August 26-30, 2011 - We woke up ready to make the drive through a good portion of Texas to Wichita Falls, where Bruce lived for a while and had some friends. After ensuring that the camper and trailer were fit for the haul, we left the small campground and headed out. Our next stop was close to the Texas-Oklahoma border and we had a long way to drive.
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| I have to laugh at all the pictures of road that I took. |
However, before we left the campground, Batman and Humberto had a wonderful photo opportunity with some of the local art. Good picture or bad picture, I'll let you decide.
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| The best of buddies meet some new friends. |
The drive through Texas was long...very long. It took most of the day with only a few interesting things to see. Bruce and I took turns switching out driving often. We stopped at gas stations for food or things to drink; but those stops never lasted very long.
We continued driving.
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| I think these are trees. |
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| Only a precursor to what is to come further into the Southwest, I'm sure. |
The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
When we finally got to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, I was on my own (Bruce was napping). Talk about a harrowing experience. So many roads and exits and they are everywhere. Good thing I had Sylvia with me or I would have been hopelessly lost. Even Sylvia, however, isn't always perfect. I missed one of the exits that I needed and ended up waking Bruce. Together we found the way to get back to the highway I needed and he promptly fell asleep again.
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| Bruce's hat says it all; Adventure! |
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| Then it got a little bit calmer; if four lanes of traffic can be considered calm. |
Luckily I think we skirted around the outside edge, but I can't be sure.
Fixed A Flat and Wichita Falls
The temperature was 111 degrees. Yep, you read that right. I was driving along when all of a sudden I felt the truck pull. I looked in the mirror and sure enough, the trailer had a flat tire. We pulled off to the side of the busy highway and proceeded to change the tire.
Did I mention it was 111 degrees?
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| Where our tire blew out, see the heat waves? |
The pavement was so hot you couldn't get down on it to change the tire without a wooden board; which we happened to have. The tire was put on quickly; probably because we were sweating to death. Getting back into the truck and on the road, we headed the five more miles into Wichita Falls.
Wichita Falls
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| The States always seem to have giant water towers proclaiming who they belong too. |
Upon reaching Wichita Falls, we met up with some of Bruce's good friends, Brent and Monica. We stayed at their house visiting for quite a while before heading to a campground in Burkburnett, a town right outside of Wichita Falls. It would be here that we set up our base camp for the next couple of days.
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| The area around Burkburnett. |
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| Burkburnett is a boom town that stopped booming. |
The area around Wichita Falls and Burkburnett is typical Southern Texas. The tallest things you will find around here are the oil wells which operate day and night. Other than that, the land is perfect to hide rattlesnakes and large spiders in, not that I saw any during my stay.
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| The oil well right outside of our campground. |
It was only later that I found out that this part of Texas was the southernmost part of the Great Plains. Come to think of it, now that I know better, the landscape isn't that bad. It has its own charms and beauty.
We spent several days in Wichita Falls. A lot of it was spent visiting Bruce's old haunts; like the house he lived in, the park he used to hang out in, and some of the places he went with his wife. Other times we would visit with his friends or just drive around town.
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| A park in Wichita Falls. Enough said. |
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| The truck didn't fit in the Sonic very well. |
We also watched movies every night we were there.
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| Out of all the movies we watched, Bruce and I enjoyed this one the most. |
Towards the last day in Wichita Falls, Bruce and I enjoyed the swimming pool at the campground. We were in there for hours just enjoying each others company and the cool water. There was a children's water slide there that we both took turns going down, even though the pool said no diving; it wasn't technically diving. We both had a lot of fun.
Oklahoma Casinos...Just Don't
On our last day in Wichita Falls I convinced Bruce to go to the casino across the border. Needless to say, we didn't win big like we did in Vicksburg. Additionally, the beers they served were what I call "half beers", only half the alcohol content as normal stuff due to some law in Oklahoma.
I won't go into more detail here, but Bruce and I did not enjoy this casino at all for a variety of reasons.
In the morning we would head back to Oklahoma; to Arnett, not that casino. We had a long day ahead of us and we were both in a foul mood from our night at the casino. We decided to go to bed early so we could head out early in the morning.
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