Opting Not to Take the Cure

Lake Ouachita State Park, AR

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning, or should I say the lightbulb in the five gallon bucket so prominently displayed all night by our neighbors, finally lost its bright glow. I never can figure out why grown men need a campsite lit up all night, especially when everyone is all lined up in their 5th wheels. But, I digress...

Beaver's Bend State Park was jam packed last night and every other campsite seemed to be sporting some kind of hot rod. First thing this morning a parade of the street rods took a ceremonious lap and finally all parked on the community green. Apparently, it was the big weekend of the "Rod Run". We didn't stick around, but decided to move on for Arkansas was calling. We did enjoy watching the late street rod arrivals as they came past us into the meet.

Our big outing for the day was visiting Hot Springs, particularly the National Park. The weather was a cool and breezy 60ish perfect weather for soaking in the baths. We packed a backpack with bathing suits and rain gear figuring we had the bases covered. We enjoyed walking down Bathhouse Row and reading about the history of these houses in their glory days. We knew a couple of them were still operating as bathhouses so were eagerly looking forward to "taking the cure". Our first stop was at the official National Park Headquarters where we were able to tour the Fordyce Bathhouse. This establishment was thought to be the best of the hot spring bathhouses and people came from all over to cure everything from liver ailments to syphilis.

We began the tour with a very dated movie about the history of Hot Springs and how the springs geologically occur. The building felt very Victorian and had lots of tile, marble and stained glass. The wood work was gorgeous, particularly in the women's dressing room. However, as we went from floor to floor to floor and began to really see the baths and the techniques used we started to get a little creeped out and even a bit queasy.

The longer we poked around the more it felt like we were in some kind of torture chamber. For example, the Hydro-Therapeutic Room touts. "It's equipment includes sun-ray cabinets, frigid cabinets, devices for sprays, douches, Sitz baths, electric baths(!) and the like." And how could one not want to partake in the Chiropody Room where foot problems are treated in a number of ways. "Painful cysts between the bones on the bottoms of feet would be crushed and slid off with sideward knuckle punches." And let us not forget the Hubbard Tub Room where underwater treatments were given for...we're not quite sure what. However a sign did say that this room was formerly used to administer mercury rubs once a standard treatment for syphilis. Great....can't wait to soak in that tub!! Ned got really freaked out about the firehouse on the wall near the tubs. Not really sure if these were used to fill the tubs or give enemas. Ahhhh....At this point Ned and I found our way out of the building and decided to forego taking "the cure" and decided to pig out on BBQ. Smoked ribs and coleslaw were such the better choice!

Tonight we are camped at Lake Ouachita State Park. Even tho it's cool and threatening to rain the campground hopping. We had the choice to take the last electrical spot, which is basically in a gravel parking lot, or opt for the tent campsites. Guess which we chose. Tent campers don't like rain so we got a great spot in an almost empty campground loop over looking the lake. It feels good to just hang out read and play some games. I'm teaching Ned backgammon so he'll have a chance to beat me at something else besides Skip-O.

Experiencing the Chisholm Trail

Broken Bow State Park, OK

After eating dinner and posting the blog last night, we decided to head to the wide open range where we had spotted the bison and prairie dogs earlier. Bingo! What a treat we had watching the bison migrate across the road, get frisky with each other and interact with their calves. The sunset over the wide open prairie was pretty spectacular too!

This morning we purposely got up earlier to do an "easy" bike ride in the park. Note to self, any bike route labeled easy with the name "Mt. Scott trail" one should take with a grain of salt. It was far from easy, but at least we got a good cardio work-out!
The wildflowers are abundant in this park and and it was beautiful to ride past fields of colors. We were also treated by seeing longhorn out grazing and more bison. Sweet!

After that little jaunt was out of the way, we headed for the Visitor Center and took in a movie and had fun with looking at all the exhibits. A park ranger did clear up for me what that sweet little red bird was last night. It was called a Summer Tanager. We've been to many National Parks and this Wildlife Refuge rates right up there with the best of them. In fact, I much preferred this to the Waterton Peace Park in Canada. The only thing that park had over this one was the lodge, but the camping and wildlife viewing were far superior here.

The big highlight of the day was stopping at the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center. If anyone is ever around Lawton, OK I definitely encourage you to check out this super fun museum. It was very interactive and we enjoyed roping cattle and learning all about the history of the Chisholm trail. There were also two theatres. One was an animatronic (think Abe Lincoln at Disneyland) little sketch with Jesse Chisholm and a cowboy, Tex, out on the range. The other was a real hoot!! We were seated with a gazillion school kids and watched a film about what it was like to drive cattle for 100 days on the trail. The kicker was that it was SUPER interactive. When it rained, water was sprinkled over us; when the wind blew on the prairie, we felt wind blowing on us; when the rain and thunder blew our seats shook; when bacon was frying, we were supposed to smell that (that part was a bit lame), but we definitely smelled all the wildflowers on the range. At the end of the movie we participated in a sing-a-long with the school kids. Tons of fun!!

For the majority of the day we drove across Oklahoma. It was interesting to see the topography change from dry and arid, to wide open prairie and then the lush rolling hills with swollen rivers and creeks of Eastern Oklahoma. We are camped tonight at the biggest state park I have ever camped in. It is enormous, with about 395 campsites spread out over 100's of acres. There is also cabins, restaurants, paddle boats, hay rides, train rides, tennis courts, golf course and goodness knows what else.

We are in a very wooded campground and poor Winnie is dwarfed by the 5th wheels and pick-ups. As I write this there is country music playing, smokers going and lots of "howdy-do's" and "thank-you ma'ams" We have definitely left the Southwest and have officially entered into the South. Perfect. Kinda getting us prepared for our venture into Arkansas tomorrow. I expect we've left the land of beef and will be entering into the land of pork bellies, hush puppies, grits and sweet tea.

Home on the Range

Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge, Lawton, OK

It was either a full moon or pretty near to a full moon last night. Either way it lit up the red cliffs of Palo Duro Canyon and just added to the magic of this incredibly beautiful Southwest camping site. We had visited this campground about 6 years ago and did a really fun bike ride. Since then, this State Park has really become all about the mountain bike riding experience. There were lots of trails to choose from! First thing this morning, after a false start due to a bridge being rebuilt, we finally found the perfect trail. Even tho I'm much more of a "Rails-to-Trails" bike rider, I really did enjoy riding through the rough terrain, thru the canyon and up to the cliffs. It seemed like we had the whole canyon to ourselves and really enjoyed the bunnies running across the trail and the birds singing away. We did a solid 10 mile ride before finally heading out. What a great way to start the day.

We continued our drive thru the panhandle of Texas and passed through some sad little towns. I suspect that by the next generation these towns will no longer exist.
As it was now, they seemed on the verge of being ghost towns barely hanging on and situated so forlornly in the dry dusty plains. They all had the ubiquitous court house in the middle of the square, but almost every store front was vacant, dilapidated or boarded up. At one point we stopped at a DQ (pee break for me, ice cream for Ned) and there was a sign taped to the front door saying "Sorry, out of ice cream. Expecting truck delivery sometime today." DQ's are as common as Baptist Churches in these Southern towns, so it really did feel a bit blasphemous to have this last bastion of Southern Americana fade away.

When we rolled into Oklahoma it was as if someone waved a magical wand over that imaginary geographical state line. Suddenly, the dry arid plains with sage brush rolling around turned into fields of newly planted cotton or wheat. The terrain sprouted occasional trees and gentle rolling hills.

Tonight we are staying at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Southwestern Oklahoma. Yes, the internet didn't fail me on this one! It is touted as being wild, rugged, and weathered. It's 59,000 acres and we are camped amongst 650 head of bison, 300 head of longhorns and too many prairie dogs to count. We took the scenic backroads into the refuge and as we drove over a hill, were in awe of the bison herds wondering about and delighted in watching the antics of the prairie dogs. The campground is under a grove of oak trees and has all the modern amenities a girl could want - flush toilets and hot showers.

Tonight as we were eating dinner (Grilled rib-eye steaks and sweet potatoes) a brilliant brick-red colored little bird sat about 2 feet from me. He hung out there for several minutes just chirping away. Pretty cool! We took a drive at dusk to see if we could spot anymore bison. We saw a few, but not as many as this afternoon. Loving the wide open range with all the wildflowers and wildlife.

Back in the Saddle

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX

Our original plan, albeit made while indulging in adult libations, was to be soaking in the hot springs by 8 am. We woke closer to 8:30. Plan B entailed being in the pool by 9:30. That worked too. The skies were bright blue and much warmer. So warm in fact that we took in the mud baths today. It felt so good to smear wet mud all over our bodies, head to toe, and then bask in the sun until we cake dried. After soaking in the mud pool we further rinsed off under the hot water shower made of buckets with holes drilled in the bottom. I definitely want one of these for our house! Swimming laps in the kiva pool and then hopping from one hot spring to another felt too damn good. I was really reluctant to leave, but I knew we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us and I wanted to take in this RV Museum in Amarillo, TX that I read about.

One of our "rules of the road" is not to take the interstate. We live for the backroads and two lane highways. However, there really aren't many choices between Sante Fe and Amarillo so Interstate 40 it was! At one point we got off to ride the historic Route 66, but in reality it was just a frontage road paralleling the interstate. Considering there was nothing but wide open plains and sage brush all around, it felt kinda stupid to just be paralleling the interstate with about 20 feet between the two roads. We bailed and got back on the interstate.

So, you know how you're not supposed to believe everything you read on the internet? Yeah, that happened. I was so excited to see a 1936 Alma, 1937 Elkhart Traveler, a 1948 Flixible Clipper, etc. and the museum was free! When we finally found this "museum" it turns out it was an RV Trailer Sales Center. Sigh. We also didn't take into consideration the hour time change so to add insult to injury, it was closed. Just as well, Ned wasn't particularly looking forward to a Texas RV Salesman giving him the hard sell just to his wife could look at some old campers!

We finally pulled into Palo Duro Canyon State Park around 6ish. We camped here several years ago and really loved it. This is the second largest canyon in the United States. It's 120 miles long and 600 to 800 feet deep. It's awesome cause you can camp at the bottom of the canyon near all these great red cliffs. It sure felt good to be back in the saddle again, both at this state park and in a "real" campground.

Debi's Favorite Place

Ojo Caliente, NM

Ned here. We started out today with nice sunny weather in Green River, Utah. Debi. however, checked the weather online in Gunnison, Colorado (along with several other possible destinations in the Rockies), and we were looking at 3-5 inches of snow and night time temps in the teens. Therefore, we decided to head as far south as possible today, in search of better weather. To get ahead of the storm, we finally decided to head south at Durango, Colorado, passing by Mesa Verde, which looked beautiful. Soon after that, the weather went to hell. Nothing ever actually stuck, but there were several hours today wherheaded into driving snow. Our initial plan was to stop at Pagosa Hot Springs, but when we got there it was still snowing, so we looked at each other and decided to drive another 2 hours to Debi's favorite place on earth, Ojo Caliente! On the way there, Debi devised a typical back road strategy, which took us past a little town called El Rito. The road was very narrow and the stucco houses were very close to the road, giving the place the feel of a very old Mexican village. It looked like either an artists colony, or a location for people who want to definitely stay under the radar. We finally arrived at Ojo Caliente, which we were thrilled to return to, after we had originally fallen in love with the place on our Hot Springs Tour in October 2012. The clouds had parted, the afternoon light was perfect, and the place looked even more beautiful than we remembered it. We immediately got on our swim suits and began a luxurious tour of all the six hot springs pools which were open. My favorite is still the one which has a ceramic pot with hot water pouring out of it which you can soak your head and neck under. Debi loved alternating between soaking in the "arsenic pool" which is at about 104 degrees, and then swimming and stretching out in the large round kiva pool, which is at 89 degrees. After more than 2 hours of this luxurious behavior, we headed to the restaurant where we gorged ourselves on delicious chicken fajitas, washed down with an excellent Zin. For this reason, we both now feel like wet noodles, and I offered to write Debi's blog tonight, as she was in no shape to get it done. The final photo below is of Debi, sitting contentedly next to the fireplace in the restaurant after a couple of hours of hot springs and an excellent dinner. I think the photo speaks for itself.

Caves & Summits, Sun & Snow

Green River State Park, Utah

Our first day on the road and I feel as if we hit all the seasons. The temp registered a cool 32F when we woke up, but it actually felt much warmer. We took an early morning walk and soaked up the sun. Dang it felt great to hear the creek, smell the pine trees and enjoy the quiet morning.

The rangers opened the road to Wheeler Point so we took it as far as we could, up to Mather Point, at about 9000 ft. The view was spectacular! You could see the whole Great Basin stretched out forever. Fortunately, we were open early enough that even after doing the scenic ride up Wheeler Mountain, we were still at the Visitor's Center by 8:30. We took in the obligatory park movie and signed up for the 9:00 tour of Lehman Cave.

Great Basin wasn't a National Park until 1986, but Lehman Cave, its big attraction, was a National Monument since the 1930's. The ranger lead 90 minute tour is quite impressive. We've toured Mammoth and Carlsbad, and what makes this cave so different is the narrow passages and tight places. (Nope, no claustrophobia for me. Go figure!). We both really enjoyed the formations and how close up we were to it all. The park trusts that you won't touch, brush up or take stuff. Our ranger was quite humorous and told some great stories. If anyone is ever driving by Great Basin National Park I encourage you to take the $10 tour. Well worth it. Oh, I almost forgot. Ned officially received his lifetime $10 National Park Pass. This allowed him to take the tour for $5. Getting older does have it perks!

We expected the cave to be the highlight of the day, but in reality the drive into Utah was what really blew us away. We hit all kinds of weather; sun, rain, snow flurries, and saw some spectacular cloud formations. The section of road from Salina, Utah to Green River State Park is one of the most beautiful drives EVER. Seriously, we couldn't figure why this wasn't a national park. It was as if Zion National Park, Monument Valley, and the Thunder Mountain ride at Disneyland were all combined to create this jaw dropping beauty of colors and vistas that went on forever. There were hoodoos, huge red cliffs, snow capped mountains and rainbow colored bluffs.

We're staying tonight at Green River State Park. It's not really all that great, more of a grassy field next to a golf course. It does, however, have flush toilets and a hot shower - which was not available last night. Our plan tomorrow was to drive thru the Rockies, but apparently they are expecting 3 to 6 inches of snow. Ned and I are now pouring over some maps and figuring out a re-route. Looks like heading towards Mesa Verde and hanging a left to Pagosa Springs it is. One can never go wrong with hot springs right? Currently, it's 66F outside, but it feels so much colder than the 32F this morning. Nothing that a glass of wine can't cure...

And So It Begins...

Great Basin National Park, Nevada

After a whirlwind tour of Cabo, Trinidad and Ecuador for the past several weeks you'd think I'd have the "on-the-road" syndrome out of my system. Au contraire! My gypsy soul is definitely speaking to me and after less than 48 hours at home we hit the road for a 7 week road trip. Pure Heaven.

Today was a long day in the car, not really much to see in Nevada. We took Highway 50, known as the Loneliest Road in America. Several years ago we traveled this road from east to west direction. My memory of it was that it was desolate and pretty much a wasteland. Mmmm. My experience today was much different. We always had a view of one mountain or another, many snow capped. Our big outing for the day was going to be a milkshake at Economy Drug Soda Fountain in Ely, but unfortunately it is closed on Sunday.

One of the highlights of the day was coming round the bend and spotting Wheeler Peak the focal point of Great Basin National Park. The ipod was on random shuffle and it just so happened that Ray Charles was signing his heart out to "America The Beautiful" as the snowcapped peak came into view. There were clouds gathered around the mountain top and the golden rays of sun were streaming down highlighting the mountain. Gave us chills - partly with how beautiful it was and also because we will be camping there.

We reached Great Basin National Park and I must say I was completely surprised at high beautiful this campground is! We had made a short visit to the visitor center many years ago in the dead heat of summer. I was less than impressed at the time. Probably cause it was hotter than hell and everything looked bleak. Pulling into the campground tonight was such a different experience. We have the sweetest camp spot, under lots of pine trees, and right next to a roaring creek. It almost feels like we are in Lassen rather than the Great Basin. Fortunately we are camped in Upper Lehman Campground situated at 7,500 ft and not at 10,000 ft. It also looks like the road to the top is closed due to snow. We were hoping to drive to the top tomorrow, but it looks like a tour of Lehman Cave will now win out.

Tonight's dinner is roasted peppers and onions on the grill, with marinated skirt steak and a glass of red wine. It's a bit chilly outside so we're opting for dinner in the camper rather than al fresco. I think it's supposed to dip down into the low 30's tonight. Good thing we have a heater in Winnie and my hubby likes to snuggle.