Oklahoma, with an appetizer of Texas Panhandle

Oklahoma... nothing at all like the 1955 musical movie!!

Sometimes when I'm in Texas I feel as though I've been living in a bubble. We were driving along through the incredibly gross, endless rainy days when Mike points out this business… Did you know that one can rent rims and wheels by the week? Mike did; it seems like an absurd business proposition, but when I Google it there are photos of tons of happy people standing next to their newly re-rimmed car with a Rent-A-Wheel employee holding out their keys to them. Yikes! This is almost as bad as rental furniture... though possibly worse. I thought only in Texas, but Mike gave me the bad news that they exist in Philadelphia too.

So after our ridiculously rainy weather in the Guadalupe Mountains, we decided to try to outrun the rain and come across to the panhandle of Texas. I have been in the Panhandle with my college friend Stephanie, and had good memories of Lubbock. Unfortunately the rain had other plans for us and we barely even stopped as we moved towards Amarillo.

I took this photograph to give you an idea of the fact that it was just endless clouds from our current location all the way out to the horizon. Also I couldn't believe how many grain silos there were along the way. In both Oklahoma and Texas I was fascinated by the farm culture. I guess that's what happens when you live in the Northeast where industrial farming is much more limited.

And I also did a ridiculous amount of reading. I do get a little bit carsick sometimes, but one of the joys of being in somewhere like Texas is that the roads are so straight I can read while Mike drives (and drives, and drives...the odometer has logged 13,600 miles so far this trip, but who's counting?!) Don't judge! I try to keep him entertained as well but sometimes it's just so many miles that he prefers to listen to the radio and I prefer to read. This book came from my Aunt Mary. I can honestly say I would never have bought it myself but I am so glad that I read it. She said that when she read it she understood her father better; when I read it, I understood one of my friends better so I'm very grateful to her.

Normally I'm not lured by roadside attractions, but I have to say this one is worth a stop. It is on I-40 or, as I prefer to call it, Old Route 66. Obviously there is an enormous white cross. It is called "The Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ". For a long time it was the largest cross in the Americas. But what makes it incredibly impressive is the fact that there is an entire, more-than-life-size version of the Stations of the Cross that encircled the base. I found it a little bit odd because it's not a Catholic institution, but the artist did a stunning job and it might be the best version I have ever seen. Religious or not, this place is worth a stop.

A little further along from the cross, Mike spotted a rest area sign and randomly pulled off. Little did we know it was a Route 66 roadside attraction in and of itself. Once again I was reminded of the fact that I am not from this part of the country. I can't think of a single rest area in the Northeast that has a tornado shelter!

Then there is this roadside attraction on Old Route 66. There's an odd connection between this and the The Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, though you never know it at the onset. Two multimillionaires were involved in the building of that cross and this water tower. Let's call them millionaire one and millionaire two. Millionaire one has the idea to build a very large cross, but he has nowhere to build it. Millionaire two gives him the land to do it on and then builds this roadside attraction just a few more miles towards the Oklahoma border. No disrespect, but if I had millions of dollars I'm not entirely sure that a tilted water tower is what I would build on the side of Old Route 66, but to each his own.

Now we've arrived at the Devil's Rope Museum. You might think to yourself, "Seriously? Do I really want to look at a bunch of rusty wire?" Or perhaps you might say to yourself, "What the heck is devil's rope?" Again I have to give it to old Route 66; the stuff that has survived along this path is really worth seeing.

This beat-up cowboy is in the entryway at the devil's rope museum. If you look just over his shoulder to the left, there is a wonderful collection of photographs that show the devastation of the dust bowl era on this area. It's a wonderful collection of black-and-white photographs and old newspaper clippings that give the viewer an idea of what people went through. I know it might seem unrelated, but of course barbed wire played a role in the dust bowl.

"Barbed wire gave us boundaries, gave us ownership of land," said Delbert Trew, a retired panhandle rancher and the museum's curator. "You couldn't drive up and down the highways if it wasn't for barbed wire." And he's right.... we've been on many open range roads and you really want to be careful how fast you're driving and at what time of night. If all the roads were open range, I'm not entirely sure what big rigs, and more importantly small Beaver Lodges, would do.

This is a representation of a rock quarry in Kansas in the late 1800's. There were so many settlers in the Western plains states, that the trees and other appropriate fence-making material were quickly used up. People, being extremely ingenious, realized that you could bring in Limestone fence posts that weighed 450 pounds! They were worth a measly 25 cents apiece, with 3/4 of the proceeds going to the mine owner. I can't imagine how anyone made any money! Supposedly there are some fields in Kansas that still have these in place.

They even have artwork dedicated to barbed wire. I thought this one was particularly nice.

They were also many dioramas that showed farm equipment that used and moved barbed wire around.

This entire area of the museum was dedicated to how the same technology that allowed barbed wire to be created also allowed for mechanized seed planting. This particular machine dropped corn into small holes so that it didn't have to be done by hand.

This display brought up something I would never have thought of. Metal on the railroad was a high commodity that could be easily stolen. So the railroad company had a proprietary type of barbed wire created exclusively for their cattle crossings. Very smart.

Here are just a few smaller things that show you some of the exhibits that were put forth. The bottom left hand picture shows Caltrops. They are a natural form of barbed wire that native peoples would drop before their enemies as they were in retreat, or as a tactic of offense.

Again something about barbed wire I would never have thought about! As the telephone became more and more popular, ranches wanted to be able to communicate, not only across their ranch, but between ranches. A natural way to do this would be to run telephone wire across the top of barbed wire fences. Of course barbed wire is metal and telephone line requires electricity... they had to find a way to allow the telephone wire to run along the top of the barbed wire without causing shorts. As this display shows, they used anything non-conductive that they had at hand.

Another section of the museum was dedicated to Old Route 66. I guess it's fitting because they are located along it.

The museum even moved an entirely intact Route 66 Diner into their museum area. Love it, kind of makes me miss my hometown 1946-era diner, the Valerio Diner, which was sold and moved ☹

A little farther down the road we ran into this beautifully restored diner and automotive station. It is currently the Chamber of Commerce and the visitor information center for the area. What you can't see on the right-hand side is that Tesla donated 6 electric car-charging stations. Very cool!

This is the diner that Elvis actually ate at! We sat in the booth next to the one where he sat. They also have beautiful hats and handbags for you to put on for your photos. The staff at this place is amazing! They are very accommodating and even come over and offer to take your photo. Also there's free coffee! Possibly the first good coffee we've had since we left.

I'm just gonna let this cat in the hat stand on its own…

This is a photo out the window of the U Drop Inn. The hotel that you can see right across the street is also somewhere that housed Elvis when he visited the area. Interesting how many places that guy got around to.

The diner that you just saw is in the town of Shamrock. When we were there, there was a brochure for the tallest water tower in Texas, which upon further reading is the tallest water tower in North America! Just thought it was worth a few minutes down the road to visit.

The funny thing is that it's kind-of right in the middle of the agricultural district. I guess that crops and cows wait for no man. They need reliable water, even if it is a roadside icon. Never knew there were so many famous water towers in Texas.

On our way out I spotted this movie house. They were playing It ! I'm serious, if we were here at the right time I would have made Mike stop and see it with me. I can remember those clowns scaring the heck out of me in my childhood, and I was only reading the book. Don't judge my parents on this one. I was in elementary school and reading the Steven King novel under the covers when I was supposed to be asleep. Sorry Mom...

Finally we made it to Oklahoma! I swear I can see the sky clearing. I know that we've left the rain behind in Texas.

Just wanted to show you that I wasn't kidding. This is the first tiny speck of blue sky we've seen in days!

Right over the border we ran into this farm. They are Watusi, an African breed of cattle that has on average the longest horns of any breed on Earth. I only knew what they were because my Mom had seen one once in Pennsylvania and brought home some pictures. I found it particularly interesting because my father used to use the word Watusi as an adjective, or a descriptive noun, and I never had any idea where he got it from.

Sorry, one more picture of grain silos, tractor trailers, and farm equipment. Like I said, I'm a Northeastern girl; all this is terribly novel to me.

When Mike told me that we were going to the Wichita Mountains, I actually gave him the raised-eyebrow "are you messing with me?" look. Everybody knows that Oklahoma is super flat, has lots of tipis, and is generally just a drive-through, or fly-over, State to get to somewhere else!! Can't say how glad I am that my stereotypes were wrong.

Here is the Beaver Lodge in front of an interesting memorial that discussed an Indian-on-Indian massacre that occurred in this field. Also you can see the Wichita Mountains in the background. They're not just a small segmented mountain range, but are on both sides of the road for quite a while. You'll get to see as we go hiking through them tomorrow. This might be my favorite place where we have camped recently. During the night it was like we were surrounded by Coyotes. They yipped and called and sang all night. This is definitely the closest and loudest that I've ever heard them. Yet when I got out of the van to look at the Milky Way and the stars, I never saw them.

One of the first things that I noticed about Oklahoma was the extreme number of beetles, wasps and bees. Here is a Flower Longhorn Beetle - Stenelytrana emarginata.

This is a photo of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge visitor center. Unfortunately it's directly in the middle of the refuge, so we had done the entire left half with only a map and no information. Once we got here we did meet the loveliest park ranger. He was extremely enlightened, and really enjoyed sharing our road trip adventures as well as his own with us.

We started out the day hiking on Charon's Garden Trail. It is an interesting out-and-back trail that took us across a stream, through the woods, and then opened out into a boulder-filled valley.

This is what it looks like down the valley. We met a lovely local couple here who spent a lot of time talking with us about their travels in the area. They had never been on this trail even though they've lived in the area for 20 years. It makes me remember how much I should appreciate what I have around my home. When I get home, I swear I'm gonna clear all the trails in my two "50 hikes near Philadelphia" books. If I had to make an honest count right now, I've probably only done 25 of 75. Not a very good ratio!

This is the stream that we crossed at the beginning. Since it was an out-and-back, I thought I would take a photo of it on the way back to the car. I have to say that when we started this trip I was not so fond of trails where you went over the same ground twice, but I have learned that perhaps on the way out you see one thing and on the way back you see another.

On the way to our second hike we overshot the trailhead and ended up at Prairie Dog City. No doubt why this guy was sunning himself in the parking lot! He thought he'd soak up some rays before having some breakfast...

The next place that we hiked was a circular trail called the Bison Trail. Remember this place is not a National Park but a National Wildlife Refuge. This might seem like simply semantics, but it means that they don't have anywhere near as much money to maintain trails. Normally this doesn't bother me so much but when, in the course of a morning, I have seen a full-grown Western Rattler and a baby Cottonmouth in two distinct areas of the park, some trimming of the grass and maintaining of the trails is a good thing for personal health and safety.

Here is a shot of what a lot of the trail looked like. I know it might seem like nothing when you compare it to something like Rocky Mountain National Park but let me tell you it was really stunning. In that uniform, grasslike area there is an astounding array of cactus, succulents, grasses, as well as wildflowers. This landscape gave tons of beetles and butterflies a place to live... as well as a myriad of other invertebrates that we could only hear but not see.

I put in this photo instead of the more gruesome one. Just over this hill there was a dead baby Buffalo. It might seem irresponsible that the park service simply left it to rot next to the trail, but as we walked past the carcass, the amount of life that found sustenance here tells you why they left this carcass exactly where it lay.

The circle trail that we are walking is about 8 miles in circumference. This one waterfall is the path between our loop and a much shorter out-and-back on the other side. Needless to say, it was impassable for us. The trail map did warn us that what looked like a path would be inaccessible during any rain. I love it when I see things like that, because I'm always curious what I'll actually find when I walk by it on the trail. In this case I found a waterfall.

The big attraction on this circular trail was called the 40-foot hole. I have to say I was a tiny bit disappointed when I figured out it was a vaguely deep, vaguely narrow slot canyon. After some slightly disparaging thoughts, I did have to remember that I'm in the flat State of Oklahoma where this is a fairly remarkable sight. Interestingly, what most people would consider boring, the flat, meadow-like portion of the rest of the trail really held our interest.

Here is us coming back to the beginning of the trail. I have to say it was a really wonderful loop to make. If you ever happen to be in the Wichita Mountains, I recommend it!

On the Wichita Mountain National Preserve map there is an oddly-marked Holy City. There is absolutely no explanation of what it is. But then what can we expect? Nothing on the map was very well explained. When we got there, this sign explained it all. I think it's a sign! I've been trying to get my Mom to go to Oberammergau in Germany to see their Passion play. Hint hint... is 2020 my year?

This is what most of the site looks like from a distance.

Remember it's still inside an animal refuge, so Mr. Buffalo gets to be anywhere he sees fit.

This is the outside of the chapel that is on the premises.

It's really quite lovely and traditionally decorated. I love the simple primary color decorations on the ceiling and walls. In the entryway there are also beautiful handmade pottery tiles.

Next to the chapel there is a museum that discusses the history of the Passion Play and Chapel. This sign made me laugh, especially when there is a Buffalo in the parking lot. I think he might pose more of a danger to this church and scenery than burros.

The buildings that you saw in the distance are part of the Passion of Christ. All the buildings are beautifully created out of native stone. In a way they almost disappear into the mountains behind th.

Here is a picture of Mike standing in one of the Roman chariots.

The last trail that we did in the park was a biking trail. It looks out over a section that is not parkland. I'm not sure if you can quite make them out, but there are a ton of windmills along a natural Lake. When we biked this trail we saw an Osprey! Truly a beautiful bird.

After leaving the park we decided to go through the town of Medicine Park. It is a 900-acre artisan community that is right next to the park.

Medicine Park has a long history as a vintage cobblestone resort town. You can see in this house that all of the residences in the area make good use of the cobblestone building material. In fact in the town there is a $500 fine for removing any cobblestone! We stole 5… just kidding !

The village also has a beautiful river walk. This duck pulling a sleigh was at the beginning of the walk. Once we left here, we drove towards Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City is a remarkably small and flat city. There is only one large tower of 50 stories which is owned by a petroleum company, but luckily there's also an outdoor garden.

We went and walked around the 15-acre outside area which was free. They work hard to do a tribute to different sections of Oklahoma. Very nicely done; we enjoyed the walk a lot.

Unfortunately they were changing over at the children's garden from a summer to fall theme. This was a section that was still open and I think that the whole thing will be quite adorable when it's done.

Before we had arrived in Oklahoma City, people told us that we should go to Bricktown. To give it a bit of a Philly reference, it's like a Fishtown; a lovely area of reclaimed industrial buildings. The city even put in a man-made canal. The monument that you see above is a tribute to the land rush of 1889 in Oklahoma. If you're not familiar with what that is, it was when Oklahoma was being settled. You paid a certain amount of money to have the ability to ride and claim a parcel of land in the American West. Remember, Statehood required that a particular territory have a certain number of people per square mile. This is one way to get people interested in coming to this wild land.

Here is another look at the man-made can. They do boat tours of the area; unfortunately they are very touristy and not as much historical content as I would like. If it were my dollars, I would spend them somewhere else. Since we were in Oklahoma City, we figured we should also visit the site of the infamous 1995 bombing.

This monument is called, "And Jesus wept". It was erected right across from the Oklahoma bombing site on top of where Saint Joseph Old Cathedral, the oldest parish in Oklahoma City, was significantly located. The cathedral and parish house were significantly damaged during the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building. It depicts Jesus sweeping for the lost victims in front of a black granite wall that has niches in it for prayer candles, representing the 168 victims of the attack. Standing behind Jesus are black pillars that leave their meaning up to the viewer. Behind that, and across the street, is the official Oklahoma bombing memorial.

What you are looking at is one of two gates. The one directly behind the photograph reads the time 9:01... The one you can see in the picture reads 9:03. They are meant to represent the moment before and the moment after Oklahoma City experienced a bombing at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995.

Here are the chairs in the memorial at South. There are 168, representing the 168 who died. The position of the chairs represents the 9 floors of the building that were destroyed, as well as one row for individuals outside the building. I didn't know what to expect when I came, but I think that they did a beautiful job making this a place of remembrance.

After Oklahoma City we weren't entirely sure what to do before the Texas State Fair. Luckily when Mike crossed into Oklahoma City we found a wonderful brochure for a different wildlife refuge. I'm so glad that we came!

In the parking lot area there was a wonderful native garden that gave a place for pollinators to gather. This park is on the Oklahoma/Texas border.

In the garden outside the museum we spotted this crab spider. Unfortunately, because it has a Green Bottle fly clutched in its mandible, we are unable to tell if it is a Goldenrod crab spider or White Banded crab spider. The difference is in the spacing of the eyes!

The park is actually a man-created Lake but that doesn't mean that it doesn't house the most beautiful birdlife! You can take a 3.5 mile drive out along areas that look just like this.

Unfortunately the park has leased a lot of its land to oil drilling. You can see two derricks in the background of this picture.

While we were driving along, this beautiful Tri-colored Heron took off and flew right alongside the van.

When we were at the visitor center we asked which of the trails they recommended the most. She said go on Meadow View Trail. This was a long 3-mile trail at the far end of the park. We're very lucky that she told us to go because I saw my very first Armadillo! If you'd like to see a video of him, there's one posted on Instagram.

This is a picture of the trail, as well as one of the two ponds that we encountered along the way. In this area Mike also got to see his very first wild pig. They're extremely destructive in Oklahoma and Texas and so we were not sure if this guy was a native or one of the wild Javelinas.

On the way out we scared a flock of White-faced Ibises. This was truly a wonderful find; not something that was on the map that we expected to do, but something I'm glad we experienced.