Hello, Oklahoma!

Oklahoma – Friday, November 9

I drove into Oklahoma from the north on Route 66, after driving a few miles through a small corner of Kansas. My intent was to get here a little earlier in the day, but historic Route 66 is not the most efficient way to travel – lots of stop and go traffic, and lots of turns. But, it’s got more character than the highways! I thought I would take my first Oklahoma walk in Quapaw since it was the first town I came to, but it was a pretty small town, and didn’t really have any sidewalks or anything, so I had to move on. Oklahoma is a state with one of the highest Native American populations, but for a sad reason – in the 1830s many Native Americans were forcibly relocated from the southeast U.S. along the “Trail of Tears” to the new Indian territory, which eventually became Oklahoma. It’s really difficult for me to think about how the Native Americans were treated.

The next town I came to was Miami, and there was enough daylight to get out and walk a little over a mile and a half. Despite the fact it was a late Friday afternoon, there weren’t lots of people out and about.

In my few short hours in Oklahoma before dark, I didn’t come across anything for a donation today (although I got my idea for tomorrow!), so will catch up with that next Friday before moving on to State #11.

It was so warm and pleasant out that I wanted to camp again, especially when I knew a big storm was heading this way over the weekend, and temperatures were going to be dropping. Oklahoma has a lot of state parks, and I headed to Honey Creek State Park because the iPad told me there was year-round camping (although later, when I couldn’t find some trails it mentioned, I realized the iPad was telling me about Honey Creek State Park in Iowa!) But, camping was available at this park in Oklahoma, and I was happy to try out the new air mattress (my early Christmas present from the grandkids! When I was “camping” with Raelin in Ohio, it was very obvious the old one had a leak!) This state park was on a large reservoir, and had a 24-hour boat launch, and I think it’s popular with people who fish. There was a little traffic at odd times of night – I don’t personally know why anyone would need to launch a boat in the middle of the night! But I was happy to spend my first night in Oklahoma in a state park.