Oklahoma

Departing New Mexico and heading to Austin we had three options – head to Colorado Springs and experience Colorado for the first time, drive two days to see Oklahoma City, or brave the vast wilderness of West Texas.  Since we hadn’t heard one good thing about driving through West Texas and we didn’t want to take too long of a detour to Colorado (and thank the Lord for that because wildfires hit the day we would have arrived), Oklahoma City was the winner. 

The drive from New Mexico to OKC would be about 12 hours so we stopped a few hours shy of the city and tried our hand at camping in Tornado Alley.  While we didn’t see any tornados we did realize why people in that part of the country don’t tent camp in the summer: 100+ degree heat and overwhelming humidity is a recipe for utter discomfort. Our first night camping did have a bit of excitement when we spotted an armadillo sniffing around for bugs. We followed him around for a bit trying to get a good picture, only later to find out that they can carry leprosy. Oops, we won’t do that again.  
 

Our Armadillo Friend

Our next stop was OKC and our main destination was the Oklahoma City Memorial.  At the time of the bombing we were both too young to understand the gravity of what had happened but the memorial gave us a small glimpse into the physical and emotional damage that it caused.  It was a somber experience that we won’t soon forget. 

The Survivor Tree at the Oklahoma City Memorial

Our final stop before Austin was Lake Texoma – a huge lake located between OKC and Dallas.  Again, we were the only ones crazy enough to camp in the blistering heat. We passed time by enjoying the sight of fireflies and having an epic Yahtzee tournament.  The next morning we rose early to head to civilization (and AC) in Austin.  

YAHTZEE!

Oklahoma was and wasn’t what we expected. We knew that we would experience heat and humidity, but we did not anticipate the expanse of greenery. OKC would be a neat place to visit again (maybe catch a Thunder game?) but next time we will choose a milder month and/or air conditioning!

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