After spending almost a week with Christopher & Rachael we left Tulsa today and headed south towards Texas. We had such a great time with them, with Chano’s family and with Caleb & Jody. Even though we miss seeing Christopher & Rachael as often as we would like it gives us great joy & comfort to see them surrounded by people that love them and that they love.
Whoa! (Like that? it seemed appropriate as I sit here camped just outside of Ft Worth Texas). Whoa! That first paragraph started to sound like one of those sappy birthday cards your spouse buys for you occasionally. I prefer the funny ones. I mean, I know what to do when a read a funny card – laugh and then give the card giver a hug and kiss. Simple huh?
But what do you do when you get a real sappy card from your spouse? I mean one of those really sappy ones: I’d swim the widest oceans; I’d climb the highest mountains and dive the deepest seas, etc. etc. What do you say (and do) after receiving one of them? I mean, saying “Yeah, Me too” sounds just a little weak…
Regardless, we left Christopher & Rachael tucked into their new home this morning and arrived in Ft Worth around 5 pm. The winds were pretty bad; several times the wind blew hard enough to push our RV around. Came in strong gusts and then died off to nothing. After five hours of driving, I was exhausted from waiting for the next big gust & then fighting the wheel to keep from being pushed into the next lane. That didn’t happen to us however I saw more than one vehicle get pushed halfway out of their lane – always fun to pass or be passed by one of those vehicles!
Plus the wind wrecked my plans of enjoying all of the hawks along Oklahoma highways. I don’t know what it is but for some reason the hawk population in Oklahoma is huge. Lots and lots of hawks along its highways. Not unusual to see at least a hawk almost every mile. Have to look closely at the fence posts and occasionally up in the branches of a strong tree. Beautiful bird – very powerful and always alert -- makes them look intelligent and regal somehow. I guess that’s why falconry was called the “Sport of Kings”.
Of course my knowledge of the various types of hawks is pretty limited (pretty limited being code for no knowledge of hawks), not to mention the fact that most sightings are brief glimpses of birds as you sail down the highway at 65 mph. Knowing that Red-tailed Hawks are among the most numerous, and the fact that once I saw what might be a reddish brown tail on a hawk, I tend to refer to all hawks as red-tailed Hawks. A great injustice to the other types of hawks but there you have it. That’s my verdict.
In fact, my ‘verdict’ after catching a glimpse lasting less than half a second of a bird like blob sitting atop an Oklahoma fence post sounds something like: “Look, a red-tailed hawk, an old juvenile, male if I’m not mistaken”. If I say this loudly enough and with a deep authoritative tone, people undoubtedly believe what I have said. Even if they don’t quite believe me, the hawk is now half mile behind us and no one else in the vehicle will be able to dispute me… well, they might dispute me but they’ll never be able to prove my ‘verdict’ was wrong.
In any case, the wind wrecked my plans to show MLA just what a great outdoorsman I am by calling every large bird a hawk. I keep telling her that when she married me she lucked out and got ‘the whole package’. Wit, intelligence, strong outdoorsman skills, dashing good looks, etc. – the whole package. For some unknown reason she just laughs.. and then calls one of her girlfriends and laughs some more….
Now that we are hitting what most people consider to be “The West” distances are getting much greater, not to mention the size of the ranches. Some of them appear to have their own exit off of the Interstate – probably their own zip code -- now that’s big. Texas sized. And the high school stadiums are just huge – the one pictured is in Broken Arrow, Ok for a six A high school – and it’s not the largest in the area.
Just outside of Oklahoma City, OK we saw something we hadn’t seen before -- a Horse Shoeing School. All I know is the horses waiting in the pens outside of the school looked very nervous – I guess I would be too if a bunch novices wanted to nail a steel rod to the bottom of my feet (or anywhere else for that matter).
Now that we have come south by several hundred miles our route will turn westward towards Arizona (we still have to traverse two thirds of Texas, all of New Mexico and part of Arizona before we arrive in Palm Creek.
It’s still not warm. Not here in Ft Worth or in Arizona. Warmer than Maryland for sure but not warm. Although this evening’s sunset appears to support a much warmer future. That’s my verdict anyhow – lots of color equates to warmer temperatures -- and I say that with great authority and forcefulness so people will believe me (don’t tell anyone but technically the amount of color in a sunset has no correlation to future temperatures).
See Ya!
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