As we were leaving Arkansas we took this lovely scenic drive up into the Ouachita (remember that’s Wash-i-ta!) Mountains on the border of AK and OK, along Hwy. 88/1. This road was the pass for wagons and later the railroad. We stopped at the Queen Wilhelmina State Park and Lodge. The railroad was built in the late 1880’s with funds from investors in Holland. The Lodge was built in the 1890’s and named in honor of Holland’s Queen. It only operated for about 5 years and then stood vacant for nearly 70 years. It was acquired by the State and completely renovated, suffered a devastating fire and was rebuilt again. It is quite a posh place now but we were cozy in the howling mountain winds in our great survival Pod! The drive, the colors and the fresh air were well worth the trip.
We had decided we wanted to get to New Mexico before the big arctic storm forecast to arrive in the Midwest in a few days. So we did the ‘peddle to the metal’ routine straight westward to Sulfur, OK for one night in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. I had wished we could have stayed a while in this area of springs, streams and lakes as it was a very rich smelling place full of wildlife and natural beauty.
Then it was another hurry day to Lawton, OK and the Wichita (this time it’s Witch-i-ta!) Mountains National Wildlife Refuge for a couple of nights. This was a fun place for me because I could hike the trails and swim in these small, deep little lakes. We drove up to Scott Mountain for a spectacular 360 degree view of the surrounding states.
Always hopping, never stopping, it was onto Texas and a one night stand in the city park at Childress. On the way we saw these really ‘Texas-sized’ cotton bales; like boxcar sized bales. So Cokie stopped at a cotton farm (?) right on the highway and got permission to photograph their bales out in the field. Bet that Lady shook her head and probably made some comment about Californians!
Bam – hardly time to whiz the next morning and we were back on the road with our collective noses pointed south-west and full go until we finally stopped at Lake Brantley State Park, New Mexico! Whew! We made it just in time to catch the danged snow storm that hit the next day. I swear we did all that traveling just to get to one of the few places in the Southwest that got snow! Go figure! Oh well, it made for a nice cozy Thanksgiving Day in the marvelous Pod. Kae sure filled our little house with great smells and even better leftovers! We were happy and thankful!
We rested and waited out the storm then decided that we would save a trip to the Carlsbad Caverns until early January when we plan to meet up with our good friends Margaret and Anita and my buddies, Mike and Jake. We’ll take the tours together and maybe travel over to the bird sanctuaries in Texas. It was off toward Albuquerque for Pod repairs with a bit more storm stopping at Roswell and Bottomless Lakes State Park. This is truly an ‘alien’ area and not just because of the “incident” in 1947! We spent some time walking around Roswell and let me tell you they sure do capitalize on the little green men thing. Bad art and worse souvenirs are everywhere! The Ladies decided to check out the “real” story by visiting the UFO Museum and Research Center in downtown Roswell. Developed in 1991 by an ex-army officer, a local mortician and a real estate developer to fill the public’s intensifying appetite for credible information, the museum soon gained international attention and non-profit status. The exhibits are extensive and cover the whimsical to the documented. You can obtain more information on their website at www.roswellufomuseum.com. The gals said after viewing the evidence, artifacts and documentation it was easy to believe we had had a visit. I say, “Why not? Hey, hurry back, we need all the help we can get!”
There is a lot of history in this area, besides the UFO thing. There is the Chisum Trail named after John Chisum, a great cattle baron of the nineteenth century and one of Roswell’s founding fathers. The Apaches were part of the early history too and the current Mescalero Apache Reservation is a viable, neighboring community.
We spent several days at Bottomless Lakes State Park. The Lakes got their name because nineteenth century cowboys, who stopped to water their livestock in the area, tried to find the bottom of some of the pools with their lariats tied together but their ropes were swept aside by underground currents, so they decided the lakes were bottomless. They are actually a chain of eight sinkholes, or cenotes, that range from 17 to 90 feet deep. They were formed when circulating water dissolved the gypsum and salt deposits to form subterranean caverns. Eventually the roofs collapsed, sinkholes formed and filled with water.
Well, we watched the weather pretty closely and decided we better keep moving north and west to Albuquerque, toward the repair guys. So off we dashed to an RV Park we knew in Tijeras, just east of Albuquerque. We stayed there for about a week waiting for parts and repairs. Since none of that was very interesting I thought we would end this blog with a trip to The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History to view the exhibit “Tombs and Temples, Treasures of Egyptian Art from the British Museum”. It was so difficult to comprehend that some of these works of such beauty and sophistication were created nearly 4,000 years ago! They prohibited photography so the Ladies tried to scan and reproduce some of the photos from the brochure. Enjoy!
Well, there you are and here we are – Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo, NM. We hope your holidazes were joyous and jolly! Thanks for coming along with us on our adventures this year. We plan to tour the eastern portion of our magnificent country in 2008 and we hope that you will traipse along with us through that set of adventures. Hey, if any of you want us to visit any particularly special place in the East, just email us, tell us where and we will try our best to get there and photograph it for you and include it in a blog. Be well, be healthy, be happy and most of all – be loving!!!
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