I’m typing this up as we’re heading east on the 40, leaving Oklahoma for Arkansas. The 49ers game is on in the background with Lana behind the wheel. I probably would have had a longer turn driving but after a particularly impressive play in the game, the boys said to me “you should have seen that!” and I responded with “oh don’t worry, I saw the whole thing” Lana decided she should probably take over the driving duties (fortunately/unfortunately we have a strategically placed mirror which allows the driver to see the entire TV hanging over our dinette).
None of us have ever been to Oklahoma so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Not that we have a comprehensive sense of the state after a bit more than 24 hours there, but it seemed pleasant enough. The gently rolling topography surrounding the interstate was covered in green, the people we encountered were nice, and most important of all, there were no tornadoes – what more could we ask for during our traverse of the state. On a related note, I still get giddy when I see signs showing the cost of gasoline (usually $1 something a gallon, which becomes meaningful when driving a vehicle getting 10 miles per gallon cross country).
Our first stop was the Stafford Air and Space Museum in the city of Weatherford which we pulled into about 3pm local time (not the middle of the night!). We were planning on spending the night in the Museum’s parking lot through the Harvest Hosts* service. This was after our first choice, Red Rock Canyon Adventure Park, appeared to be booked.
I doubt we would have stopped at the Museum if it weren’t for our plans to spend the night there but it was actually a great museum and we’re glad we found it. They had some informative exhibits on all things space travel related (focusing on the space race) including replicas of the lunar lander and Gemini capsules, along with a collection of military planes. For those of you driving down the 40 through Weatherford looking for something to do (I’m sure that is most of you) give it a go!
We were done with the museum around 5pm and since we still had plenty of energy left we decided that it was way too early to be stuck in a parking lot for the rest of the day, even if it was a super awesome parking lot (which it was). We decided to give our original first choice (Red Rock Canyon Adventure Park) one more shot. Fortunately they now had space for us. After a short drive in the right direction we were pulling to our very nice campsite.
Turns out we made a greater decision to abandon the parking lot. To say that our campsite was more pleasant would be a bit of an understatement. The Red Rock Canyon Adventure Park is fittingly enough located in a picturesque canyon surrounded by sheer red pastel shaded cliffs. There was a small pond that the boys fished in, and a little creek spilling out of that wound its way through the length of the canyon. The sounds of frogs and crickets were with us the entire time we were there. It was definitely a nice change after sitting in a creaky RV driven down miles and miles of interstate.
After a pleasant late morning walk which provided a much needed outlet for Boomer’s energy and let the boys get some scooting in, it was time to hit the road again.
