Friday, 25 through Sunday, 27 June 2021
I heard on the radio that the new COVID delta variant has taken hold in this area: Missouri has the highest rate of new cases in the US, and Oklahoma's one-day 90% increase in the number of new cases puts it at #2. North Dakota continues to have a low rate of new cases, but the delta variant has been found there, and less than half of adults are fully vaccinated. Which means that I'll continue to be careful to wear my mask and gloves during this next month.
I'd intended to take the route from Lake Eufaula to Kansas that Google told me to, which was almost entirely on interstates. But after that pleasant drive through rural country from Mt. Pleasant, I took a second look. Since I didn't have internet access, that meant my trusty AAA map of Oklahoma. And I found that US-177 runs parallel to I-35, and branches off of I-40 which was the first leg of today's route. So I took US-177. And I doubt if it added much more time to the drive, because Google assumes I'm driving at the posted speed limits - 75 mph for much of the distance. I'm much happier going 65 mph on roads that are smaller but still usually good. So that's what I did.
The farther north I traveled, the more I noticed cars and trucks covered in red dirt. Oh, yeah, right - I'm in Oklahoma and this is where they've got red dirt. Or, at least, they've got it in the western part. I don't remember seeing it much in the eastern part. And I'd forgotten that in Oklahoma, "the wind comes sweepin' down the plain." It blew me around a lot on the road, and blew us around a lot when we stopped for breaks. Still, it kept the bugs away and kept the sun from feeling too hot. I wished I'd had a lot more of it while I was back in the state park.
At the town of Perkins (population about 2,800), I saw the first Trump flag I've seen on this trip. Since that includes a lot of rural areas in east Texas and Oklahoma, I think that's interesting. The water tower at Perkins informed me it was the home of Frank Eaton, aka Pistol Pete. I realized I couldn't quite recall who this person was so I looked him up. htt ps://en.wikipedia.org/Frank-Eaton He sounds like he was genuinely good with a gun, and also genuinely good at spinning yarns about himself. He may be best known these days as the basis for the mascot of Oklahoma State University.
In the small town of Braman (pop. about 200), I saw a Biden flag - also the first on this trip. I'm now officially interested in seeing whether there are any more 2020 election flags or signs along the road up ahead.
I've been seeing lots of corn growing today, and lots of grain being harvested.
I got to Wellington, KS, which claims to be the Wheat Capital of the World. I stayed at the KOA here last October when I was spending my month in Kansas, and I remembered it as being a comfortable place, so I'll be here for 3 nights this trip while I do laundry and deal with the bug bites.
I've been enduring increasing misery as time has gone on - not only the itching and pain from the bites but also the frustration of not being able to touch them for fear of making things worse. Finally, I looked up bug bites online and realize I could have been bitten by not just ticks, but also mosquitoes, chiggers, fleas, horseflies, and sand flies. In fact, I'm certain I was bitten at least once by a horsefly, and of course I'm certain I was bitten a couple of times by ticks. All the others are possible because of the varied environments I walked through, but I'm thinking most of them might have been chiggers.
That's based on photos and descriptions I found in Prevention magazine online. Some of the bites have subsided to red spots that aren't itching any more, but some of them have progressed to become pustules (a word I got from that online description). I've been having a hard time getting any sleep these last few nights, because there's nothing to take my mind off the terrible itching and even a little pain. Being in bed actually makes them worse in a way, partly because I don't have a movie or a book to distract me and partly because the covers rest on the bites, which irritates them and makes them itch again. I haven't found any position that makes them tolerable. All I can hope now is that they'll run their course very soon.
We've had a lot of rain while we've been here, and apparently we've had thunder, based on the dogs' reactions, though I haven't heard it. I'm not complaining, though, because I much prefer this to that searing heat they're having in the western US.
The KOA has been completely full every night, including Sunday. The staff told me they'd been incredibly busy all summer because so many people bought RVs during COVID and now that the weather's better and the virus is easing, they want to get out and camp. Of course, that means a lot of these new owners have no idea what they're doing with the equipment and so forth. (I remember it well, those first few months of utter ignorance.) The staff said more campers has meant more people using their laundry facility, so they've had to empty the coin boxes much more often than before. I found all this out when one of their washers wouldn't work because the coin box was completely filled.
There must be a lot of cottonwood trees here because I've seen a lot of the cotton in the air. I'm not allergic to it, but I know some folks are. In some places here at the campground the cotton is thick on the ground, looking a little like actual cotton.
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