NO SIGNAL.
Day 55 – We’re behind on blog posts because once we moved across the road from one campsite to the other, we lost what little signal we had. We had two posts on the queue, ready to go out, but had no signal to send them. No phone, no internet. It was nice, very nice, not to hear even a beep, but it was also disconcerting – what if something happens? No one can reach us; we can’t reach anyone. Um, what’s happening in the world? Can’t get the news. Trust me, nothing much changes in the news. LOL. And, what if you need to know something right this minute? No internet, no google. How on earth did we all survive in the past? Hee hee.
This morning we left the RV at 10:30 a.m. with a car full of laundry to do, but first I had an 11 a.m. appointment at CVS in Lawton, Oklahoma to get a COVID booster shot. I was glad to be able to get it, but not looking forward to any side effects (I’ve heard most people had none but a sore arm, but one person got quite sick). All went well, and we drove to the laundromat. It was packed. There were no available washers and dryers. We turned around and headed back to the RV with our dirty clothes, sheets, and towels.
An advantage to not being able to do laundry was that after lunch at the RV, we headed out to explore. We’d been to Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge once before. We were really hoping to see the free-ranging Buffalo up close & personal like we did then. Previously, they’d been hanging out at the Visitor’s Center. When we drove up, we thought they were fantastically realistic statues…….until one showed us the whites of his eyes. We backed off quickly and took our pictures from further away. This time there was no buffalo, no people either; the Visitor’s Center was closed, which is something we’ve found at almost all the Wildlife Refuges we’ve visited. Thank you, COVID.
We continued driving and stopped at the Quonah Parker Environmental Education Center. This was closed, too, but we did follow a nice trail and take a walk that was lined with many kinds of native trees. We’d noticed when we arrived here that in addition to the rocky hills rising out of the flat prairie land, the trees and bushes changed, also. Because it is December, and because from what we’ve heard, they haven’t had any rain in Oklahoma in YEARS, we assumed that all the trees were dried up and brown because of these conditions. The trees are shorter, the leaves are VERY dry; it’s quite different than what we’re used to. However, the birds are still flitting about happily, and it’s pretty in its own way. Now that we’re approaching the desert, we’ll be seeing lots of changes!
We drove to the Quonah Parker Lake and Dam – pretty and scenic – and the Jed Johnson Lake and Tower – also, interesting. We drove by a colony of Prairie Dogs, ever alert and watching, and sometimes ducking into their holes. So adorable!
We continued on our drive to Mount Scott. Previous to this tourist site, we hadn’t seen very many cars & people. The road to the top of Mount Scott is narrow and very scenic at the pull-outs. At the top of Mount Scott one parking lot was nearly full, the other lot not as much, and people were everywhere – climbing on rocks, taking pictures, because it really was quite a view. After we departed the Mountain we continued driving until we saw a scenic pull-off. We drove up there and noticed a car with people staring across the road. We looked and saw a group of Buffalo in the distance grazing on top of some hills. Naturally, we stopped.
I was starting to feel really tired and sleepy, a little like I was catching a cold, so we turned around and headed back the way we’d come. We saw several areas that had Texas Long-Horned Cows grazing, and we stopped at each of them and had some really great photo opportunities.
Back at the RV, we were glad we got to see so much. We boiled up a large batch of water. Went to bed early; I was feeling really tired. Tomorrow we will move back to site #70. The weekend will be over and we will have our original campsite back again.