Drunk or Sober: Oklahoma is more than OK

Aloha all,

I have to say: Oklahoma is way more than just OK and there is way more to see than just “the wind sweepin’ down the plains”. And I am NOT just saying that because we just come from a happy hour at a German bar where the full liter Stiefel of beer was half price; or because of the butternut schnaps, which I swear I had only because there were no ponderosa pine trees to sniff anywhere around. I love that smell! I say that Oklahoma is more than OK, because during the past two weeks this state has surpassed our expectations in pretty much every aspect: Scenic beauty (I admit, my expectations were easy to exceed in that respect), a very unique history, a surprising variety of events and attractions and some of the nicest people we have met anywhere: It just goes to show: You can’t judge a state by how they vote in a presidential election.

The "Cadillac Ranch" along Route 66

But before we made it to Oklahoma, our 50h state, we had to cross through the Texas Panhandle. That took 4 days, because everything in Texas is big, so a pan like the state of Texas has a pretty big handle. We crossed it by loosely following historic Route 66, stopping at some of the classic roadside attractions: A row of Cadillacs “planted” in a corn field as an art installation. Also, a row of VW Bugs planted in response to the cult-like success of the “Cadillac Ranch”. A Waffle House. An RV Museum. A Route 66 Museum. The second largest Cross in the western hemisphere. A leaning water tower. A couple of BBQ joints. We also visited several local history museums, which I have a hard time telling apart when I am sober, so I will not even try right now. 

Before you think the Texas Panhandle is nothing but a bunch of cheese roadside attractions and before Greg makes fun of us for still not having made it to the largest ball of twine: We also went to the Palo Duro Canyon. This is a really phenomenal canyon. The phenomenon is this: It looks dramatically different, depending on your perspective: If you come from the east, which means you’ve been driving through flat land for at least a few days, it probably looks like an impressive and spectacularly beautiful canyon. You hear it being described as the second largest canyon in America and you are impressed. But if you come from the west, and you have just seen some of the most spectacular landscapes in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, then you look at the Palo Duro Canyon and you think: “This is kind of pretty”.  And when they tell you it’s the second largest canyon in America, you wonder how they measure that because you have seen more impressive canyons almost every day for the past 3 weeks.

50!

On Oct 14th around 4pm, we crossed the state line into Oklahoma, so now we have officially been to all 50 states. I am documenting this here because I failed to take the picture of the welcome sign along I40. We did stop at the welcome center for probably longer than anybody else ever has and we picked up 137 pounds of brochures, magazines and maps of Oklahoma. Maybe we were worried we wouldn’t find anything to do in Oklahoma, even though that should never be a concern. Since we enjoy anything from hiking, historical places, factory tours, funky museums and disc golf courses to events and restaurants of any kind, I don’t think we’ll ever run out of things to do anywhere. And if we were, we’d just keep driving.

Yes, this is Oklahoma, too. We already camped at four different lakes!

If you expect Oklahoma to be a depressing place, they offer that: In fact, one of our first stops was at the Washita Battlefield National Historical Site, which is as depressing as it gets. Native Americans have been mistreated in probably every state, but this massacre of Peace Chief Black Kettle and his people is particularly tragic. He was one of the most peaceful chiefs, willing to negotiate even after he had been betrayed many times, including  at the Sand Creek Massacre four years earlier. He and his followers, including many women and children were brutally killed out of ignorance or out of blind hate. Of course it’s never as easy as “the bad white people killing the good red people”. The US Army could not have pulled off this atrocity without the help from Osage Indian scouts, who apparently hated the Cheyenne more than they hated the white intruders. Killing each other over land or resources is not a Caucasian invention.

Gloss Mountain State Park

If you expect Oklahoma to be flat a barren, they offer that, too. But sometimes you have to look a little deeper to see the real beauty. At least in one place in Northwest Oklahoma, I mean that literally: At the Alabaster Caverns State Park, you have to look about 200 feet below the surface to see the beautiful gypsum formations and the bats flying through the cave. 

If you think people in Oklahoma are primitive, they have that too. In fact, one of our favorite historical sites was the “Sod House”. There were not enough trees to built houses out of wood, so early pioneers, who could not afford to import building materials, built houses out of the one material they had plenty of: Dirt. Sod houses are constructed by cutting rectangular patches of sod out of the ground and piling them up like bricks. Even though it’s basically just dirt held together by grass roots, they seemed to hold up surprisingly well. The sod house we visited is about 130 years old, preserved in the very same location for all these years, first by the one and only family who lived in it and now by the local historical society, who built a museum around it. It’s only a one room museum, but the local historian working there was so fun and interesting that we spent over three hours there: Half an hour for the sod house and the exhibits, 2 1/2 hours talking to our new friend.

The friendly historian at the Sod House and the not so friendly looking owner.

We have been to several other history museum in Oklahoma in Woodward, Enid, Kingfisher and Oklahoma City. We liked the one in Enid the best because they happen to have their “Living History Day” with actors in period costumes bringing the various historical buildings alive. Until we invent an actual time machine, I feel that a good living history museum is the best time travel experience you can have.

Proud pioneer showing off his brand new ice box.

The history of Oklahoma is quite unique. Until the mid 19th century, most of the plains were described as the ‘Great American Desert’ and were considered uninhabitable by white settlers. The only use they had for the land at first was to resettle native tribes, who were in the way of western expansion. I am still surprised how quickly that changed and by the end of the century, Oklahoma had five so called “Land Runs”. These were actual foot, horse and wagon races, where thousands and thousands of desperate or adventurous pioneers tried to be the first to claim a free homestead parcel of usually 160 acres. Most of the areas in Northwest Oklahoma we have visited so far were opened up for settlement by these land runs. They must have been quite the spectacle, so chaotic that some settlers got away with entering the land ‘sooner’ than the actual start of the land run. That’s why Oklahoma is called the ‘Sooner State’. 

Guns 'n Roses concert in Oklahoma City

The variety of cultural events we have seen in the past week is quite surprising: We saw a local production of the play “Wait Until Dark”, a concert by a band called “Guns ’n Roses” and a concert-like event called “The Simon and Garfunkel Story” that told their history in song, stories and images. Tonight I saw a fun production of the “Sister Act” musical, while Sandra recovered from her cold. We had also bought tickets for the Queen musical “We Will Rock You”, but unfortunately, Ticketmaster had failed to realize that the show was canceled a week earlier. This was the biggest mishap on our tour so far, which shows you how disappointed I am with the terrible service from Ticketmaster (still waiting for a refund or a real apology), but even more it shows how lucky we have been for the entire rest of the trip that this qualifies as our biggest mishap.

Oklahoma City is one of my favorite cities in America. I know what you are thinking: Chris really should not write on his blog when he is drunk. But I assure you, I have sobered up quite a bit already and I actually mean this sincerely. OKC is big enough to offer all big city amenities, but it’s very relaxed, affordable and easy to navigate even with an RV. And the people we met were all very friendly. Oklahoma City is also cleaner than any large city I can think of. Of course we went to see the state capitol, which is pretty, but will be even prettier when the mayor renovation is completed. Due to the construction, we did not get much of a tour, but still spent over an hour there, talking to the friendly Okie at the visitor center. What I will remember for the next trivia night is that even though the capitol was built over 100 years ago, the dome was not added until 2002. 

National Memorial in Oklahoma City

I have to admit that pretty much the only thing I knew about Oklahoma City was that the 1995 bombing took place here. 168 innocent people died, including 19 children, when a truck bomb blew up the Federal office building and damaged hundreds more, all because someone hated the government. But as tragic as that was, it really seemed to have strengthened the city rather than weakening it. The “Survivor Tree” is probably the best symbol of that. This tree stood on a parking lot right across from the bombing and is now part of the beautiful memorial park. Of course it was badly damaged during the blast, but look at it now: 

The Survivor Tree

The same can be said about the whole city. Of course it was devastating, but look at it now: It’s a beautiful, strong, confident, thriving city. And we heard a lot of credit for the city’s resurgence given to the aftermath of the bombing. Besides creating the memorial and the very immersive museum about the bombing, in the past 20 years the city has revived the old ‘Bricktown’ neighborhood into a thriving entertainment district, with waterways resembling the San Antonio Riverwalk. They also brought back streetcars, and attracted an NBA team, which we might see this afternoon and built the tallest, prettiest skyscraper in town, where we might have a drink later tis afternoon, depending how Sandra feels.

Oklahoma also has a lot of public art. My favorite is this statue of a settler claiming his homestead during the 1889 land run. He must have had confidence that he can make a living off this land, but I doubt he expected in his wildest dreams, what the barren prairie would look like just two lifetimes later. That early settler probably lived in a dug out or sod house, today his great granddaughter might live or work in one of the modern high-rise buildings surrounding the statue.

Downtown Oklahoma City- Then and Now

It didn’t take long for Oklahoma to take off after it was founded. We visited the Overholser Mansion, which was built in 1903. Just like the sod house, it has only been lived in by one family. And since this mansion is also lovingly preserved by a historical society, the house and all its furnishings are pretty much completely original. We appreciated being able to get a guided tour through this luxurious mansion, but it also made me realize that financial inequality, as crazy as it is today, is not a new thing. The one family still lived in the house built out of dirt, when this family of three lived in this 11,700 square foot mansion.

Overholser Mansion

Yesterday we went to the “Weather Festival” at the National Weather Center in Norman, just south of OKC. Yep, we had never been to a ‘weather festival’ either, so we were not sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a very fun event. They launched weather balloons, we toured the National Weather Center and a mobil command center. I also saw a 3D printer in action for the first time. On a more practical note, we found out about a website that is ideal for us to plan our trip to stay out of freezing temperatures. Somewhere along the line, I also got a question answered that had been bugging me for a while. I always felt that the old dutch windmills looked like they catch more wind power than the modern ones with just three skinny blades. The engineer dumbed down the answer enough that I think I understood why modern windmills are more efficient, so if you were wondering the same thing, ask me about it next time you see me.

...and even just the prairie can be pretty!

We still don’t know where we will end up on this trip. With the variety of events and attractions Oklahoma offers, we might just stay here until we fly home. But we might also head back to Texas or Tennessee, if our new weather web site tells us to go there.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

Ruins come alive

Aloha all,

we usually find American history more interesting than European history because it is not as confusing, IF you conveniently ignore the first 15,000 years of human habitation and start with the European contact. That’s easy to do in the east, where most of the historical sites are about the fight for independence, the founding fathers, the early presidents and the civil war. Very little of that in the Southwest, but lots of really old native American sites, so we had to broaden our horizon a little bit and try to learn something new.

We had been to several native American sites before, including Mesa Verde, but I had no idea how many of them there are until we came back to the Southwest with a little more time. I can’t find a number online, but there must be well over 10,000 sites, many of them over 1,000 years old. No worries, we did not even try to visit them all, but we did enjoy a very good variety of them in the last two weeks.

On a day hike into the very remote Kane Gulch in Southern Utah we had the whole canyon pretty much to ourselves. The cliff dwellings might not be quite as elaborate as others, but “discovering” them ourselves after hiking deeper and deeper into the canyon made for a fun adventure. 

Goosenecks State Park

Sometimes, I am surprised by the places I have never heard of. Goosenecks State Park is such a place. Why is this place not better known? It is literally three times as good as Dead Hose Point (which is already pretty spectacular), because the San Juan River makes not one, but three horseshoe bends here. They call it the best example of a meandering river, enough for us to meander down there and spent a night on the rim, with just a few other happy campers.

These landscapes are beautiful, but made this area very inaccessible to early pioneers, that’s why Southeast Utah was the last place to be settled and the last areas to be mapped in the US mainland. We reconnected with the history of the ‘Hole in The Rock Expedition’ in Bluff in the southeastern corner of Utah. We had first heard about this expedition by mormon pioneers two weeks earlier in Escalante, where they left in the fall of 1879. It took them six months to get to their destination. Now we got to visit the reconstructed settlement they founded in Bluff. Mormonism still sounds a little weird to me, but I have great respect for their industrious endurance: Back in 1879 for making the trip in the first place and nowadays for reconstructing the settlement and bringing it to life with a great audio tour about various members of the expedition and their life in the new settlement. 

The historic Mormon settlement in Bluff

If you want to see some world class native American ruins, but want to avoid the crowds of Mesa Verde, I recommend Hovenweep National Monument on the Utah/Colorado border. We hiked to some ruins that we had all to ourselves. It’s so quiet because it’s so remote, which also made for perfect conditions for a ranger star party. Skies as clear as on Haleakala; without the freezing temperatures!

Holly site in Hovenweep NM

The landscape in this area would be spectacular enough by itself, like the “Canyon of the Ancients” National Monument. But the fact that there are literally hundreds of centuries old archeological sites hidden all over the place make them even more special. But before you think we only like old stuff: The same day that we hiked the Canyon of the Ancients, I also upgraded my ancient iphone for a brand new one. The new phone takes such nice pictures, I have to stop myself from taking too many photos, just because everything looks so good on the new phone.

I have to admit, the new iphone camera makes
the inside of Joy look more spacious than she is.

I mentioned this before, but we just love that we are in no rush on this trip and we can take as long as we want wherever we are, without having to rush to get to some place at a specific date. So we spent three full days at Mesa Verde to do all the hikes, see all the sites and take all the tours we wanted. The “Cliff Palace” is one of the most impressive historical sites I have been to anywhere and the ranger guided tour of the “Long House” was one of the best tours we have ever been on. It really made those ruins come alive. I felt like we got a glimpse of what it was like to live there 800 years ago. Enough so that we know to appreciate that we live today.

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde NP

Usually, we like to stay at the campgrounds right inside the national parks. But not at Mesa Verde, where it is run by a concessionaire charging premium rates for dry camping while just outside the park we found a similarly priced RV park with a hot tub and spent one night at a brewery, where the camping was free and the beer was cheap. They also had good food and we just happen to walk in when their trivia night started. With five teams participating, we were tied for first place after two rounds. But the final round was all about horror movies, where we had to give ten wild guesses. Boy, were we surprised that we ended up in second place…until we found out that three of the five teams were tied for first, so we were actually second to last.

Game Night in Joy with Wasseem and Christine

We had done the old steam train trip in Durango on our road trip in 2008 aleardy. But luckily, Durango has a new mayor attraction for us: The son of our friend Sohani moved here, so we got to meet up with him and his girlfriend for dinner and a game night. We happened to stay at the RV Park of the Southern Ute tribe where he works.They introduced us to the fun “Pandemic” game. It’s a cooperative board game and we were actually able to save the world together. However, when we played again during his lunch break the next day, we were not so lucky and diseases spread around the world. The Southern Utes seem to be a very nice employer and a very successful tribe. The RV Park, resort and casino were brand new and well run and the museum very informative. Yes, they have been treated terribly like most native tribes. And yes, the US broke pretty much every treaty ever made with them. But they persisted and seem to be thriving by combining modern approaches with their traditional cultural roots.

Fall colors on Wolf Creek Pass

One of our favorite places from our first road trip were the Hot Springs in Pagosa Springs in Colorado. We now returned 11 years later and enjoyed another few hours of soaking in a dozen or so hot tubs by the San Juan river. From there we drove over the Wolf Creek pass with some spectacular fall colors to Taos in New Mexico. One of the long debunked myths about the Ancestral Publeoans is that they mysteriously disappeared from places like Mesa Verde. They did not disappear, they just moved south to join other tribes, like the one in Taos. So for us it was interesting to see what became of the people after they left Mesa Verde. The Taos Pueblo is still active today. Native Americans have lived there continuously for about 1,000 years, even though most of the tribal members now also have a modern home outside of the historic pueblo. Many use their traditional home as a business catering to us tourists. We appreciate that, because that’s one way to see the historical buildings from the inside and because that fry bread was really delicious. 

Taos Pueblo - inhabited since 1000 years

We joined a guided tour by one of the residents. It was interesting to learn how the adobe buildings are maintained, how the community is organized and how they combine modern life with their ancestral traditions, including the fact that many of them have no problem following the Catholic religion along with their native religion. She referred to herself as a “Publeoan Native”, but also mentioned that this is a very personal preference. To my surprise, the term “Indian” is still used, even by some Native businesses. I don’t find that term offensive; just confusing. It just seems so weird to use a term that came about because the first Europeans did not know where they were when they got to America.

Besides the very impressive Taos Pueblo, we also enjoyed the historic downtown area of Taos, the Kit Carson Home and Museum, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, a remodeled ’hacienda’ from time when this was still part of Mexico, an old adobe church, a lovely Peruvian dinner and a delightful Italian lunch. Lots of art in Taos, too, but we only peeked into a couple of galleries. 

Just over a pass from Taos we got to Las Vegas, the smaller one in New Mexico. For us, it was pretty much the opposite of Las Vegas, Nevada. We visited the “Dwan Light Sanctuary” which is a beautiful building on the Campus of the United World College, designed to reflect light to create a very peaceful and colorful space. 

Dwan Light Sanctuary

Instead of a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, they have several pots of hot water. The school maintains the Montezuma Hot Springs and thanks to their remote location, they can let the public visit for free without any of it being crowded at all.

Montezuma Hot Springs

Yesterday, we visited Fort Union in the northeastern corner of New Mexico. We have been to so many forts (including Fort Garland in southern Colorado a few days ago, which I even forgot to mention) that we might have skipped this one, if it weren’t run by our beloved National Park Service, which is always worth a little detour! Even though we did not get a guided tour as we had hoped, this was a very immersive experience. The ruins of Fort Union are now so remote and so quiet that it’s hard to imagine that this was once the epicenter of activity. This was the main fort at the end of the Santa Fe Trail. 19 other forts were supplied through Fort Union. Since it was built mostly out of adobe, only part of the building still stand. But the ruins, along with very informative signs, illustrations and a film (which we liked so much that we watched it twice) gave us an idea of the scale of this operation. Not bad for such a remote area of such a young nation. It also helped that the ranger at the visitor center was not just willing to answer all our questions, but did so enthusiastically.

We also finally got to play a round of disc golf again. The course was ok, but not the best…but we did find two very cute wild turtles. Actually Sandra almost hit one of them with her disc.

Tortoises on the disc golf course

Now we had to flee enchanting New Mexico because for tonight they predict freezing temperatures. We made it to Amarillo in the northern Texas panhandle. Check back right here in a week or two if you want to find out whether we survived the cold front. It’s supposed to warm back up by the weekend, so we are pretty sure we will make it to Oklahoma to check out our 50th state before returning to our still favorite state in mid November.

Aloha from Amarillo,

Chris & Sandra