Thursday, 13 August 2020
I saw a sign that said Bald Eagles, sometimes Golden Eagles, and other birds of prey come here to overwinter. Must be some sight.
The Great Salt Plains Lake is really large and stretches for quite a way in this area.
 |
| today's route |
At a driveway along the road I saw 2 white dogs waiting at the entrance - a Westie and a Great Pyrenees. Both white but such different sizes! I'll bet this family's Christmas cards are pretty.
Great Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge
The office for this refuge was just a short way down the road from the campground, so I went down to learn something about this natural area. Unfortunately, the office was closed for the virus and the only displays were a brochure that I snagged the last one of and a couple of weatherbeaten signs.
A park ranger saw me pull in to the visitor center and came over to see if I had questions, which I did.
Yes, he said, the salt is real and the lake and river are very salty. He said the salt resulted from land changes when the Rockies were formed 55-80 million years ago. Those land upheavals didn't all happen at once, and even after things had calmed down lakes were formed, drained and reformed. In this process, a layer of salt was laid down and reinforced by saline groundwater that flows near the surface.
Not surprisingly, both people and animals have found this area important for centuries. But while we humans now have other sources for salt, many animals continue to be attracted here. Now, we come here to hunt for selenite crystals and to admire the diversity of birds. Besides the birds of prey I mentioned, other species include: endangered whooping cranes during spring and fall migration; 30,000 egrets, herons, ibises and cormorants that nest here each year; hundreds of thousands of shorebirds during migrations.
 |
| from the brochure |
I wished I hadn't made firm reservations farther south so I could stay in this area an extra day. I wanted at least to check out the area reserved for selenite digging, because that's apparently in the salt flats. I'd been surprised not to have seen them at any other place in the area I'd visited.
The drive south
During today's drive I got hit by yesterday's tailwind, only now it was acting as a crosswind. Some very strong gusts that made staying on the road not such an easy task at times.
All day I passed occasional large wind farms; lots of cows, sometimes with attendant Cattle Egrets; various crops - corn, sod, Christmas trees.
The president has a lot of support in this area, with quite a few flags saying, "Trump 2020 - No More Bullshit." Actually that seems like an odd slogan because it could sound like they support him, but they think bs is what he's been delivering all along and they want it to stop. But I doubt it.
OK has a town named Kremlin (pop. 255).
At one point I pulled off the road so people could pass me in a no-passing zone (the road was so bumpy I was feeling carsick at the 50 mph speed limit and had slowed to 35 mph), and a state highway patrol officer stopped to be sure I was okay. Actually, what he did is roll down his window and make a thumbs-up gesture, and I nodded and made one of my own in reply. Nice of him.
I passed a sign saying it marked the Historic Missouri Compromise of 1820 Line. That's the Congressional agreement that let Missouri enter as a slave state but said no more slavery allowed above MO's south border - 36° 30'. That line also turns out to be the southern border of OK's panhandle. This compromise was undone, as with all congressional decisions about slavery, this time by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which became one of the precipitating factors of the Civil War.
 |
| very grand with all those steps, framed by 2 large old pines |
 |
| the picture is captioned Jesse Chisholm, and underneath it says Chisholm Trail 1865 - 1895 |
 |
| inscription under Chisholm's picture |
 |
| that's a lot of nice stone carving someone did back in 1945 |
The Chisholm High School mascot is the Longhorn, which seems tactless given the intense historic rivalry between the UT Longhorns and the OU Sooners. But it's more likely a recognition of the many cattle farms in this neighborhood.
I passed Vance Air Force Base, decided to look it up, and learned its story reflects that of our country in some ways. It was first built in 1941 to train pilots in the US Army Air Force. After WWII it was deactivated and transferred to the US Army Corps of Engineers. At the start of the Cold War in 1948 it was reactivated for flight training. In 1995, post Cold War, its training program shifted to specialized flight needs, such as tanker and reconnaissance aircraft. At about that time it became a joint training facility including Navy and Marine pilots. Today it's back to being a basic flight training program, with takeoffs and landings practiced up at Kegelman Aux Field that I passed near the Great Salt Plains State Park. It's now the 2nd busiest facility in the US for radar approach control flights.
In 1949 the base was named in memory of Lt. Col. Leon Vance (no relation to the NCIS character) who was a Medal of Honor recipient. His actions that got him that award are pretty stunning, and you can read about them at this link. https://en.wikipedia.org/Leon-Vance
Here in Western OK I've started running into gas stations designating prices and pumps as having E-10 gasoline, separate from unleaded gasoline. In one station, all the unleaded pumps were out of order (presumably the station needed a fill-up), and though I wanted fuel and the price was good, I'd never heard of E-10 gasoline so passed it up. I now know that this so-called E-10 is just what I've been buying everywhere. Apparently out here in ruggedly individual western Oklahoma, they are By God sticking to their unadulterated old fashioned gasoline and not getting stuck with this newfangled ethanol stuff. Even if it costs an extra 25¢/gallon to do it, which it does.
It seems like half the towns I've passed in Oklahoma don't even have highway signs giving their names. And none of the ones that are provided add the population number or elevation level like other states do. I guess they figure a driver is lucky to get the town's name, though that seems like an ordinary driving aid because how else do you know how far along you are on your drive.
I saw a farm with a field that had a huge culvert tunneling under the highway, presumably to channel the stream that ran through the field so it wouldn't flood the road in high water. Someone had strung a large net across the entrance to the culvert with tires attached, and I speculated it was to keep the cows that were grazing in the field from walking through the culvert, maybe taking refuge there during a rainstorm, and maybe being drowned in a flash flood. Seemed like an inventive solution. I suppose the tires were to keep the cows from walking into the net in the first place and getting caught in it.
I passed the town of Hennessey, home, it claims, to Oklahoma's largest quilt shop. Also towns with names like Waukomis, Bison and Dover (variety of influences on town naming here). I also crossed the Cimarron River, which had the kind of bridge I wish they all were: flat, separate bridges for each direction, and 2 wide lanes on each. I can drive on those all day.
The day was getting hot and I started noticing that every cow I passed was under any tree it could find, along with the Cattle Egrets.
Apparently several presidents share the honors of this highway - US 81 - because I first saw a sign saying it was the Pres. George W Bush Highway; later I saw a sign saying it was the Pres. George H. W. Bush Highway; and still later I saw a sign saying it was the Pres. Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway. I suppose at some point they'll go back and change the Geo. HW Bush section to being a memorial highway, now that he's died. Of course, when he was president he was known simply as Pres. George Bush. His initials got added when his son was elected.
I passed 2 working oil rigs side by side - it didn't look like there were more than about 10' between them. I've never seen that before.
I passed through the town of Kingfisher, pop. about 4,600 these days. It claims to be the Birthplace of Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart. Probably a little smaller when Sam was born. I passed a historical marker that didn't mention Sam but did have a little interesting history. https://www.hmdb.org
White is a popular color in vehicles all over, and especially here in this hot climate. Except that here there's so much red dirt almost everywhere that most vehicles are heavily stained with red - sometimes almost obliterating the original white. I'd think they'd all just get red vehicles and call it good.
The farther south I go the more likely I am to see lightning rods on buildings. Before this trip I learned that OK is in a weather transition zone: cold, dry air from Canada meets warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and both meet warm-to-hot dry air from Mexico. The result is that severe thunderstorms, damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes occur more frequently here than almost anywhere else on earth. As an example, in 1912 a warm front traveled along a stalled cold front and caused an average of 1 tornado per hour during a single day. And speaking of bad weather days, on 3 May 1999 alone, more than 40 tornadoes occurred in central and southwestern OK. With all that weather floating around, I've been surprised not to see more lightning rods than I have.
I passed a house with very large colorful letters planted in front of it spelling out "Happy 70th Birthday Ken." Nice of them to share such cheerfulness with passing motorists.
I stopped at a grocery store in El Reno and noticed about 3/4 of the people in the store were wearing masks. Nice change.
I passed the turn for Historic Fort Reno, named for a Civil War general - though for a change, this one fought for the Union. The fort is now owned by the US Dept. of Agriculture, but it has a widely varied history ranging from the Buffalo Soldiers to WWII prisoners of war via Amelia Earhart and Black Jack (the riderless horse used in presidential funeral processions). Here are 2 links with partial information about these visitors. https://www.cityofelreno.com/visit https://en.wikipedia.org/Fort-Reno
For many miles along I-40 I saw billboards extolling the attractions at the upcoming Cherokee Trading Post: "live buffalo," "live cactus," (live cactus? not stuffed cactus? people have cactus as house plants) (or stuffed buffalo? for that matter), carved Indian flutes, handwoven baskets, authentic handmade jewelry - like that.
It turned out that to get to the KOA I had to drive through the gas pumps and traffic of the Cherokee Trading Post and go down a hill behind it (past the live buffalo) and the campground is down in a little valley by a pond. My plan is to stay here for 3 days to get caught up.
No comments:
Post a Comment