Saturday-Sunday (Days 6 & 7)

By the time the sign registered in my brain, I was past the turn-off and so had to make a decision to turn around and go back. I’m glad I did. The campsite is pretty and right beside the water, which makes the low bug nuisance factor a surprise :). I decided to spend an extra day, a “reading day”. I did get one of my dissertation books completed, and the notes on it completed - call that one a done deal.

Sunday started with watching a sunrise and fish jumping for bugs, while enjoying a cup of tea and topped off with an early morning bike ride. It couldn’t decide if it were going to be sunny, sputtering, or a full out pour-down. So, I struggled with figuring out how to put up the tarp in case of rain. I didn’t want to be stuck in the teeny-tiny tent for the duration. You’d have laughed with me as I did an amateurish job of it, but it stayed up and worked. As a scientist would say – not an elegant solution, but a workable one. As it turned out it occasionally sputtered with lots of cloud and high winds. I was actually cool enough to put on a long sleeved shirt while at my site, which I quickly had to discard if I left the river area. Away from the water it was humid and hot! An unbelievable difference in 50 feet.

The camp is pretty and today (Sunday) I have the whole primitive area to myself – there’s not another camper in the whole site. Yesterday, America’s birthday, from my waterside site I was able to watch 4 or 5 different fireworks displays. Way kewl.

I’ve always found that the workers/rangers at the camps I stay seem to make an extra effort to check on me (I assume because it’s unusual to have a single woman camping) and this place is no different. They come around a lot, and even late at night (late being a relative term, here meaning 9:30-10:00pm-ish) and ask if I’m okay or need anything.

The bugs really like my laptop *lol* .. there’s a bunch of them on the screen as I’m writing.
So Kansas was great. There’s no missing The Route – they even have “Rte66” sprayed painted on the road itself! (See the picture) Even I couldn’t lose track of the Mother Road in Kansas!! It was a great, great stretch of road. Still, I had to double back because I’d almost forgotten to pick up my souvenir magnet.

Rolling into Oklahoma, was good too, with good signage. I rode over part of the original road. I took a picture of it, but it’s boring until you realize that it’s the original. Plus it was a trip to drive *lol* … I was glad of my many years experience with driving back roads while going over this one. Kept the speed down to about 20mph due to the very poor condition of it and it wasn’t wet, which was a good thing. I wouldn’t do that stretch in wet conditions.

So, the sun has set, the bugs are singing, and some generator is humming across the lake. The sky is beautiful, the moon is full (as is my tummy), the breeze is cool and refreshing, someone is firing off leftover fireworks and I’m wrapping up my day with this note.Oh, I’m about 50 miles this side of Tulsa.