Day 7: Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City, OK

After last night's blog, G made an aggressive decision to improve the chances of overcoming the bad hands situation-ice. The ice bucket was commandeered and filled with ice and water. For the rest of the evening G's  hands were immersed. We believe there was a stray dog hiding in the room under G's bed and whimpering much of the night but we couldn't find him in the morning. The ice routine seemed to help enough so that G might shave at least a little around the edges. T's razor, on the other hand, has seen less activity than many of the ghost towns we passed. 

Seemingly successful means the ice routine gets duplicated the rest of the trip.  It also leads us to the strong belief that we haven't seen the last of that stray and that T will likely have a new chorus to sing, "who let the dogs out"....

If you've seen the Danny Devito and Billy Crystal movie "Throw Momma From the Train" then you know the novel starts out "The night was humid/sultry."   Well, the day was balmy.  By 9 a.m. it was 77degrees, humid and degrading quickly. Short sleeves and sunscreen took us through fuel and 100 miles of low, flat agricultural land that was often occupied by grazing livestock. We enjoyed amazingly fragrant aromas particularly later in the day as the temperatures reached 100°.  Our first stop, a quick (aching) butt break, was in the town of Shamrock (population 1910) just for the "luck" of it.

Soon we departed the Interstate for the back roads. We happened across the town of Cordell, Oklahoma in Washita County and had lunch there. The people were friendly and down to earth. We stopped for photos around the county courthouse and visited several of the shops. As you will see from the photos, the town has seen better days but it is very easy to visualize that it must have really been something years ago. And with some restoration it would be a perfect movie set for an old-time movie today.

We then continued our trek toward Oklahoma city. The land was still mostly flat but parched or tilled to clay colored earth. We chose a fast pace because of the high temperatures and the desire to complete the days miles. It's interesting how a loose piece of gravel or even a piece of sand will affect your bare skin when traveling at 70+ miles per hour. And 100° at 70+ miles per hour does indeed feel like a blast furnace. We stopped and hydrated as necessary. As in California, and several other spots, we passed acres and acres of wind turbines.

We found our hotel in Oklahoma City and immediately set to work on a far more pressing task. Laundry. We are at about the halfway point of our trip and we are almost out of clean clothes. And, of course, nothing tops off domestic chores like a good dinner and several glasses of wine. And that is of course before G's whining begins.Woof woof!