Oklahoma!

7:41 am - Monday - April 23rd - Oklahoma City, OK - 50º F, 90% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the north by northwest......cloudy with a forecast high for today of 74º F.

Shortly after awakening Sunday I was checking the weather on my phone and noticed that the winds would be coming out of the north all along our route with the worst of the wind around Elk City, OK at over 20 mph around mid morning.  Elk City was about 130 miles east of us so it was imperative we get back on the Interstate and cover as many miles as possible before the wind got bad.

We were rolling out of the Cracker Barrel parking lot by 8:10 am and up to highway speed on the Interstate within minutes.  Initially there was no wind at all, and it was very overcast......for a while I thought what we saw in the distance was rain.......

.....but it was not......just very low clouds.  As we continued eastward we saw this old, abandoned water tower that was leaning over so much I was surprised it did not fall.  I guess it has been that way for years......

......it soon began to clear, and eventually the winds from the north began to appear.  Most of the day we were going due east on I-40 so the winds were coming from the drivers side of the Newell forcing me to crank the steering wheel hard to the left almost 1/3 turn.....this is the kind of wind I hate, but at least it was steady and not gusting.

 Heading due east on I-40

Ultimately we entered Oklahoma, but there were no signs welcoming us like we saw in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.....just this sign indicating an Oklahoma Information Center and Rest Area 4 miles distant.....

....we finally got our official Oklahoma sign at the rest area.....it was well worth the wait.....it almost seems like the sign is shouting 'OKLAHOMA!'.  As we travel we stop every 60-90 miles depending on what is available, and at least once a day, sometimes more, we get dressed and go for at least 1/2 mile, but mostly for a mile, or more.  This day we walked 1.2 miles....a couple of times around the Rest Area.

The rest of the day's drive saw me fighting the ever stiffening winds continuously.  We took two more rest stops before finally reaching Oklahoma City.  We were here about 9 years ago and stayed at an RV park on the northeast side of town called Twin Fountains RV Resort.  It is right near the junction of I-44 (yes, we have left I-40 after 6 days) and I-35.  It fits our requirements for being 'easy off and easy on', and having very large, long pull through sites.  We hadn't plugged in for a few days, and TLE needed to do a load of wash so we got off the Interstate around 2:30 pm and snagged a site (P-4) which puts us right at the exit for the RV park.....perfect!  Just as 9 years ago we had no reservation at this very popular park, but got a site easily (it is quite full).

Once TLE got the wash going we walked across the street to a local 'health and wellness' school and walked for about 2 miles on their series of walking trails.....

....we walked a combination of their three trails to get our 2 miles of walking.

Around 6 pm we put on our bathing suits and walked over to the Jacuzzi for a good hot soak, and what a hot soak it was!  It was the perfect temperature.  You know how sometimes you in get in the Jacuzzi, or even the bath tub and it feels hot initially, but within a couple of minutes you are wishing it was hotter?  Well, this was was perfect in that I never wished it was hotter.  We soaked for about 30 minutes, which really helped relieve any residual tenseness remaining from our windy drive earlier.

We've now covered almost 1,300 miles on our journey to Maine, leaving roughly 2,000 miles to go.  We're going to slow down a little over the next week, and are planning on spending at least 3 days in St. Louis visiting TLE's brother, Creig (pronounced Craig), and his lovely wife Kay.  

Thanks for stopping by!

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