Thursday, 22 October 2020
Tuesday
The weather forecast for Wellington on Monday called for an overnight low of 51° and a high in Dallas of 82° on Tuesday. With these high numbers predicted, I assumed the weather on Tuesday would be sunny and warm, and I dressed accordingly. Instead, I got very low clouds, occasional drizzle, and chilly, foggy weather almost all the way to the Texas border. At that point the sun finally broke through the clouds and we did indeed get a nice warm afternoon.
I didn't travel on any part of I-35 during my month in OK so all of it was new to me. There were 2 exits - #51 and #47 - that were labeled as "Turner Falls Area" which sounded really odd to me. I've never seen anywhere labeled as an "area" on a highway exit sign. As far as I can tell, they've used that here because those 2 exits go only to US 77, which runs between the 2 exits and doesn't go anywhere but Turner Falls while it's there. North of Exit 51 it runs to Davis and other small towns; south of exit 47 it runs to Ardmore and on down into Texas. It's just this one little section that loops to the west of I-35 to access the falls. Turner Falls is one of the largest in OK at 77'.
I think I was in Texas, traveling east between Gainesville and Sherman, when I saw 3 horses galloping about in a field, apparently having a good time playing.
I stopped for gas in Sherman and found I had 4 choices of pump: kerosene, diesel, regular and non-ethanol. I've never run across the opportunity to pump kerosene at a regular gas pump before, not that I want to but there it is.
I'd left the KS campground at 6:30 on Tuesday - woke up early because I was anxious about the long drive, and kept my highway speed up to 70 mph as much as I could (still under the 75 mph speed limit but faster than I usually go) - so I got to Richardson in the early afternoon. I'd told Anna and David I'd be there mid-afternoon, so I used the extra time by going to the city recycle center (to keep from leaving a mound of it for David to deal with) and stopped at an Albertsons because I was tired of Kroger, which is what the Kansas stores are mostly affiliated with. Odd being in a place where there are so many facilities, unlike most places I've seen so far in Kansas.
Wednesday
I'd planned to come down to vote today because early voting runs for 3 weeks, and today is the middle of the middle week, so I figured there wouldn't be much of a line. And in fact there was no line at all.
The absentee ballot I'd requested finally arrived in the mailbox here late Monday afternoon. If I'd counted on voting that way, Anna and David would have had to rush it up to me at great expense, and I'd have had to rush it back down to the voting clerk also at great expense, just to be sure it made it in by the deadline. I noticed it had been postmarked (in the clerk's office, not the post office) on October 7th, yet it wasn't delivered until the 19th. Either they held it in the clerk's office a long time or the post office had an awful lot of trouble getting it from McKinney to Richardson. Either way, as late as it came, I'd have started wondering if I was going to be one of those who requested a ballot but never got one.
Did you see the story online about the 94-year-old woman from Detroit, who'd been staying with her son in Zion (Ill.) for health reasons, and who continued to stay with him when the pandemic hit? Her absentee ballot was never delivered so her son drove her the 330 miles to Detroit so she could vote, and then drove her back down to Illinois all in one day. That would make both of them very hardy folks, in my opinion. Neither my mother nor I could have made a trip like that in one day. This lady said she'd never missed any election, including local ones, in the 70+ years she'd been voting, and she definitely didn't want to miss this one.
I can't say I emulated her, but my round trip to vote was just about the same distance. Voting is one of the things I like best to do in life and, like this woman, I definitely didn't want to miss this one.
Thursday
I decided to try a different route back north, at least here in Texas. I drove south to what I still call the LBJ Freeway, went west on it to I-35, and then went north from there. Thanks to Anna having given me good advice about how to navigate that connection (take the flyover from US 75 to LBJ, and move across 2 lanes right away so as not to be stuck in mandatory exit lanes, and then take the I-35 exit north), I was able to negotiate it easily, despite the rush hour traffic, which I ignored.
Because my power cord was plugged into the garage and David would need to open it so I could unplug to leave, I delayed leaving until 7:30. I expected a lot more trouble with traffic than I ended up having, maybe because a lot of people are still working from home. I got lucky.
As I got to northern Oklahoma, the winds picked up and continued into southern Kansas. I stopped for gas near the border and had trouble filling the tank because the wind kept blowing the pump into a position that made the machine click off. I finally had to hold it steady. And kept my eyes nearly shut while I did because of not wanting to get dust in my contact lenses from all that the wind was kicking up.
In far southern Kansas I saw a whole row of horseapple trees in full fruit.
Twice I had very oversize loads pass me, and since the road was only 2 lanes with zero shoulder, I had a hard time moving over enough to avoid them.
Down in this area, farmers were growing 3 or 4 different crops in adjoining fields. I passed - at varying stages of growth/harvest - corn, soybeans, cotton, maybe hay, wheat, cows, and maize.
I heard on the farm report that climate change was really making a difference for farmers. One said they used to plant between mid-April and June but now they start in March so the crops can avoid the more intense heat in summer caused by climate change. Not something I'd thought of.
I got back to the Wellington KOA in mid-afternoon and instantly asked to buy some propane. The weather forecast for the next week includes some pretty cold nights, and even some days that don't get out of the 30s. There's a freeze warning on for tomorrow night and I didn't want to worry about having enough heat.
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