Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Traveling Again:
We hit Benson, Arizona, then Deming, NM, then Lakeland, NM (okay, you "Escapees" members will recognize 3 sites of Skip parks). Then on to Haskell, Tx, then Archer City, Tx, and then a lovely state park, Wister Lake State Park, in Oklahoma, and now, again, another SKP (or Skip) park: Branson. We're doing the SKP parks proud. Why not? They're uniformly friendly, cheaper than the going private, commercial park, and offer full hookups. The state park in Ok was the most expensive: $18. Also the prettiest, with commanding views of a gorgeous, almost pristine Corps of Engineer's 1948 - built 7000 acre lake. Lovely.
Through Arizona, New Mexico, and most of Texas and Oklahoma we saw stands of wildflowers in virtually every color. Yellow and rose-colored primrose, and whole fields of Indian Paintbrush. Once we got into Arkansas and Missouri, interestingly, the wild flowers virtually stopped. I don't have the feeling that it's because we're "early" in the season, rather, that wildflowers along the roadsides just don't happen here much. This is like New England, where spring time wildflowers just don't happen. Perhaps it's something about "where there's woods, there aren't flowers." I'm not sure.
Everytime I get to thinking that I 'know' one place or another isn't that scenic, I'm thrown a clinker to keep me humble. Texas and Oklahoma were quite LOVELY, quite apart from the flowers. Rolling and green, gentle and green, hilly or near-mountainous and green; vast fields, gently undulated wheat fields going for miles in every direction. Part of Oklahoma and more than a little of Arkansas reminded us mightily of Vermont. The "mountains" were about the same: a verdant flat-bottomed valley between two long spines of "hills" or low mountains on either side.
I keep telling myself: finding great things to look at is no problem except that between your ears!
We hit Benson, Arizona, then Deming, NM, then Lakeland, NM (okay, you "Escapees" members will recognize 3 sites of Skip parks). Then on to Haskell, Tx, then Archer City, Tx, and then a lovely state park, Wister Lake State Park, in Oklahoma, and now, again, another SKP (or Skip) park: Branson. We're doing the SKP parks proud. Why not? They're uniformly friendly, cheaper than the going private, commercial park, and offer full hookups. The state park in Ok was the most expensive: $18. Also the prettiest, with commanding views of a gorgeous, almost pristine Corps of Engineer's 1948 - built 7000 acre lake. Lovely.
Through Arizona, New Mexico, and most of Texas and Oklahoma we saw stands of wildflowers in virtually every color. Yellow and rose-colored primrose, and whole fields of Indian Paintbrush. Once we got into Arkansas and Missouri, interestingly, the wild flowers virtually stopped. I don't have the feeling that it's because we're "early" in the season, rather, that wildflowers along the roadsides just don't happen here much. This is like New England, where spring time wildflowers just don't happen. Perhaps it's something about "where there's woods, there aren't flowers." I'm not sure.
Everytime I get to thinking that I 'know' one place or another isn't that scenic, I'm thrown a clinker to keep me humble. Texas and Oklahoma were quite LOVELY, quite apart from the flowers. Rolling and green, gentle and green, hilly or near-mountainous and green; vast fields, gently undulated wheat fields going for miles in every direction. Part of Oklahoma and more than a little of Arkansas reminded us mightily of Vermont. The "mountains" were about the same: a verdant flat-bottomed valley between two long spines of "hills" or low mountains on either side.
I keep telling myself: finding great things to look at is no problem except that between your ears!
