Day 10: We have entered the Twilight Zone

Yesterday, we met Jack. This picture is kind of small, but I wanted to get the Longhorn Steer in for Mike!

Jack runs the train station museum at the Canadian County Historical Museum and Heritage Park right outside El Reno, OK. Jack is a treasure. He would have just let us wander around his museum without bothering us, but I was curious why there was a display of Eskimo baskets and ivory carvings. I was working hard to make the connection between the Canadian County Railroad and the Eskimos. Jack got a kick out of my suppositions. The real reason they have this collection is that it belonged to a long-time resident of El Reno and when the wife passed away, the collection was donated to the museum.

That got the conversations going. Jack told us about the buffalo head on the opposite wall. It seemed this big guy lived in El Reno for a long time and was a cantankerous sort. Well, he got crossways with the new guy on the local police force, and earned a bad name for himself. It wasn't until he got out and decided to take a stroll on Route 66 that really did him in. It seems that the bison decided to take on a VW and won. Shortly after that, they had to kill him....then they ate him....Which led to the conversation of where to get the best Buffalo Burgers, a POW camp at Ft. Reno where a few hundred German prisoners (captured in Africa) were housed for the duration of the war, and how to make these elaborate hair wreaths. We learned a lot in El Reno, and we didn't have to stay in school to do it....har, har....I crack me up (that was a segue for this great picture of Flat Dad in the restored one-room school house).

We made a wrong turn right outside Weatherford and discovered a wind farm. Mike and I saw this somewhere around Bloomington and Stewart, Illinois, and I was fascinated then. This time Hazel and I had the time to drive right up to the turbines! They are spooky when you come up to them. These turbines sit atop and behind the rolling hills, and depending on where you are on the road, you might only be able to see the tips of the blades as they rise and fall behind the hill.

Once we got into Weathford, we found a small park with some information:

1: Each blade is 122 feet long.

2. The towers are 252 feet tall.

3. Computers turn the blades so they are always facing the wind.

4. They look like alien beings and are almost silent.

5. They are so cool!

Found Lucille's Roadhouse (the new one) in Bridgeport and taught the girls, Melissa and Whitney to make chocolate sodas. They were thrilled and so was I. They have a smoking section in the diner! For the first time, I got to smoke a whole cigarette in air conditioning!

Found some giant Kachina Dolls in Elk City. Mom, this one was named Myrtle! Dad and I had to have our picture taken for you.

Just a few, final words about the tail end of Oklahoma and entering Texas...CRICKETS! Huge, giant, aggressive, crickets! They are in the parking lots, under store signs (yes! the ones on the walls), and they jump and leap out at you. They are everywhere and I don't just mean one or two. They travel in herds, or flocks, or gaggles, or whatever you call a group of crickets! We didn't get any pictures of them as they fling themselves at you if you stand still!

Westward Ho!

~Penny