Sept 24-26th - Whirlwind trip thru Arkansas to Oklahoma, Amarillo and Tucumcari

Onward thru the great red dirt dust bowl . . .

Dust Bowl of Oklahoma

Oklahoma City

Serenading Bird

Very uneventful drive thru Arkansas. Boring country to drive thru on I-40. We stayed at a Walmart in Conway on the 24th. Driving on into Oklahoma was pretty much like Arkansas, maybe a little more interesting with the large farmland and red dirt. I could imagine my grandparents coming thru here in 1918 on their way to Oregon and stopping over to give birth to my dad in Oklahoma City. What a trip that must have been. The land is flat with long straight roads and I'm sure it was dusty traveling on dirt roads back then. We stayed at Hargus RV Park in Clinton, OK on the 25th. It was run down and in the middle of nowhere, but it allowed a good nights rest after a hard drive. A flock of noisey birds serenaded us early this morning. These were bird sounds I had never heard before. Nothing like we have back East.

Johnson Ranch

Johnson Ranch

Welcome Center and Tornado Shelter

Amarillo and the Big Texan Steakhouse . . .

Driving on into Texas was beautiful country going into Amarillo. We saw oil wells, the Johnson Ranch, and stopped at a rest area which served as a tornado shelter built into the side of a hill. In Amarillo we had a nice steak meal at the world famous Big Texan Steakhouse where if you can eat a 72 oz steak it is free. No, we didn't try it, but our food was good. The entertainment was a strolling guitar picker and singer of ole texas songs and the waitress was the best we have ever had. She was a bit of a ditz like me but very friendly and full of stories to tell and certainly earned her tip.

The Big Texan Steakhouse

Singing Troubadour

Inside the Saloon

Me and the Stagecoach

Time for Nostalgia . . . 

We ended up in Tucumcari, NM on the night of the 26th at a truck stop beneath the Tucumcari Mtn where Mom and dad climbed on their trip out West in1991 before Mom had her stroke and heart operation to give her a new valve. That was probably the last mountain she ever climbed as she cont inued to go downhill from that point, eventually getting Alzheimers.

Mount Tucumcari

And of course I have to show you the big volumptuous sky here in the West . . .