Thursday July 16th 2020

It rained again overnight so I had all the windows closed. That required the AC to run all night. The AC cycling on and off all night resulted in uneven sleep. I was up by seven to get ready for a travel day.

The day started cloudy and remained that way until late afternoon. The clouds prevented the temperature from building, but the very high humidity made the low nineties feel worse than Mondays 110. It was still cool enough this morning that the temperature didn’t impact packing. Setting up camp this afternoon was not fun. My shirt was soaked and sweat was dripping off every exposed piece of skin.

I took my time getting ready to depart this morning. The RVs parked on both sides that were also taking their time. I hoped to have extra space to hook the car to the back of the RV, but as the 11AM checkout time approached the neighboring sites were still occupied. I made do with the space in my site alone despite the down hill slope. As I departed a minute or two after the official checkout time, my neighbors were right behind me.

Today’s journey was short. I moved about sixty miles east to within easy driving distance of Oklahoma City. I actually drove one exit past my destination to a rest area on Interstate 40 to have lunch and kill some time. As it is I arrived before 2PM at my destination. There were plenty of empty sites. No one else arrived until after 4PM. This campground is a little odd. There is one section back in the woods with shaded sites. The section I’m in for bigger RVs is a parking lot with a few grass strips and utility hookups. I’ll be here for the weekend.

Wednesday July 15th 2020

Once again a line of thunderstorms passed during the night. This time it was primarily a wind event. The end result was a cloudy start to a much more humid day. The temperature peaked in the low nineties, but with the humidity it felt much warmer.

This stop was not part of my original travel plan along the Interstate 40 corridor. When New Mexico made it clear that out of state visitors were not welcome, I cut out two additional stops in New Mexico and added a few days to my stay in Amarillo Texas. I still had a few more days to use before I could get back on my scheduled set of reservations. This stop, near Elk City in western Oklahoma for two nights gets me back on schedule.

Today I set out to explore the area. The terrain is gently rolling hills of primarily open land. Occasionally in the valleys between the hills there are ponds and at other random locations there are pockets of trees. The land is used for pasture and farming.

Interstate 40 in this area still follows the historic route 66. Elk City is a good size community along the route. It has a number of museums associated with the historic route. Given the current pandemic, I didn’t even check to see if they were open. I’m only looking for outside things to do. On another trip through this area I might consider visiting the museums, but I haven’t found any outside natural attractions of interest.

I’m moving on tomorrow about fifty miles to the western side of Oklahoma City for the weekend. I don’t expect to find many outside things to do in that area either, but a driving tour of Oklahoma City seems like a possibility. Sunday when traffic is light, I’ll drive the RV through Oklahoma City and on toward the eastern part of the state.

Tuesday July 14th 2020

I slept very well last night and woke later than usual. It’s also unusual for me to sleep well the night before a travel day. Unfortunately the result was I woke later than normal. I got a slow start to the final preparations for travel. I pulled out of the campground right around the 11AM checkout time.

It wasn’t a difficult journey. All of the travel was on Interstate 40. The only complication was stopping for gas. The first place I tried to buy gas was very busy and there wasn’t any place for me to wait without blocking traffic. I drove around the pumps and continued on my way. The second place I stopped for gas was almost empty and turned out to be fifteen cents a gallon cheaper.

The weather was very hot. I stopped at the Oklahoma welcome center, but my dashboard said it was 106 degrees outside. The bathroom in my RV was far more convenient than walking out in the hot sun to the public restroom. The information facility didn’t appear to be open in these pandemic times.

I arrived at my home for the next two nights, the Elk City / Clinton KOA, around 2PM. This campground was using a modified check in procedure. All of the check in material was prepared and available at the night check in station. No human interaction was necessary. I found my material then found my site. It was closing on the day’s high temperature of 108 degrees while I was setting up. The AC barely made a dent in the heat until the sunset. The heat dome is moving slowly to the east. My 160 mile move to the east just served to keep me in the center of the dome. The 108 was a high for this date in this area.

This is my first ever visit to the state of Oklahoma. It will likely be the only new state on this years version of the Rambling Road Trip. I’m not sure how much of the state I’ll see on this visit. I’ll be in the state for a total of 9 nights with two nights here, three nights near Oklahoma City and another four on the eastern side of the state.

Monday July 13th 2020

Today was another record or near record heat day. The temperature topped out at 110 degrees. I heard that it was a new record on one TV station and that it wasn’t on another. A little more research indicates it was an all time high for the month of July, but once upon a time there was 111 degree day in June. The weather forecast and reporting leaves a lot to be desired in this television market. The bottom line is it was hot.

Being outside in the sun for more than a few minutes wasn’t advisable. I took a drive on the loop road around the south side of Amarillo this afternoon. The southeast section was a lot of open farm and grazing land. I finally found some of the new housing developments to the southwest of town. I’d been wondering where all of the expanding population was living. The area deserves another visit when we aren’t in the middle of a pandemic and a heat wave.

This is my last full day here. Tomorrow I continue my travels to the east. I’ll be in Oklahoma tomorrow night. I have less than 180 miles to travel, so I don’t have to get an early start. I’ve completed many of the inside packing tasks, but the heat kept me from working on many of the outside tasks, It should be a few degrees cooler in the morning. A line of thunderstorms went through the area this evening. The storms here were mostly wind. The hale, rain and wind were further north.

Sunday July 12th 2020

Last nights thunderstorms continued to drop rain on my RV until well after midnight. This morning there were many big puddles around the campground and the overall weather was subtly different. It was much more humid and the high temperature for the day was ten degrees or so cooler than yesterday. It did not reach 100 today. Tonight’s line of storms are crossing the Texas pan handle north of here.

This morning I made the trip to the grocery store that I put off yesterday. Every trip to Walmart since the pandemic arrived has been different. Today, very few people in the parking lot had masks on. I masked up and followed to groups without masks into the store. The first group was asked to wear masks by the Walmart greeter. They all pulled masks out of their pockets and put them on. Clearly they weren’t going to wear them if not explicitly directed. There is currently a mask required order in this area. The family immediately in front of me was also told they needed to wear masks. They turned around without comment and departed. Most everybody in the store had a mask.

The shelves weren’t particularly well stocked, but I don’t think it was because of shortages. I think it was more likely a staffing problem. They only had four checkouts open with long socially distanced lines when I went to checkout. I jumped into the fifth checkout when it opened after I’d waited only five minutes or so. Overall, with an additional stop for gas, I was out for a little over two hours.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing around my RV home watching TV and watching the evening arrivals at the RV park. I also took some time to grill a couple of newly purchased hamburgers for dinner. Everything else I might have had was still in the freezer. One thing this pandemic has changed is the amount of food in my freezer. I try to keep two weeks or more supply of food on hand to cover any two week quarantines I might get caught in.

Saturday July 11th 2020

Today’s 109 degree temperature was nearly twenty degrees above the average July temperature for the Amarillo area. I’m really finding some record high temperatures this year. Tomorrow’s forecast is a little cooler with an increased chance of severe storms at the end of the day. Monday and Tuesday are forecast to be similar to today.

The heat did a number on my ambition. I spent the day at home trying not to melt. My tentative plan to go grocery shopping was put off until Sunday or Monday. Instead I got a few tasks done around my RV home. I finished repairing the wardrobe closet door. The door is back on and operational, but I’m not convinced the problem will not reoccur the next time I travel on a rough road. The door is heavy enough that it could really use three hinges instead of two. That is a major change I’m not prepared to take on until it is absolutely necessary.

I took a break after writing the above two paragraphs. A heavy, not severe, thunderstorm developed right over the area. I’ve been watching the storm on my phone weather radar app and the impressive light show out my front window. The storm is moving slowly away from the area to the southeast. On the positive side the rain may wash some of the dust off my RV home and car. It’s the first real water either has seen since January or February.

Friday July 10th 2020

The temperature peaked three degrees cooler than Thursday, but when your talking about 104 vs. 107 it really doesn’t mean much. The humidity is in the mid thirty percent range and climbing. This morning there was some wind to keep things a little cooler. The first four hours of the afternoon were pretty much dead still. It was very uncomfortable. Almost on the stroke of 4PM a very strong wind out of the southwest arrived to stir up the heat. It has been blowing strong ever since.

One of the down sides of travel in this virus avoiding time, is there aren’t any inside tourist attractions to visit when it doesn’t make sense to visit outside attractions. Either the inside ones are closed or they represent a higher risk experience than I want to visit. That is the situation I found myself in today. My original plan was to visit the Palo Duro Canyon State Park, but the forecast temperature in the canyon was ten degrees higher than Amarillo. I don’t need heat stroke.

I spent the day working on travel planning and reservations. It is a real challenge in these uncertain times. Each state and in some cases each county is making decisions based on their own ideas of the best interest of their citizens. All of a sudden some arbitrary public health threshold is reached and they establish a new set of restrictions. When it comes to travel it is most often a quarantine of some sort. Every quarantine is different. You need to study the “guidance” or order carefully. In some states the executive order has the force of law and in others it seems to be much weaker. Either way, once they establish the rule, they don’t want me so I don’t want them.

Right now there are no travel restrictions on my intended path for the next few weeks, but it could change at a moments notice. While I was in New Mexico last week the governor decided travelers weren’t welcome. It could happen again. Once I leave here next Tuesday I plan to spend ten days in Oklahoma followed by a couple weeks or more in Arkansas. The reservation in Arkansas is too far out to be comfortable. I’d give the odds at fifty fifty on being able to keep the whole reservation.

Most of the RVs that stop at this park only stay a night or two. They come from all over the country. Many may be very new to RV travel. In addition to rental units there are many with temporary tags. I am seeing a lot of new things. This morning my neighbor got out a set of weights and proceeded to spend an hour with them. This was a full dumbbell set. He would do a couple of lifts at one weight then take a break before changing the weight and repeating the cycle. The guy didn’t look particularly buff. I wonder if his trailer was overloaded with all the weight.

Thursday July 9th 2020

It was a bright sunny day allowing the temperature to reach 107 degrees this afternoon. This is the third “heat wave” I’ve been in this year. This is pay back for last year. I experienced very few ninety plus degree days in the Pacific Northwest last summer. This heat is expected to continue well into next week. Most of the day I have some shade, but late in the afternoon the sun is bearing on the passenger side of my RV without obstruction. From five to seven in the evening the AC can’t keep up. It gets very warm in the RV. Last night the AC didn’t start cycling until after eleven.

I worked on chores and maintenance tasks around the RV today. The big repair task is the wardrobe closet door that broke off its hinge on the way here. First I dug out a couple of new screws to fasten the hinges. They were located in a plastic organizer inside a plastic storage tub in the basement of the RV. Somehow I remembered I had the screws, but to find the two little screws I had to empty one whole basement storage bin. It took close to an hour to empty, locate and reload things.

I haven’t finished the repair yet. I filled the stripped screw holes with glue and pieces of wooden match sticks, but ran into a problem reinstalling things. The door is heavy. I can’t hold it and fasten the hinges at the same time. I may be able to disassemble things a little to make it more manageable or I’ll have to make some kind of support aid. A jig or a carefully constructed pile of stuff to hold the door may be in my future. I’m taking a day to ruminate on possible solutions.

This afternoon I took a drive of exploration to the east. It was partly out of curiosity and partly to enjoy the concentrated AC in the front seat of the car. Amarillo ends just as abruptly as in the west. One minute you’re passing buildings and businesses and the next you’re surrounded by pastures and farm land. The common element was a lot of flat land.

Wednesday July 8th 2020

The triple digit temperatures have arrived limiting outdoor activities. Never the less, I did a few things today in the one hundred degree heat. It was a lot of touring in the car with a couple of excursions in the heat.

Amarillo is a large growing city and metropolitan area in the middle of the Texas panhandle. When I arrived on Monday the city crept up on me. There is an abrupt transition from open plains to industry and retail approaching from the west on Interstate 40. Today I found a similar abrupt transition to the north. I suspect I’ll find similar transitions to the south and east.

Historic route 66 passes through Amarillo. Many of the older touristy things date back to the hay day of the cross country road. I’d long heard about a road side attraction called Cadillac Ranch along route 66. It turns out to be here on the west side of Amarillo. I passed it without knowing on my way into town on Monday. I backtracked to visit it today.

The Cadillac Ranch is ten Cadillac automobiles planted nose down in a field pointing west. The unique artistry was first created in 1974 in a wheat field along the side of old route 66. Over the years the art evolved by condoned vandalism and graffiti. Today it is hard to tell the cars were once caddies, but they remain unique forms of art. In 1997 the ten cars were moved 2 miles west to their current location in a cow pasture along the south side frontage road for Interstate 40. As the city expands it is getting close to encroaching on the Cadillac Ranch again.

There were many people making the few hundred yard walk from the frontage road out to the half buried cars. Many people came prepared with spray paint to add their creative touch to the exhibit. The smell of paint was very strong around the cars. You had to be careful not to get caught in someones over spray. It was a fun visit, but I don’t have to do it again. Once you’ve seen it you can’t forget it.

Tuesday July 7th 2020

After yesterdays six and a half hour travel day, I was exhausted last night. I really needed a good nights sleep and a day of recovery. I took today as a day of recovery, but I didn’t really get the good nights sleep last night.

The change in time zone and late arriving neighbors conspired against sleeping last night. It was only a day more than a week ago that I was in Arizona following Mountain Standard Time. I was just starting to get accustom to the Mountain Daylight time in New Mexico when I moved on to this location in Central Daylight time. It is still light here after 9:30. In Arizona it was dark by quarter to eight. The bottom line is my body thinks bed time is after midnight.

Shortly after I got to sleep last night an RV arrived to occupy the site behind me. They were not quiet setting up sometime after 1AM. Why they arrived so late, I don’t know, but they left at 8PM tonight. Just a little odd. I got back to sleep quickly, but didn’t get to sleep late. The neighbor on my passenger side decided to depart around 7AM this morning. They weren’t very quiet either. I ended up beginning my day early.

While I’m in the middle of complaining, I might as well complain about the weather. After months in the dry desert, I’m now in a more humid area. It still isn’t humid by southeast standards, but it is enough to make today’s 90 degree temperature feel hot. The forecast is for triple digit weather starting later this week into the beginning of next week. My AC is probably going to get a workout.

My energy level was low all day. I finished setting up for my eight night stay and walked around the RV park a couple of times. Like many of the parks located at exits along Interstate 40 it turns over dramatically every day. The whole section of the park with pull through sites was full last night and empty by checkout this morning. I’m located in an area of the park that seems to be used for longer stays.