the five major Indian
tribes living in Oklahoma. The center of the star shows an indian, a
farmer and a cowboy together.
We toured the House and Senate chambers and saw many great
paintings throughout the building. There
is a grand portrait of Will Rogers and one of Jim Thorpe, a Native American
winner of two gold metals in the Olympics in 1912 (the pentathlon, consisting
of the five events of fencing, shooting, swimming, riding and cross country
running and the decathlon, which is 10 track and field competitions including
the long jump, discus throw, javelin throw, sprint and wrestling.) No one has ever won both events since that
date.
Roger and I were surprised to learn that San Walton was
another famous Oklahoma
native. He was the founder of the
Walmart and Sams stores. His portrait is also hanging in the Capitol Building.
We returned to the Memorial parking lot and Roger
transmitted for about an hour. He wanted
to continue as many people were trying to contact him for this location. But
the noise level was so high that it was very difficult for him to hear them
well enough to count as an official contact.
We found the Moose Lodge in one of the suburbs of Oklahoma City. (Roger had
join just before our trip, for this particular purpose.) As Roger’s good luck would have it, the
“governor” of the lodge was one of the first people we met. He was very gracious. After talking for awhile, he heartily agreed
for us to use their electric hookup for the night. We had planned to eat dinner there, but the
kitchen is undergoing repair, so it will be some time before meals will be
served again.
This evening Roger tried to reach Bill Westmoreland, a
classmate who could not make it to our 50 year high school reunion. Though he couldn’t get a phone number, he was
able to get a work e-mail. He sent him a
message that we were in town and would like to see him.
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