Days 12 and 13 - Amarillo and Tulsa

We are starting to make our way home and to break up the extensive driving we are going to make a couple extra stops along the way. The first two were Amarillo, Texas and Tulsa, Oklahoma. At one point Allyson and I considered changing things up and reducing the days, mainly because it was going to be blazing hot in both locations. However, that would have meant doing 10-12 hours of driving for two days and the kids just weren't going to be down for that.

When we left our campground in New Mexico we knew we were going to have to drive down from the mountains. We were going down about a mile in altitude from Angel Fire, NM to Amarillo, TX, and we were going to drop most of that before we hit I-40. So, we started heading out on a country road. As we kept going we saw a sign that said the road would be unpaved for 10 miles. Then a bit later we saw a sign that said no large vehicles. I was beginning to get concerned because we were kind of at a point of no return and the road we were on did not seem like it would be appropriate for an RV. There was no way for me to turn around since the road fell off on either side and there were no side roads or driveways, so we carried on. My concerns would very soon be validated because the road we were on turned into a steep, windy, sometimes dirt road through the mountains. It was insane!

This was the only time I have ever been nervous driving the motorhome. The road would have been problematic to drive on in any vehicle, let alone an RV. All 10 miles of the either unpaved or poorly paved road were littered with potholes. There were constant blind turns where I couldn't see if another vehicle was coming around the corner. We ended up passing two pickup trucks who both seemed to come out of nowhere. Thankfully they were able to go off the road a little bit and get around me. I can only hope the drivers heard my cries of "I didn't want this. Google did this to me!!" Finally, we made it on to a proper road and were able to carry on.

Once we were lower in the mountains we got on some flat land where we had some beautiful views. I had to stop and take a glamour shot of the star of the show: good ol' Sweet Sassy Molassy.

We eventually made it to I-40 and had a fairly normal drive the rest of the way to Amarillo. Before going to our campground we stopped at Cadillac Ranch, which was actually very close to our campground, the Oasis RV Resort. Cadillac Ranch was pretty cool. I knew it was cars mounted in the ground, but I didn't realize you can spray paint them. It was 100 degrees when we got there, so Allyson stayed back with Nolan while me and the girls walked over to it. Fortunately someone loaned us some spray paint so we could tag a car with Mears (see photo above).

I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the incredible stench of manure that was in the air at Cadillac Ranch and the general area. Throughout our entire trip we drove past huge ranches where animals had tons of room to graze and roam. Then we drove through Texas and saw some of the dark side of the cattle industry. There were acres of fields jammed packed with cows and the smell of manure was powerful. It was a bit sad. Some of those were very close to Cadillac Ranch, which led to the stench.

After Cadillac Ranch we got settled at our campground. At first we weren't sure how things would go because the campground had virtually no shade. It was now over 100 degrees outside and even with both air conditioners running our motorhome wasn't exactly cooling down a lot, so the heat was a major concern. All along I assumed we all had the same plan which was get set up and then get to the pool ASAP. When I mentioned it was time for the pool Allyson shocked me by saying "oh no, it's too hot for the pool". Too hot for the pool?!? I was dumbfounded. I'm not a pool person, and even I wanted to go. Not only was it what we all needed, but there really wasn't much more to do. Fortunately she came around and we headed over. We spent a couple hours there and it was awesome. The pool area was a great setup and we had a ton of fun.

Towards the end of our time in the pool Caroline and Natalie went inside the clubhouse to check it out and learned that there was a game room filled with some good stuff which was all free. We hung out there and then came back after dinner. The game room was awesome and between that and the pool it really won us over on the campground.

After the game room we got the kids to bed and Allyson and I were able to hang out together outside for a bit. It's amazing how comfortable it can be when it's 80 degrees and low humidity. We were almost chilly sitting out with the breeze.

Wednesday morning we were off for Oklahoma to continue making our way back home. The campground we were heading to was a Jellystone Park outside of Tulsa. We stopped in Oklahoma City where we wanted to check out downtown and the capitol building. However, those two things are not really near each other. So we went by the capitol building, ate lunch and then carried on. Go figure that the drive through Oklahoma, where the roads were smooth, straight, and flat, would be very challenging due to all the wind. It doesn't take much wind to push the motorhome around, and the Ford F53 chassis can have some spongey steering at times, so it wasn't an easy driving day again.

When we pulled into our campground we were all very surprised by the front entrance. Just about all Jellystone Parks have a similar setup where there is a main "Ranger Station" and an overall Yogi Bear theme (obviously). But when we pulled in there was just a single wide trailer at the gate. Then we drove to our campsite which was over half a mile from the pool (I measured this at one point). Things were not off to a good start. It was again over 100 degrees on Wednesday, so walking to and from the pool with all the kids and our bags was not feasible. I called the office and asked about renting a golf cart. They were really nice about it and rented it to us at a major discount because we would only need it for a few hours. We drove over to the pool and it turned out to be awesome for the kids.

The pool had two waterslides and from a distance I could see the height requirement was 42". I thought "wow, Julia can ride these!" I walked over to the sign with Julia to take a closer look and saw this puzzle:

I walked up to the life guard and asked what the height limit was and she looked surprised. I pointed out that the sign said 42" but the line was at 48", so what was the limit? She responded with "It really doesn't matter how tall they are, as long as they can follow rules". That's the double-edge sword of pools and waterparks off the beaten path. You can bend the rules. On one hand Julia got to ride the slides, but on the other I saw kids going down one immediately after the other and sitting on laps. Later when I went back up to go down the slides with Julia this same life guard was eating an ice cream treat.🤷‍♂️

This Jellystone Park was different, but we had a good time at it. I don't know if it would have been as much fun on a crowded weekend. There weren't many people there so the pool was not crowded at all. Under the same circumstances I think we would go back if we were in the area.

After the pool we ate, hung out a bit and then got ready for bed since the girls were all wiped out from swimming in such heat. On Thursday we had a 5-6 hour drive to St. Louis and we were planning on leaving early for that.

Miscellaneous thoughts and notes:

• The bugs in New Mexico and Texas are ridiculous. Not so much the quantity, but the size. One time I thought I actually hit a small bird, but realized it was a bug when it smashed into the windshield. The grill on the front of the motorhome turns into a bug collector on these trips, and it was looking pretty gross when we got to Amarillo. 🤮

• I took for granted how much of a treat it was to be driving West in the mornings on the beginning of the trip. On the way home we are driving straight into the sun. Not fun.

• We encountered some more odd road signs:

  • In New Mexico they have signs that say "Bad Road, Next XX Miles". This is basically a nice way of saying "Don't complain because we don't want to hear it". So you know the roads stink and aren't doing anything about it, but you took time to put up a sign?

  • In Oklahoma they have signs on the highway that say "Hitchhikers May Be Escaped Inmates". That's not a joke, those are real signs and very important ones at that. I don't think I ever would have picked up a hitchhiker prior to seeing that sign, but I definitely won't now.

That's all for now. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.