No alarm needed today! I’ve got Bob! We were up and were getting ready to leave at 7:00. Yesterday afternoon when we arrived at 4:00 there were 8 or 9 empty sites. By dusk, they were all filled, but this morning many were already gone. When Bob walked out the door this morning, he saw this unusual creature. It was a Texas Horned Lizard or Horned Toad. It was so cool!
As we drove out of the campground, we got a look at the donkeys and llama that live in the park.
There was even a baby donkey.
We pulled out at 9:00 to very hazy skies and a temp of 82 degrees. Traffic was light on the road and in this expanse, there was a lot of nothing.
But it’s a good place for wind turbines with lots of open spaces. There were lots of turbines.
Can you tell which direction the wind comes from?
We saw this leaning water tower along the highway and Bob remembered reading something about it, so I googled it and found out that it is called the Leaning Tower of Texas–a water tower which served as a roadside attraction along historic Route 66 near Groom, TX. The tower was originally a functioning water tower which was slated for demolition until it was purchased by Ralph Britten and moved to serve as an advertisement for his truck stop and tourist information center. He made it to deliberately lean at a 10 degree angle. The truck stop burned down in 1990 and he passed away in 2000, but the tower remains as a Route 66 landmark and is still an attention-getter.
We had 313 miles to go today, so we wanted to get an early start. Our desination is Stillwater, Oklahoma. You ask, why Stillwater? Our plan is to go see the W. E. Rock Competition in nearby Glencoe. (W. E. Rock stands for World Extreme Rock Crawling. Bob came across this event when we were planning our trip last Jan./Feb. and we thought it would be fun to attend so we worked it into our plans. We stumbled on a rock crawling event in Hurricane, UT when we were in Zion National Park 3 years ago. It was amazing to watch, so hence our visit to Glencoe. Rock crawling is an extreme form of off-road driving using specialized vehicles ranging from stock to highly modified to overcome obstacles. Drivers typically drive vehicles over very harsh terrain. Driving locations include boulders, mountain foothills, rock piles, mountain trails, etc. Rock crawling is about slow-speed, careful and precise driving, and high torque. Rock crawlers often drive up, down, and across obstacles that appear impassable. Check back in the blog tomorrow for pictures.) As we neared the Oklahoma border, we saw this really cool Rest Area which was built as a berm.
The topography became more hilly with some small canyons and water sources.
We crossed the border into Oklahoma at 11:00.
We were getting 10 mpg with the southwest wind behind us, but we saw gas for $4.36 which is cheaper than we’ve been seeing in other places. We stopped at another Rest Area to stretch our legs and use the restroom.
Between the border and Oklahoma City, it was lush and green with rolling hills like Wisconsin. These red hills appeared out of nowhere for a very short time.
I-40 and Route 66 were one and the same for many miles. Route 66’s historic landmarks were positioned along the highway.
We crossed the Southern Canadian River west of Oklahoma City.
We also passed over the Chisolm Trail Crossing.
It was a little crazy going through Oklahoma City with traffic, a little bit of construction, and highway changes. The downtown skyline was hard to see due to smoke, haze, or smog. We couldn’t tell which!
North of Oklahoma City, we crossed the Cimmaron River. Parts of it were dry.
It is so nice driving in this part of Oklahoma where it’s green, green, green! We were at 3800 ft. this morning and 800 feet as we neared Stillwater. We were going down in elevation all day. We arrived in Stillwater, Oklahoma at 3:00. Stillwater is a bigger town than we thought it would be.
It took us 10 minutes to get through town and find the campground, Wildwood Acres RV Park.
Doug, the campground owner, met us when we arrived and allowed us to pick our own site. We chose one on the end of the row for more privacy.
We got all set up and relaxed in the AC. It was 95 by now with a heat index of over 100 degrees. The humidity was a little higher than we’re used to lately at 41%. Bob went up to the office to check in and Auggie and I sat outside in the shade for a bit until it got too hot. Bob returned and we enjoyed a cocktail before dinner. After dinner, the 3 of us took a walk around the grounds as things were cooling off. It was another long drive today and we are glad to be able to sit still in one place for the next three nights. We look forward to checking out the rock crawling competition tomorrow.