HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK

This morning Chris and I spent having breakfast at Granny's and then touring the Fordyce Bathhouse which is run by the National Parks and is in the middle of "bathhouse row". Our waitress had told us that there was a place to fill up jugs with their wondereful water. Apparently people come from miles around to do so. The folks in the picture are from Munroe, about 30 miles away, and it is the only water they will drink.

ON TO HOT SPRINGS... or there about.

TALIMENA PARKWAY ~ Oklahoma into Arkansas

Two days in one spot... fresh water and a dump. Now we are off to see the Talimena Parkway.

Chris took point today and started out while I was still dumping and filling up with good Robbers Cave water. At least I hope it is good. After about half an hour I got a call that she was turning around ‘cause there was a fire right by the road and lots of smoke. I looked at a map and gave her an alternate route to a nearby town. Her GPS didn’t like my route and took her another way. She called in a few minutes to say it was beautiful farmland so, of course, I decided also to go the way less travelled. So…. We ended up on lovely county road 154. We went from different directions... she saw farmland and ranches and I drove a small road down through woodlands along a stream.

The views from Tahimena Drive were lovely but the highlight of my day was County Road 154.

Three days ago, in Oklahoma, all the trees were bare, black trunks reaching skyward. Now, today, there is the bright green of new growth everywhere. So this is what the world is like if you are not in California. Seasons! As we came over the Talimena Parkway it was interesting to see that the west and south sides of the mountains were showing green while the east and north slopes were still bare, as is our camp at Queen Wilhelmina State Park.

We had a so-so dinner at the QH lodge with a great view.

ROBBERS CAVE ~ DOGWOODS & RED BUDS

Robbers Cave State Park is a wonderful find. We had been seeing redbud trees in bloom along the way and we found a campsite with one blooming.

We took a walk and there were Violas tossed like sparkly blue diamonds under the trees along the path.

This is a lovely place. The day is a little overcast and I would love to spend a sunny day here.

NATIVE SPIRITS WINERY

GOODBY TEXAS, HELLO OKLAHOMA

We left Texas looking forward to the Wichita Mountains, a wildlife refuge. We were thinking about camping there but it really is too early in the season. It will be lovely after the trees bud out. The rocky mountains, hills to us, were rugged and beautiful in a primitive way. There were grasslands aloune the way with buffalo, long horned cattle and prairie dogs.

On to the Winery!

PALO DURO TO CAPROCK CANYONS

Palo Duro State Park

This is the first time we have been able to spend the night without a bunch of artificial lights around. The Stars were magnificent. I got up early (but not before Chris) and went for a walk in the morning. I got in some walking and more picture taking.

When I got back to the campground Chris had made coffee and scrambled eggs for breakfast. Coffee always tastes better when it is handed to you!

As we were eating we watched some wild turkeys walking up the rocky hillside. Trudge, trudge, trudge. It took them a long time….

Then, they pushed off and soared back down to the valley floor. It really seemed like they walked all that way just to have the joy of soaring back down.

Up at the entrance on the way out we stopped to see some real Texas Longhorn cattle. Lacey didn’t know quite what to think of those big animals.

Since we enjoyed the campground so much and got a late start we decided that Texas deserved to host us for at least one more night. We are at Caprock Canyons State Park.

As we were exploring a Rangerette came by and told us that there was going to be an “owl walk” so we hurried back, had a little to eat and joined others on the slowest walk I have ever been on. Walk twenty feet, stop and play a screech owl sound, wait and listen, walk twenty or thirty feet and start again. Oh, no talking allowed. I thought wild flower walks were slow!

Another beautiful night full of stars.