Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

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 2nd with
The Grand Canyon.

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


3 comments:

  1. Did you stop and get some of that Kickapoo Joy Juice? (Think Lil' Abner comic strip).

    Guilty-guilty-guilty. I've stopped at the Cherokee Trading Post. Twice. Oops, didn't learn the first time!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my gosh, Sherry! Your communication breakdown cracks me up -- sounds like something that would happen with Mike and me!

    That entrance into the park looks like a real nail-biter! My palms are sweating just looking at the picture. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. We overnighted at the KOA right next to the Cherokee Trading Post on our race across America ;o((

    I can still smell the buffalo which occupied the field between the campground and trading post!!!

    Red Rock looks fantastic!!!!!

    ReplyDelete

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