Day 19
Fri 13th July Oklahoma / Texas
Very wet night but no rain gets in. Woken by intent old guy riding lawnmower around us - clear weather - giant mosquitos -bad toilets. Leave for Lake Meredith - aromatic desert plants - stop for ground coffee in Woodward.
Unbelievably for a small town they had an internet coffee shop with expresso beans. Spoke to a Walmart night manager while awaiting my cheese toastie. Oil boom in town from rising gas prices explains all the donkeys. House prices fluctuate. Now high again but usually followed by a bust. He’s a church youth leader - the town seems seriously Christian.
Buy a hat at a cowboy store. Got lost a little on small roads without George’s help but drive into Texas to developing open plains with sage and cattle and towns marked by cooperative silos in the distance. Buying very expensive fuel saw first real cowboy: boots, spurs, chaps, jeans, waistcoat, check shirt and hat. Probably had a bootlace tie under his bandana. ‘is it common to see people dressed like that?” ” Oh yes - if they’re working cattle.”
Drive got too long again and becomes fractious when we discover the lake campgrounds have no services. We aren’t short on water but its old and may be rank so we sluice and replenish at a basic but free city-provided rv park which has water but no toilets and head to the lake for our first night without electricity or security. After checking out all the campgrounds to find a safe spot away from others, we finally find a good level spot, high on the cliff above the lake and gaze at the sunset while hash browns cook in the oven.
Boiling horrible Springs has no redeeming features and Starbucks Coffee sucks. Grass mowing at 8 am on a lawn tractor - realised we were right at the dumpster too. Found coffee shop in Woodward to replace expresso thank god. Bought Solvi a genuine cowboy hat and Lee a funny PETA shirt. Long straight roads bleeding into the horizon. The sky goes on forever. Enormous fluffy clouds. Wheat silos and oil pumps. There’s a boom. This time chosen park had no hook-ups. Stopped at a park which did to get get water and stay but decided we didn’t like it and went on to original choice. Final straw a request to just hold it together a little longer after 4th change of site that he had chosen and I had said was fine.
