Friday, 21 August 2020
I had several errands to run today and decided to do them in Elk City because it's the closest to the campground. I almost chose Weatherford, because I found a recycle center there which neither Clinton nor Elk City has. But Weatherford's at least a half-hour away, and I decided to stash my recycle stuff in the storage unit until I can get to Colorado, which I'm trusting to be more cosmopolitan and less Wild West than western Oklahoma.
On the drive, I passed a sign saying I crossed the Great Western Cattle Trail. Since I'd never heard of this trail I looked it up and found out I should have heard of it. Either of these links will give you about the same information, with the 1st one being slightly more complete and the 2nd one being more colloquial in tone and having a lot more commercials attached. https://en.wikipedia.org/Great-Western-Cattle-Trail https://www.legendsofamerica.com/great-western-cattle-trail
When I got to Elk City (pop. about 11,500), I learned that it's a bird sanctuary (according to a sign). And it's The Shopping Center of Western Oklahoma (again according to a sign). Still another sign told me it had been designated Oklahoma's Recycling Community of the Year in 2014, which I find extremely odd since the city recycles only cardboard. I guess it's good they recycle that much, but I really don't understand how they got this award.
I also found that the Quick N' Clean laundromat I found online was no longer in business. There wasn't any sign out front saying so, so I went to a very great deal of trouble to park there: my only access was down a very narrow alley and through the one-way parking lot of the business next door (I went the wrong way), only to find the doors locked and no machines inside. Which explained why they didn't have any customers parked out front.
So I went back down the very narrow alley and went to the city park I'd found on the way through town and walked the dogs while I regrouped. I found another Quick N' Clean online that wasn't far from the original abandoned one so, hoping for better luck, I went there. Sure enough, it was open. The sign said so. And so did the cars of customers in the parking lot. The drawback? (Because you knew there was a drawback.) More than half the machines were out of order. There was a sign on the front door saying there was now new management and machines were being repaired or replaced as quickly as possible. Fortunately, there weren't many customers and the machines I used worked fine, so I got my laundry done.
Then I took the dogs back to the park where we could park in the shade for some lunch and another walk. Oddly, the only people in the park were those sitting in their cars wherever there was shade. Nobody was walking their dogs or playing with their kids or meeting friends. Odd kind of town, I guess.
I went to a liquor store and realized it was the first liquor store I've been in in Oklahoma. I'd brought a supply of Scotch with me and still had plenty left, but I was down to my last half-bottle of wine and hadn't been able to find anything in the grocery stores I wanted to pay for, let alone drink. In the liquor store I realized OK must have a really high tax on alcohol, given the prices of products I was familiar with. Unless they just charge more because this town is quite a distance from the big cities with more competition. But I finally found the wine I wanted, even though I had to pay more than usual, so that was good enough.
United Supermarkets, employee owned they say, is the chain of grocery stores in Oklahoma that competes with Walmart and ALDI. In most towns, even big ones, United is the only alternative to them. And for the most part it's a reasonable alternative. But I've found the chain carries the same brands at all its stores, and those brands aren't necessarily the brands I'm looking for. But I've stopped at quite a few of them over the last several weeks and have eventually found most of the stuff on my list. As a chain, they don't push for masks, though, which is surprising when you think about them being employee owned, and those employees are in high risk situations. It was a nice surprise to find that the one in Elk City does go for masks. I appreciate that.
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