Saturday evening, March 6 and Sunday, March 7, 2021 - Great Salt Plains State Park, Jet Oklahoma

Saturday evening, March 6 and Sunday, March 7, 2021 - Great Salt Plains State Park, Jet Oklahoma

Saturday evening, March 6, 2021

I'm not sure why I didn't finish up last night, but I'll do that now.  Once we returned from our ride around the lake area, it was time to cook.  I decided to make a chicken alfredo pizza, so I lit the oven to get it heated.  In the meantime, I also put rice on to cook, as we plan to have stir fry tomorrow night for dinner.  I also wanted to make some brownies, so I had three things going at once.  When I turned the gas on for the water to boil before adding the rice, I accidentally turned the oven off instead of turning the gas for the burner on.  Oh no!!!  If you have a small gas oven in your RV, you know how tight it can be to get your arm in there to light the pilot light.  Let me tell you I was trying very hard not to shake as I worked to relight that pilot.  It took me two tries but I came out with no burned hands or arm. Lol!

Once the water boiled I added the rice and covered it for 10 minutes (even though it only calls for 5 minutes.  I like to make sure the water is absorbed), then went on to mixing up the brownies.  I had to chop pecans - because you just can't have brownies without them.  When the rice was done I laid it out on my two baking sheets to allow any remaining moisture to dry up.  I've never done this before.  Recently, I started watching another cooking show on Facebook - "The Farm Stand".  I now follow four cooking shows on Facebook and I love each of them.  They are such good down to earth recipes that I would have no problem making myself.  Sometimes its just a slight difference in ingredients of things that I've made for years that can make a difference.  Anyway, Rebekah of The Farm Stand recently made fried rice on one of her posts.  I made enough rice for two meals.  I froze one bag and the other will be used tomorrow with our pork stir fry.

While we ate our pizza the brownies baked, and we had one later in the evening after they had cooled.

It was such a great travel day and we enjoyed our quick visit around the park.  We plan to spend more time looking around tomorrow.

Sunday, March 7, 2021

I thoroughly enjoy my early mornings and it was no different this morning.  That first cup of coffee tastes so good!!  I was sorry to hear the wind blowing so hard this morning after such a beautiful quiet day yesterday.  It's supposed to reach 66-68, so hopefully it will still be pretty comfortable outside as we are checking out the countryside.

After Dean had his coffee, I made our shakes, did the dishes, made the bed and then I took a shower.  With the water situation at the last stop, I was ready for one!!  Once I was ready we left to explore more of the area on our last full day here.  

Our first stop to get a closeup look at the spillway.  There is a walkway to near the middle of the spillway, but it was extremely windy and just too cold to walk out there this morning. (at least for me!)

Entrance sign 

Tum.Tum.Tumbling Weed - It almost looks like an ostrich in the middle of the green.  

I was disappointed to find out the salt flats are not operated by the State Park, but by the National Wildlife Refuge. They do not open the salt flats until April 1.  I would love to come back to do this sometime.

Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge is the only known site in the world where unique selenite crystals with hourglass inclusions are found. Because these crystals form in wet soil, sand and clay, particles are included within the crystal giving them their unique "hourglass" shape inside.

It looks like an interesting day trip.

Just a neat picture of these cows enjoying this green grass.

Welcome to Cherokee, OK

I loved this cross - words below "In God We Trust"

First time we've seen a Sonic, Subway and A Convenience Store in one Building!

My dad's cousin Martha sent me a note to check out the Artesian Well in the area.  When we stopped at the park office this morning we asked where it was located.  She noted it on a map for us.  

When we stopped at the well, a semi pulled up and walked down with a jug to fill it with the water that flows freely as noted in the picture above.  He told Dean he and his wife stop here to get water often.

On down the road we came to the National Wildlife Refuge area, so we drove in to see what it had to offer.  We came upon this house (below) on the way in.  I'm sure it was a really nice house in the day.  It's so sad to see these homes falling apart.  

There was an Auto Tour, so we drove it looking for animals, birds, anything that might move.  We didn't see anything until almost the end - and we saw a few ducks on the last pond.  

This is the pond with the ducks.

Scary looking tree!

As we made our way back to the campground from the auto tour, it took us past the Artesian Well again.  There was a couple there in a truck.  They must have had 5 or 6-5 gallon jugs they were filling with water.  We  returned to the RV for lunch.  We rested for a bit and then we took out again.  

As we crossed the river bridge, I took this closeup of the spillway.  Isn't that a beautiful sight?

Jet, Ok

Great sculpture

Immediately across the road from the entrance to Great Salt Plains State Park Office is Altus Air Force Base.  There were planes taking off and landing several times on Saturday.  The jet in the picture below is similar or like the ones we saw flying around the lake area.

Nice signs about Jet and the immediate area.

Another sculpture - see the Indian to the right, with buffalo in front.

Dean and I both love seeing these beautiful windmills.  This one was spinning.

We were coming upon this windmill when Dean noticed the cover over the bed of the truck had come loose at the back and was blowing the cover up.  Dean pulled over to fix the cover and I got out to help him roll it up to the front of the bed, and fasten it.  

Our next stop was Cherokee, OK at United Supermarket.  This store was huge.  I've never heard of this particular group of stores before this trip in Oklahoma.  We didn't need anything except some lunchmeat for our sandwiches tomorrow.   Without driving to Alva, I imgaine this is probably the biggest grocery store in the area.  They certainly have a large inventory!

United Supermarket

I love these old buildings - Cherokee, OK

Alfalfa County Courthouse in Cherokee, OK

Every street corner in the shopping are of downtown had these metal sculptures of birds in the area.  I wish I could have taken pictures of all of them.

State Armory, constructed in 1936.

I couldn't resist taking this picture as we passed by this house.  I'm guessing there is a creative person living here!

A common site in the area.

Our last stop of the day - to get pure fresh water at the Artesian Well.

After we returned to the RV, Dean and I started fixing our dinner for the evening.  I bought some pork when we visited Crowell, TX.  It was a nice package of small pieces.  I separated it into 2 bags and froze it.  I pulled a bag out yesterday to thaw in the refrigerator for our dinner tonight.  We made stirfry on the Blackstone with the pork, rice, peas/carrots and an egg with a seasoning on it.  It was really good.

I set down to work on the blog.  I received a text message from my step brother Mike, so I called to visit with him - and it was over an hour later before we hung up.  I can't remember the last time I talked to him.  The next hour or so Dean and I were trying to decide whether to stay here another day; stay for a few days in the area; or go on back toward home.  I looked at a lot of different options but not decisions were made.  I think we were both just too tired to think, so we called it a night.

Saturday, March 6, 2021 - Moving to Great Salt Plains SP, Jet, OK

Saturday, March 6, 2021 - Moving to Great Salt Plains SP, Jet, OK

We were not in a big rush to leave this morning, but we did want to get on the road somewhat early.  It was 8:39am when we left our site at Copper Breaks State Park, Quanah, TX for Great Salt Plains State Park in Jet, OK.  We traveled 255 miles today and arrived at Jet, Ok at 2:35pm. It was a nice easy, and enjoyable ride.  Other than a short stint on I-40, we drove state and county roads, where we enjoy the scenery in the towns and countryside.

As we approached the bridge this morning as we left Copper Breaks, one of the park rangers was there shoveling more gravel onto the roadway.  We thought he waved to stop us, so I rolled the window down and he said don't stop...go!  That was a little scary!  With all of the traffic coming into the park after 3:30 or so when they reopened the road, it didn't look near as good as it did last night.  As we headed up the hill after crossing the bridge, we met a tractor with a load of dirt.  I'm sure he was headed to the bridge.  I was going to take a picture but I forgot when he said don't stop...go!

Today is another picture day while we are on the road, along with a few at our new campground.  I hope you enjoy them.

Hardeman County Courthouse in Quanah, TX--as we passed it realized we never made it to downtown Quanah.  Too bad, it looks like we missed several things.

We saw a number of cotton fields that had been harvested.

Hey Patsy, I was surprised when I saw we were crossing over the Canadian River again - it runs quite aways across Oklahoma!  I had to look it up and it runs through Oklahoma, Northern Texas and New Mexico.  Amazing what we learn when we drive the countryside.

So many wide open highways in Oklahoma.  They were all beautiful.

I love these old Pontiac signs.  They remind me of my Papa "Merle" Blackledge who sold Pontiac's for nearly 50 years.

One of my favorite pictures of the day.  

I couldn't pass up this flag out in the middle of nowhere.

My mind always wonders about the families who lived in these old farmhouses.

A great old barn.  I was lucky to get this picture for all the trees.

Wheat fields are growing!

When we arrived at the State Park, we stopped at the office to see if we needed to check in.  She said no, we were good to go.  As we drove toward the park entrance, off to the left we saw the sign with the park name on it.  We turned, then stopped a short distance away at the office.  When we left the office we continued on down the road where we entered, but came to a large parking area long the spillway.  There was an older couple in front of us, and they turned to leave, Dean waved at him to see if he knew where the campground was.  He said it was his first time here too and he didn't know.  We turned around in the lot, then Dean pulled over and I called the park office.  I told the lady that I was just in there, we had gone on down the road from the park office and appeared to be at the spillway.  I told her we've not been here before so we don't know where we need to go.  She told us to go back to the highway where we came in, then turn left, go over the bridge, then make a left turn right past the bridge.  As we neared the road we came in on - there was a sign across the road pointing the way to River Road Campground - except we were looking to the left where the park sign was.  Neither of us ever saw the campground signs.  LOL!

We soon found our campground and parked.  Just a short time later I heard Dean talking to someone, so I walked outside.  The couple we met down by the spillway was stopped and talking to Dean.  I walked over to visit with his wife.  They are from Woodward, OK, west of here.  They recently purchased a motorhome and drove it to Grove, Ok where they stayed for two weeks.  Russell and Marty were looking for a few places to travel that were closer to their home.   Russell is 90 years old (but he didn't look it).  He started a garden years ago, that grew into a 5 acre "garden" where he grew and sold all kinds of vegetables, fruit, etc.  They were the nicest couple and we sure enjoyed visiting with them. 

Our site at Great Salt Plains State Park, Jet, OK

The spillway up river from us.

Our view from our back window.

The view out our door.  Or it was before our neighbor arrived a little later in the day.

We set outside in our lounge chairs behind Bentley and enjoyed watching the river and looking at the landscape, and a bird or two.  We were surprised we didn't see more birds in the area.  Dean wanted to take a drive to see the rest of the park area.  There is a huge lake, salt flats, a selenite crystal digging field (only open April 1-Oct 15), another campground or two, and a few other places.  Tomorrow we'll get out and see more of the area, especially the salt flats.  

As we were leaving the area to head back, a roadrunner ran out in front of us.  It blended in pretty good, and it was in a shaded area.  Hopefully we'll see another one before we leave in a better setting.

Do you see him at the bottom of the picture?

Thursday, March 4, 2021 - Copper Breaks SP, Quanah, TX

Thursday, March 4, 2021 - Our Last Night at Copper Breaks SP, Quanah, TX 

Dean was awake and up before me this morning.  I think it was around 6am, but I'm not sure.  I was tired after I was up with leg cramps last night.  I used to have them all the time, but haven't dealt with this for quite awhile.  I hope it was just a one time thing.  Maybe all the hiking yesterday played a part.

We decided we would get out this morning and make one last hike here in the park.  Rocky Ledges Trail is another "challenging" hike according to the park's literature.  It was nearly 10:30 when we arrived at the trail site.  It started out pretty easy.  It didn't take too long to see what they meant by challenging  As a hiker only, I can't imagine riding a bicycle down this trail.  We saw the tire tracks along the way.  I would have been terrified to ride a bike on this often narrow with a few rapid drops in elevation that we came to.   We slid, held on to things, climbed, once literally on our hands and knees going up.  It was too far to turn back, so we just kept on going.  It was all worth it, as it was just a beautiful area. 

This was so pretty this morning looking out over the lake.

This is part of the trail

Pretty view.

A view from our walk

Part of our path

More of the path

Looks like a mushroom.

This area has had a lot of rock collapse - we stayed back from it.

This is when we saw the jets fly over.  Dean was looking for it as I was trying to take a picture...and missed it.

Beautiful views along the way

Another view

Pease River in the background

Another picture of the Pease River - to the right, the white colored area is part of the path we will walk.

This was an interesting drop.  I had to take a picture to prove we came down this.

It is really a beautiful area.

More of our path

Towards the end.  This path was narrow and high, and we could see the bicycle tracks on this path.  

I was wasted by the time we finished the hike, which was about 1.5 miles in length.  It was a real workout.  We returned to the campground just before noon.  Here are a few more pictures of the campground with a little more daylight.

After a light lunch and a little rest, we made the drive to Crowell, Texas for groceries at Smith's Grocery.  It was a small store but it had everything we needed.  The lady at the register was very nice and visited with us after we paid.  I loved how the cart was pulled up to the counter so she could remove the items and scan them. 

 

We returned to the park.  I put the groceries away and we both rested for awhile before it was time to fix dinner.  I made meatloaf, macaroni and cheese and warmed up some frozen corn.  It really hit the spot.  We have enough leftovers for tomorrow night, always a plus on a travel day.

Our drive tomorrow is approximately 251 miles which will be approximately 5 hours on the road, including stops along the way.  It will be a long day, but worth driving the extra hours to see family in the Wichita area before making our way back home.