No Man’s Land

Oklahoma – Friday, November 16

I only had about 5 1/2 miles to walk to finish off my 56 miles in Oklahoma. So we started right in the town of Weatherford. One end of town is dominated by a huuuuge row of grain elevators – this seems to be one of the hubs for cattle and grain shipping, and train whistles were nearly constant. I’ve always liked grain elevators(!), and certainly like the trains, and they’re all connected with some of the very basic beginnings of the food we eat. Somewhere along the way, it’d be nice to learn a little more about this end of the production…

We only walked about a mile in town, and after asking directions from 3 different people, I found the long walking trail that I had read was here. It was a little ways out of town, but it was a long, wonderful walking path – dedicated to a longtime former mayor – and Tula and I walked 4 1/2 miles on it. So Oklahoma is a wrap – 7 donations given (Caring Kitchen, VFW Post 577, A New Leash on Life, Chisholm Heights Baptist Church food pantry, Mission Shawnee, Good Shepherd Church food pantry and Weatherford Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry); and 56 miles walked (in towns of Miami, Tahlequah, Broken Arrow, Jenks, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Mustang, Shawnee, El Reno, Weatherford, Woodward, and state parks and river trails and canal trails).

All that was left was a drive through part of the panhandle, and that part of Oklahoma was the stuff of my imagination. Finally – windmills!! And lots of them. Red dirt, barbed wire fences, windmills, tumbleweeds, sagebrush, wind and wide open space. It’s called No Man’s Land because there’s not a lot there – legend has it that it’s a strip of land that no one wanted, so it got tacked on to Oklahoma. It’s pretty and a little desolate and I’m glad I drove through it!