OKLAHOMA CITY, OK…THE SOONER STATE

Sunday, May 22 – Off to Oklahoma City, OK today. This is the first we have traveled outside of Texas in nearly 7-months. We traveled into Balmorhea, TX on October 24, 2010, after touring New Mexico, and have been in the state ever since.

We had an uneventful 5 hour drive arriving at Rockwell RV Park. This park is a little more expensive than we usually spend, but it has a good location for the sights we want to see. We may move to a different location on Thursday, but there aren't many RV choices in OKC.

The scenery at the beginning of the drive looked like this…

Once we entered

It looked like this…

AHHHHH…green grass, trees!

Rockwell RV Park is on the west side of the city. They have an indoor swimming pool and hot tub. They serve free coffee and muffins each day. And we get a daily paper free...none of which we need or use.  They raise buffalo on site  and sell the meat in the office. We may need to try this.

This one kept a close eye on Marsha.

Our Site #68

Looking down the road.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE:
Lubbock, TX.....elevation 3400 feet
Amarillo, TX....elevation 3750 feet
OKC, OK.........elevation 1340 feet

Do you know why the state is called the "Sooner State"?  On April 22, 1889 the Indian Territory was opened to settlers. Thousands of people lined up on the border, and when the signal was given, they raced into the territory to claim their land. Some people went in early to claim their land. They became known as Sooners.  Now you know the rest of the story.

We drove downtown to get the lay of the land. We visited the famous warehouse area now known as Bricktown. There is a beautiful river walk meandering through this downtown area and entertainment district. Surprisingly, few of the restaurants and bars were open on Sunday.....just like the old days, when alcohol establishments weren't allowed to open on Sunday. A few were open, so there must not be a law forbidding it, but most open Tuesday through Saturday. Looks like a nice entertainment area.....we'll have to stop back!

We took a stroll along the mile-long Bricktown Canal.

They have a Water Taxi that takes passengers on a cruise.

Marsha LOVES baseball. The next two stops made her day.

Johnny Bench Plaza, home of Big 12 baseball.

Johnny Bench was born in OK City. He played for the "Big Red Machine" (Cincinnati Reds for those non-baseball fans.) for 17 seasons. Johnny was named Rookie of the Year in 1968, National League Most Valuable Player in 1970 and 1972. world Series MVP in 1976, a 14 time all-star and won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves.  He was elected in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.

Mickey Charles Mantle was an American professional baseball player was also from OK City. He played his entire 18-year Major League Baseball career for the New York Yankees as an outfielder and first baseman. He won 3 American League MVP titles and played in 16 All-Star games. Mantle appeared in 12 World Series, winning 7 of them. He won the triple crown in 1956. He is regarded by many to be the greatest switch hitter of all time, and one of the greatest players in baseball history. Mantle was elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

San Angelo has their sheep.

Odessa their rabbits.

Amarillo their horses…which Marsha hasn't blogged about yet but it is coming.

And now OK City with their buffalos. Where will it all end?

After our River Walk and site seeing of Bricktown, we had a beer at Toby Keith's Bar (“I Love This Bar”). The beer was nice and cold.

The pictures don't really show how big this place really is.

If you have to wait for a seat, the back of these pick up trucks will do the trick.

Says it all!

Toby Keith is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith has released thirteen studio albums, two Christmas albums, and multiple compilation albums. He has also charted more than forty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including nineteen Number One hits and sixteen additional Top Ten hits. His longest-lasting Number One hits are "Beer for My Horses" (a 2003 duet with Willie Nelson) and "As Good as I Once Was" (2005), at six weeks each. The walls are full of pictures and gold records.

There’s so much to do and see in Bricktown, you won’t want to miss it!

We will end with…how did they do this?

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

ART HIPPIE AT WORK

Friday, May 20 – We headed back to Cadillac Ranch this morning to write our names on the graffiti painted cars. We made a quick stop here the first day we arrived just for Marsha to get a picture to put on the top of the blog

Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies imported from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh 3. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh 3's fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza).

This guy is trying to be an art-hippie. 

Finished product.

We found this art on one of the cars. Our friends Sandie and Jim Dixon must have been here.

Later we took a ride to the Historical Home section of Amarillo on Polk Street. Many of these homes have been historically restored and bare the historical seal.

This area is only two blocks long on Polk Street, between 15th and 17th. The houses were developed between 1905 and 1915 and are considered the finest stretch of historic residential neighborhood in Amarillo.

Lee Bivins House, 1905.

Herrington-Crudington, 1910.

Shuford-Killough-House, 1913.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

SOLITUDE, BEAUTY AND KIDS?

Tuesday, May 16 – We took a short drive to Lizzie Mae's Mercantile.

Marsha wanted to see if there was anything she couldn't live without. She found this cute birdhouse. The door knob is the perch for the bird. NO…she did not buy it. But she did leave with two other purchases for Christmas gift no less.

The place has everything. Even an indoor water fall. Prices seemed very reasonable. A nice place for you ladies to spend a little time at.

We then took a ride down to the Historic Route 66 area. We didn't actually see anything worth writing about. At 6:00 we meet our friends, Bonnie and Kenny, at the Elks Club. We met these two at the Lubbock Elks the night of the fish fry. They were coming this way and decided to stay in the same park as us.

The Elks have just finished a complete renovation. They did a great job. All the labor was donated by members, and all but $10,000 was donated for the materials and supplies. The group there was very friendly.

The four of us then headed to the Country Barn Restaurant.

This place was really nice.

WOW…was the food delicious. MUCH better and cheaper than the Big Texan Restaurant we ate at on Monday.

Can you guess what this glass hallway lead to?

YEP…the restrooms. Man was it difficult to find which door was the women's and which the men's.

Wednesday, May 17 – We headed back to Palo Duro Canyon today. Our plan was to hike the Sunflower Trial and the Rojo Trail. We started out on the Rojo Trail, a short 2-mile round-trip.

Before connecting with the Sunflower Trail, a 2.5 mile trip we connected to the Juniper Cliffside Trail instead. This is a 6-mile trail through the cliffs boarding the northern edge of the park.

We were enjoying the solitude and beauty of the trail until we rounded a canyon cliff and heard a racket. “What the heck is that?”, we asked each other. Well, we soon figured it out when a group of 3^rd, 4^th , and 5^th graders appeared on the trail in front of us.

“Sorry, said the teacher, but there are 150 youngsters bringing up the rear.” YIKES! It was funny, we took it in stride, moving off the trail so the noisy, tired, sweaty kids could pass. We could still see and hear them when they were across the street way on the other side.

We continued with our hike leaving the kids behind. Unfortunately, they left reminders of their hike behind.....hmmmmm.

Sad thing is…they had two adults at the end of the line. You mean they didn't see this? We've often said we need to bring a plastic trash bag along on our hikes....today would have been a good day to do just that!

We stopped for lunch on a picnic table under a tree. Interesting how a crew got this picnic table in this secluded area. I'd hate to have to haul it back out of this trail.

We enjoyed a little sandwich and apple slices. Paul used the Swiss Army Knife Carrie brought him back from Denmark. Thanks Carrie.

The cool water tasted good too! It's considerable warmer today compared to our hike two days ago.

We eventually connected to the Sunflower Trail for our return trip to our car. This was a very nice trail along the river. There was very little flowing water due to the terrible drought, but occasionally we were able to spot water.

This part of the trail was in the woods which offered us a nice shade from the hot sun. We hiked along a wall of red cliffs, large trees, and the cool stream back to our car.

It always amazes us where cacti can grow. Right out the side of solid rock.

Along the road there are six river crossings. Number 6 is the only one that had water flowing over the road.

  

It was a good hike. Not as far as our previous jaunt on the Lighthouse trail, which we both agreed was a good thing on a much hotter day. We were both tired and looked forward to relaxing around the MH for the evening.

Paul did go over and help the neighbor man who was experiencing a few minor problems with his MH. He enjoyed helping and talking with this fella'. He, his wife, and four children are traveling the country of a missionary type trip. They are called Passion to Action (P2A) and have their MH painted up to call attention to their purpose. They have an interesting story and have been traveling together for 3 years. They have been featured on Good Morning America. We are amazed how this family of six live in their 40' MH.

We know many of you (especially Ohioans) won't see the humor in the next picture but we think this says it all for Texas.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!