I tell you what (in my best Hank Hill voice), Dallas TX was a not a bad place to visit. Its not quite what you would expect watching King of the Hill, based in Arlen, TX, but pretty damn close. Fun Fact Arlen TX is a made up City based on the suburbs of Dallas. We did have an alley behind our vacation rental but no matter how many beers I drank out there I never did run into Dale, Boomhauer, or Bill.... I guess you may never get to meet all of you childhood heros, but you do end up getting more beer to yourself. We didn't meet very many friendly people in Texas like we did in Arizona and New Mexico.
After a stressful trip the weekend before, I felt rather callused to any situation I may face at this point. We were leaving on Saturday due to our house in Dallas having a Sunday booking, but turns out this was for the best. Starting Sunday the weather guessers were saying temperatures could be in the teens with historical weather patterns including snow and ice arriving in the evening.
We had packed with the anticipation of bad weather, but our cold weather gear was in a tote in the back. We took inventory and determined we didn't have a good jacket for Ava and Lance and Krystal were lacking in the shoe department. We ended up finding a end of season 75% of jacket for Ava at a price of $50 from Kohls but no shoes for Lance and Krystal. With that we packed up what we had left and headed into the unknown.
Fortunately the trip was uneventful and we had only a couple stops before reaching the AirBnB in Oklahoma. The first stop was a rest area just over the OK border at the "Oklahoma Welcome Center" which was a stones throw past the exit for the Winstar Casino Resort. Texas has awesome rest areas, but this Oklahoma rest area has it beat. For example, the bathrooms were accessed from inside the welcome center, so they were warm. There was full time staff, which Oregon doesn't have. In addition to a ton of tourism information (books, leaflets, and brochures) the staff was able to tell you about everything Oklahoma has to offer based on what you are looking to experience. We ended up receiving a booklet about all of Oklahoma, another was about OKC itself, and the last one was all about the 39 Native American tribes that call Oklahoma home. One of the tribes is the Modoc Tribe which is genetically speaking the same tribe as you will find in Southern Oregon but socially speaking an entirely separate tribe. I mention this because my Wife and Children are registered tribal members for the Klamath Modoc tribes in Oregon. The social separation can be defined in a short history lesson on the Modoc Wars, with the key point being most of the Modoc tribe was transported in cattle cars via railroad eventually ending up in NE Oklahoma. So while they are genetically the same people they were geographically separated by the US Government and to keep their tribal identification they had to identify as a different tribe from the tribe in Oregon. If you want the whole story you can watch the Modoc Wars Special that OPB created. https://www.pbs.org/video/oregon-experience-the-modoc-war/ This occurred in 1872 and 1873, which sounds like a long time, however generationally speaking there are people alive today that would have had grandparents and or great grandparents that would have endured this. For additional reading you can visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modoc_people
We stopped by the capitol building in OKC, it is a very grand building much like the one in Salem Oregon or Sacramento California, but this one has something a little more special*, it has an oil derrick out front actively pulling oil from the ground (*special being up to interpretation, you decide.) I'm sure during normal times this would be an incredible place to visit. For us we will only see the outside but may visit the botanical gardens and or the science museum. The science museum is a 390,000 sq ft facility dedicated to the science and industry of the state of Oklahoma. Again... what better way to learn about a place than being there in person.
Our house we rented is actually in a suburb in Northern OKC called Edmond. We were so lucky to experience our first toll road of this trip. I had to dig deep to gather the 6 quarters needed to keep the wheels of this circus rolling, but was able to manage this time. Edmond is a nice suburb with all the amenities one could require. All the streets are laid out in grid patterns much like Phoenix. I guess when there are no natural land features to contend with and large open swaths of land you can take the path of least resistance.
This Sunday we head to Springdale, AR. Its a 3.5 hour drive as long as I cough up the $1.50 again. If I want to save myself the money it turns into a 4h 15 min drive. However this next stretch still retains the original charm of Route 66 with multiple roadside attractions. I'll miss most of these on the toll road, so I have a decision to make. One thing is for certain, I am very excited to see Arkansas. The home have we have rented overlooks Beaver Lake, it is in the foothills of the Ozarks. We have been in the desert so to speak for 6 weeks or so. Oklahoma is not so much desert but its definitely not the forest land I'm used to. I hear that the next few states are really beautiful and housing is very affordable. I have to be honest, I may never want to leave.....
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