We got up early to start on what was to be the longest stretch of driving for the trip: almost 400 miles.
We drove the 275 more miles of I-40 across New Mexico under cloudy skies, with intermittent light rain.
Our destination: Homolovi Ruins State Park, just outside Winslow, AZ. This is a wide-open desert park, with views that I have not been able to capture adequately with my camera.
Strangely enough, after being in a loop of a campground in NM yesterday that totally filled by evening, this park is almost empty! Lots of space, lots of privacy, an excellent site, clean bathrooms (though their water heater is broken, so it will be a cold shower)....hard to imagine why more people are not here.
Temps falling from high 80's to the 50's overnight--- Yup, this is the desert!
High winds continued all night, buffeting the RV, but in the morning, they had died down to just pleasant breezes. Temperatures were in the mid-60's for our morning walk and Ranger really seems happy to have it cooler (at least early; it's supposed to get to mid-80's) .
Rain is expected later in the day, but we had a sunny morning to take a hike.
This body of water, out in the desert, is obviously Santa Rosa Lake, another man-made lake formed by a dam.
Along the trail, we saw a ground squirrel, a jackrabbit, and quite a few different birds, as well as this guy:
The campground emptied out early in the day, but now rigs are starting to arrive for the night. With clouds moving in, I think we'll have a quiet evening inside the RV.
This morning we got an early start and put Oklahoma behind us.
We crossed the Texas panhandle, going through Amarillo, and arrived in New Mexico for a late lunch at their welcome center.
It was extremely windy all day, coming from the south/southwest. The RV fought through it, but the mpg dropped down to 11-12.
We turned off at Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and found our site at Santa Rosa Lake State Park. It's about eight miles off the highway, out in the middle of nowhere.
We have a nice site, with covered picnic table, but it is unfortunately oriented such that the wind comes through there, hitting the side of the RV with great force. The mat outside is weighted down with pieces of wood normally used for leveling the RV. Poor Ranger: his ears are flying every which way.
Hoping for a decrease in wind tomorrow, though there is rain in the forecast.
Today was a sunny, windy day at Foss. The temperatures are rising again, up into the low 90's in mid-afternoon.
We set out in late morning to tour Washita National Wildlife Refuge. It occupies the northwest sector of Foss Lake (while our campsite in in the southeast corner). The refuge headquarters were closed on a Sunday, but we were able to view the prairie dogs that live near their buildings:
(I had left my camera back in the RV, so I was only able to snap pictures with my phone.)
We followed the refuge's "auto tour" to see the sites, but we seemed to be the only people out there on this hot day. The tour was poorly marked, and the sites were unspectacular, but we did see a roadrunner and some scissor-tailed flycatchers along the roads. (Quite a few of the roads on the tour were unpaved, so yesterday's car wash was a bit of a waste; the car is again covered with reddish dust.)
I took advantage of the park's laundry facilities to do some wash while Dan and Ranger lounged outside in the shade. Then I took a short walk along the park's multi-use trail, which was quite pleasant while it was in the shade but awfully hot in the sun.
Too windy to grill outside tonight, so it's an indoor dinner, with welcome air-conditioning!
I have heard that our day in Oklahoma began with a significant earthquake, but somehow we missed it entirely. (We are quite a bit west of the epicenter.)
Ranger and I had a lazy start to the day with a short walk and a return to the RV for (his) breakfast and (my) tea. He was quite difficult on the walk, pulling back to the campsite, so I do wonder now whether he had detected the earthquake and wanted to go back to where he felt safe.
Anyway, we enjoyed sitting outside, on a cool sunny morning.
I headed up to the park office at 10 to see their "buffalo feeding". Some park employees drove a pickup truck out into the large field where the buffalo live, dropping some sort of food pellets. The beasts RAN to get it---must be good stuff. For the next fifteen minutes there was much pushing, grunting, and head-butting as they fought over the best of it.
Dan fixed us a big brunch of eggs, ham, fried potatoes and English muffins before we headed out in the car to explore other regions of the park. After riding around, including a trip across the top of the dam, we decided that we were glad to have gotten the site we did, in what seemed to us the nicest section of the park.
Dropping Ranger off in the air-conditioned RV, we headed into the town of Clinton to grocery shop. Can't say much for the local store---small and limited selection. One peculiarity of Oklahoma is that one can buy only 3.2 beer in grocery stores; for regular beer, you have to go to a liquor store. Dan picked up some beer and put it our cart before realizing that it was 3.2 Miller Lite; the cans looked exactly the same but there was a small label indicating its "strength" of 3.2.
We lounged in the shade for much of the afternoon, watching speedboats pull kids around on big inflated "toys" as well as many Jet-skis.
It has been warm and very breezy all day but at least we're not getting wet from that storm that has been moving up the east coast!
There was no point in hanging around Lake Eufaula, so we headed out early for our short day of driving, just about 210 miles. Our destination was Foss State Park, still in Oklahoma but only about 50 miles from the Texas border (Panhandle area).
It rained going through Oklahoma City but cleared off as we arrived. Cedar Point campground, one of six, is in the southeast corner of Foss State Park with a clear site of the dam that created Foss Lake back in the 60's. Our site is close to the water with a great view, plus a level concrete pad and a few small trees for shade.
We were one of the earliest to arrive at this area of about 15 sites, so it was a quiet afternoon of lounging, reading, and exploring the campground. Ranger got a good walk plus some time to enjoy the sunshine and breezes. The weather has improved greatly from a few days ago: partly cloudy, mid-80's, light breeze.
I am relieved that this park is nice, as we have reservations to stay through the weekend. With the holiday, there's a minimum 3-night stay policy, so we would have had to pay for three whether we stayed or not. And it is good to have a few days to relax, with no driving. The park is fairly large, so we'll get out to explore the other sections including the wildlife refuge across the water; Dan bought a fishing license so he can hang out down near the marina on the dock; I will get some grocery shopping and laundry done.
As expected, the campground filled up as evening came. Lots of people brought their boats and various water toys. Our little set-up looks quite small and simple by comparison!
As I got ready to take Ranger out early this morning, I looked out the window and this is what I saw:
(Fuzzy photo due to it being taken through the window---I didn't want to scare it off by opening the door.)
Ranger and I had a good walk of almost an hour along the shore line of Lake Dardanelle. Dan and I were in no hurry to have an early start as our next reservation was at a state park only about 170 miles west. Our holiday weekend reservations (when one must reserve, and pay for, at least three nights) are for Lake Foss in Oklahoma, almost at the Texas border, a bit too long a distance to do in one day. So we had a short day of travel today, and will also have a short one, just a little over 220 miles, tomorrow.
Anyway, we continued on I-40, passing through Fort Smith as the grey clouds dissolved into light drizzle. At least with the rain, the temperatures dropped into the upper 70's, a pleasant change.
We are now at Lake Eufaula State Park, east of Oklahoma City. First impression: a tired, somewhat run-down park, not well-maintained. But it is for only one night.
I found the one, very short, hiking trail near this campground, and it involved about a five minute walk that ended at the shore of the lake.
There were a few tall white birds, way out, and I was without my binoculars, but they appeared to be great egrets.
So far....not impressed with Oklahoma!
