Blogs from Oklahoma, United States, North America - page 13

At last a day off to rest up and catch up with things put aside. For the second time this year I find myself in El Reno 25 miles west of Oklahoma City working on one of the two Braums farms (www.braums.com). This time we are cutting 7300 acres of silage corn (maze). I have been here 2 1/2 weeks so far and we have about 18 circles to go. This trip has presented us with some scary moments. In the first week two of the drivers rolled their loaded trucks in relatively easy driving locations, another driver broke his truck axel after trying to get unstuck from sand (impossible once you are there), choppers have broken down, lightening storms overhead (not cool to be in a machine and hit by a bolt of lightening), and ... read more

So, after a night in what started as a very hot motel (the air con was initially broken, resulting in a sauna for a room, but luckily fixed!) we had a big drive ahead! We were booked into a motel in Amarillo, home of the big Texan steakhouse. Only a short couple of stops were possible today, one for the totem pole park (several giant concrete totem poles in a field) and another for the blue whale in Catoosa (a giant fibreglass whale who sits in a pond next to Route 66). We made it to Amarillo, with time to spare for a few beers (or in Ellie's case, cocktails) and a massive steak.... read more

I have recently bought a new Toyota Pickup and a 30' foot travel trailer and have been taking a few short trips to become acclimated to driving and parking the trailer. Parking the trailerare the key words here. After using an hour of my time and 1/2 tank of gas I have discovered that parking a trailer is no easy task. With my son anxiously watching and giving encouraging words, I gave up the first attempt thinking I would find a cliff to push the thing over and be done with it. However things got better when I discovered most RV Parks have pull through parking spaces. I am still trying to improve my skills and am quite confident that I will persevere. If nothing else, I am quite stubborn and don’t give up easily. My ... read more

This morning the plan was to start driving west before the middle of the day. The last two days it has been after one o'clock before we have really been underway!! So, we thought that we would have a quick drive into the Historic Square downtown take a couple of quick photos, drive past Boots Motel for a photo and then spend half an hour having one last look for Red Oak II. That was the plan! We made a good start and took a couple of quick photos in the Historic Square and then we drove around the corner to the classic art-deco Boots Motel. We took a couple of quick photos there too and we were ready to head off when Ron came out and asked if we would like a look around. Ron ... read more

Today brought us beautiful weather and much more relaxed riding. We spent the day on Route 66, with only minimal time on the Interstate as we continued our trip southwest. We spent the majority of the day in Missouri passing through a lot of the small towns that used to support the traffic making the cross-country trip before the Interstate was finished. There were a lot of abandoned old garages and buildings, and a lot of old, rusted-out cars, but it really was full of character. We also got to see plenty of the kitschy things I expected. We saw the world's largest rocking chair, spent some time chatting with a guy and his wife who maintain a historical gas station for tourists to visit, and saw the crapduster (yes, crapduster, not a cropduster). We passed ... read more