Through Native America

Saturday May 14, 2011

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Hinton, Oklahoma

Site 51

Up this morning early at Brushy Lake,

but it apparently takes

an hour for a certain member of this party

J

to make coffee, make a quick cereal & toast breakfast,

eat said breakfast, drink said coffee,

put together a lunch of sandwich,
No names have been mentioned to
protect the guilty.

After that ritual,

everything else on the departure list

was taken care of in about an hour and 15 minutes.

Including but not limited to
putting air in the tires,

putting the dolly on the car,

the car on the dolly,

and going to the dump station.

We were on the road AMAZINGLY at

EXACTLY

the same as our record time.

8:57AM.

How likely is that?

This was a day of road signs as we traveled I40

and went through one Indian Nation’s Lands to another.

Here's one of the many signs.

We actually went from The Cherokee Nation to the Muscogee,

to Seminole, to Sac & Fax, to Kickapoo, to Patawatomi

to Wichita, Caddo and Delaware.

As we bounced  up and down

on I 40, which most of you know is a terrible road,

it was more than clear that this was Native America.
That's the Oklahoma state nickname on their license plates.

Here is a portion of what I saw as we bounced along
on our driving day.

Casino signs were everywhere.

We crossed the Chisholm Trail

twice.

A stop for gas at Flying J

turned into our lunch spot.

What a view!

Not sure what this truck was hauling

How about a water park and this slide

RIGHT next to I40.

Oh Boy, imagine the air you are breathing.

And on we went.

More Native America

Street names

and towns

And then began what those from the South

will recognize as the "South of the Border" run.

Only this one is called

The Cherokee Trading Post

Looks like some folks couldn't resist

but we did.

And then...........

FINALLY

We took the car off of the dolly at the

Love Truck stop just off the interstate

so I could drive down into the park to look for

a campsite on this Saturday.

Because we don't usually move on a week-end for obvious reasons,
we’d called ahead and were told there

were some spots.

David was to follow with Winnona.

And that’s where the communication

lines broke down.

We had talked to the park twice,

once a few days ago to see if coming in on

a Saturday was even a remote possibility.

They had said yes but they didn’t take credit cards

only cash or checks and you pay the ranger as he comes around
in the evening.  You don't pay at the Visitor's Center at the top.

And again today when I called,  they told me that we should

come into the park, go all the way to the back

and pick one of the pull in sites.

SO,

I proceeded to the park,

so I could get a site before they were all gone

AND
so I didn’t have to be in the rig

when it went down the steep incline and hairpin turns

required to get in here.
this picture is taken from pulling off the road
mid curve -in the car of course  :-).  You move
from top left to bottom right.

I found the site and sat and waited at the bottom for David.

David came into the park and sat and waited at the top

for me to come back and get him.

He hadn’t remembered that you didn’t

“check in”.

While I sat, at least half a dozen people asked

if I was “saving the site". 

So it was a good thing I was or the site would have been gone

by the time I went back to Winnona and returned.
IF I had done that, which I didn't.

Finally after nearly an hour and a half

on both our parts,

David came down looking for me.

And here we are in Site 51

near the back

of the long narrow

Red Rock Canyon

State Park

for who knows how many days.

Pretty funny comedy at this point

thought not at the time. 

But

we are 200+ miles

closer to our date on

June 2^nd with

The Grand Canyon.

And best of all,
Red Rock Canyon looks like a
GREAT
place to explore.