Great Salt Plains

I’m not sure what I want to say about western Oklahoma. It’s a place I’ve wanted to visit ever since my parents stopped forcing me to visit as a child for family reunions.

We camped at the Great Salt Plains State Park outside of Jet, Oklahoma. We dug for selenite crystals on the Salt Plains — with our bare hands, we forgot to pack a shovel — and successfully unearthed five crystals. We toured Cherokee, Driftwood, and Byron, Oklahoma, then across the border to Kiowa, Kansas. These towns are my dad’s original stomping grounds. We didn’t meet any relatives, not even the jake-leg variety we met up with in Porter -- you know who you are.

We pulled into the campgrounds on Saturday.  After backing in and setting up, we took the dogs out to walk.  That's when we realized we were parked in a patch of cockaburs. Cockaburs and furry dog paws don’t mix well.  The cockaburs were everywhere.  In western Oklahoma, the burrs seem to thrive.  But, honestly, I’m not even sure you can find grass in the wilds of Oklahoma that doesn’t have cockaburs this time of the year. Cockaburs and complete lack of cell signal make for unhappy camping.

Today is Monday and we’re on the road to Black Mesa State Park. This is even further west into the Oklahoma Panhandle.  We're not far from Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado.  Consort says this is one of the blackest skies in the country and there will be stargazing. It's also considered a birder's paradise.  The jury is still out on the cockaburs...

On the stereo:
Baby Likes to Rock It Like a Boogie-Woogie Choo-Choo Train by The Tractors