Crystal Meth and Jesus

if you had any fears, both are alive and well in the heartland....

We tried to get up and get out yesterday - we had another 400 mile + day ahead of us. The problem was it had rained all night, and hadn't really quit by the morning. Add to that huge blasts of howling wind, and you can see how excited we were to take the Prairie Schooner back out on the black rolling sea.

We had no choice, so Marge - sans spinach, but with Popeye forearms - fought to keep us on the road. While I like to hyperbolize, I am not pushing it to say she held the wheel at a 15 degree cant into the wind for hours, while we fought to stay in the lane we were in. She's my hero, everyday.

After a little bit of this nonsense, anything else looked good. Oh, and Tamm-e, this is where they WANT to engage in commerce - so at first sight of the Cherokee Trading Post, we pulled off to give Marge a break. It was worth it and a good choice - Marge got some nice Mocs and we broke down and bought an incredible Buffalo Hide (yep, you got it, a the whole deal and let me tell you, they are BIG!). That was fun and felt like a good souvenir for the experience.

Commerce concluded, we headed back out. We were happily surprised to see the sun, a huge relief. The wind was still up, but not as insane, so we braced ourselves for another 200 miles of Okalahoma and then through to Hot Springs, AR.

We passed through Yukon, OK - the home of Garth Brooks; we passed through Checotah - the home of American Idol Carrie Underwood. Hell, we fought the wind and passed through a lot of OK.

We got fuel - remember these are fighting the wind stats:
281 miles
42.528 gallons
$94.37
2.129/gallon - LOWEST YET!
6.61 mpg - ouch

At least during all this wind, we came across a huge wind farm; I'm glad to see that someone is thinking and harnassing the amazing amount of power just cruising by. These windmills were huge, and a first we just saw the roadside ones... a little closer look showed them going to the horizon in each direction. It was amazing, there must have been scores of these things. At least in this area, it would be fiscally negligent not to be investing in this kind of technology.















It was apparent we didn't have the fight in us to make it another 200+ miles. I pulled out the KOA guide and found out we could quit it in Sallisaw and that would put us right near the Arkansas border, and at the crossroads leading to Hot Springs; so we opted in.

Just before we got there, there were the most incredible rainbow formations in the sky - there was one right on the horizon, a half one near it, and another one that was so low and so bright. Here are my shitty thr0ugh the windshield at 80 attempts to take a picture of a rainbow... and no covenants, just refraction.

Giving in a little early would let us have ample time to get there and do some much needed laundry, and just take care of a few things. Pulling in at night 3 days in a row really cramps your RVing style, and we needed to chill out and give Marge a break.

The Kampground was billboarded as NICE, VERY NICE - and even though that sounded a little creepy, this place is quite pleasant. Plus we had the beauty of a huge open Oklahoma sky and a late evening and overnight lightning storm. It was massive in scope and the lightning was miles away, but only in the big prairie country can you really get that drama. Luckily, the lightning wasn't hitting nearby and the rain was mild; and we were sleeping, not driving.

Roadkill:
Armadillos
Skunks
Cat
Coyote
Hawk

Live:
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Hawk
Seagull

Vanity Plates: not a one!!

Undetermined:
Bull's balls (that ones for you Jimbob!) Harve!