Month: August 2023

One of the reasons we chose to stop in Waynoka was the recommendation to hike up Gloss Mountain and the other was the promise of riding ATVs on the sand dunes in the park.

We were not the only ones out on this over 100 degree day. No shade up on the mountain so we donned our kayaking hats to keep the sun off our heads. The trail up was built around 2000 as an Eagle Scout project.

The scene from the top of the mountain was other worldly. The Oklahoma Panhandle is actually the highpoint in the state elevation-wise.

The lack of vegetation offered us a almost bald summit on this mesa.

Two very hot and happy campers taking in the 360 views of Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.

The Eagle Scout planned a nice route up the mountain but the metal hand rail was so hot we could not use it to steady ourselves.

Back in the parking lot we notice something we are noticing everywhere in the area…..Wild sunflowers…..we hypothesized.

This monument off the parking lot described the controversy as to what the mountain is called: Gloss or Glass mountain. Early settlers saw the sun gleaming of the mountain because of its makeup including selenite. We see the bottom of the monument as “Gloss Mountain Conservancy” so we figure that debate is over even though locals call it Glass Mountain.

Our next order of business in Waynoka was to ride ATVs on the dunes of the Little Sahara State Park.

We last posted about an ATV adventure was 4 years ago in the Anza-Borrego Desert in Southern California. We had a great 2 hour ride there in a 2 seater. This time around we upped the ante and rented 2 single ATVs.

Here is what our scenery looked like for the 4 hour rental . There are 1600 acres of sand to ride on here. We only came upon a few other souls riding the dunes that day.

We do not own ATVs but find them very exhilarating, especially when offered a large expanse of sand. The thumb throttle caused us a pain akin to having carpal tunnel (we guess). Thankfully after 30 minutes it dissipated so we happily throttled our way up down and around the sand.

Here are a few videos of the action:

After our ATV adventure we decided to take a “Sunday drive” through the area.

We found many an Oklahoma cow cooling off in the many ponds along the road. We asked a farmer if the ponds were manmade or natural. He claimed no farmer would want these ponds as while the cows bathe some of them get stuck and have to be extricated gently but firmly at the same time.

We stopped at one of the many roadside cemeteries to search for any of the original pioneer gravesites. We did not find one but got a picture of this very large bug. Is it a grasshopper, cicada or what. Not sure but oh my were they everywhere. Odd thing about Oklahoma is that all the small, non-family cemeteries are labeled on the main roads with directions to each cemetery down the side roads.

This is not a diamond earring but a dried piece of thistle. Our campsite had so many of these buggers laying around we could not bring our shoes into the camper. They are the most freaking sharp things my body has ever felt. Every part of this dried plant was sharp so if it got on you, ala burdocks, even trying to take it off your shoe or clothes was very painful. Best we can tell, these are remnants of the Russian thistle plant brought over by the Russian settlers pre-dust bowl era.

Sunset at our lonely campsite. There are over 700 spots for RVs but we were the only ones there for our 4 day summer adventure. Maybe the heat was keeping folks away? Although they said whenever there is an event nearby, they are always overbooked.

We both recently finished reading the book “The Worst Hard Times”. Its setting was Dalhart, Texas in the 1930s. The author tells the stories of many families in the Dalhart area and what they had to endure when most of the soil in the area dried up and blew away creating black blizzards or dusters on a regular basis. As Dalhart is basically on our route toward Mesa Verde and Southern California we figured a quick stop to see how the town is faring today, almost 100 years later was in order. When we were on a short tour of the west coast a few months ago we detoured a few hours to visit the town of Paradise, CA. This is where 85 people lost their lives in the infamous Camp Fire a few years back. It was nice to see that Paradise, CA is recouping nicely. Dalhart, like Paradise seems to have recovered from the physical damages imposed by mother nature.

The remaining photos in this post will be regarding the exhibits we looked at in the XIT Museum. Not only did the museum have an entire wing dedicated to the Dust Bowl Era but it also had many really cool exhibits showing off life in the small town of Dalhart back in the early 20th century.

A bit of history regarding the ranch: It came into being in 1879 when the Texas Legislature allocated the 3 million acres to sell (or trade in this case) in order to finance the building of the state capital in Austin. A group of mostly British investors accepted the land in lieu of payment for the construction of the capital building. All 3 million acres were in the Texas panhandle. 200 miles along the Texas-New Mexico border with a width anywhere between 20 and 30 miles. It generally had 150,000 head of cattle at any one time. They were Texas longhorns, herefords and angus. It was the world’s largest fenced in ranch with over 1500 miles of barbed wire fencing. It had 335 windmills for drawing water from the wells at an average depth of 125 feet. It ceased to exist after about 1912 and very rarely made a profit. It was originally set up as a temporary use of the land until enough farmers could be convinced to head west to set up individual smaller ranches. The name XIT stands for “Ten In Texas”. Not sure why but that is the lore.

The XIT brand seen on the hide of a cow above was used to identify cattle belonging to this large ranch. The branding iron is seen on the right and had to be used 5 times on each cow to make the XIT brand. Leather companies complained about the large brand so after 35 years or so they changed the brand to a simple X.

Here is a picture of one of the 335 wells located on the ranch.

So many types of barbed wire, who knew. Here are some of the types of barbed wire used on the ranch.

We found these 23 printed rules for working on the XIT ranch fairly interesting. Rules and regulations in the Wild Wild West?

In 1936 locals decided to start having a reunion of sorts for the cowboys that worked the ranch over the years. They called it the XIT Rodeo and Reunion. The first Thursday thru Sunday in August every year. We missed it by only a few days. The event includes 3 days of professional rodeo, the world’s largest FREE barbeque, live music and tractor pulls.

Above: The pit was dug, filled with wood, doused with gasoline and lit. The last pic shows the meat cooking. Not sure what kind of meat but we must assume cattle here right?

The picture above looks like a jetty for protection creating a manmade harbor but in reality it is a line of cattle crossing the Yellowstone river back in the day. Once the cattle were ready to go to market they needed to be driven up north to catch a train to the Chicago area.

A picture of everyday life in downtown Dalhart as a duster rolls through. We experienced one of these dusters a few years back in Death Valley National Park. It was cool to experience once; but, nothing like Dalhart experienced regularly in the 1930s.

Check out the car trying to outrun the duster. Folks had to drag metal chains along the road under the car to dissipate the static electricity from the unusually dry air. The static electricity was so bad it would short the car’s electrical system out otherwise.

Locals claimed that a single duster could easily bury an entire farm in dust as above.

Kids going to school had to wear goggles and cloth masks to protect from the dust. Many infants and livestock died by inhaling too much dust.

During a duster local used a network of ropes either strung between out buildings or tied to a heavy barrel so they could find there way around in the dusty environment. These storms sometimes lasted more than 24 hours.

A picture above of a rabbit, or hare, roundup. Once a week, on Sundays the towns people would gather in town and have a “rabbit clubbing party”. They took baseball bats to thousands of them each week as they were eating anything the farmers could manage to grow and they were fairly tasty themselves.

The above article in the local paper nicely described why all the dusters occurred. The federal government needed more grain to sustain the war effort during WW1 so they enticed farmers to locate in the midwest and produce as much wheat as they could. After the war, wheat prices plunged and farmers had to plow up more land for more crops so they could pay their mortgages and farm equipment loans. Eventually there were no native grasses to hold the dirt in place allowing the wind to pick the dry dirt up and send it soaring through the atmosphere toward the eastern US. In Washington DC Congress was holding a meeting to figure out what to do regarding the dustbowl situation when a duster of major significance on the plains blew up enough dust to reach all the way back to DC. After that, it did not take much to convince the legislators to allocate funds to study the problem.

The gentleman above, John McCarty, was the founder of the “Last Man Club” in Dalhart. To become a member you had to swear to never leave Dalhart due to the crappy conditions of the time and to never except outside assistance, especially from the government. Ironically, John left town in the early 30s and stated it was because he was offered a better job.

The only thing exciting to us regarding this saddle is that it belonged to Uncle Dick Coon. He was one of the main characters in the book “The Worst Hard Times”.

The final photos in the post are of items from the early farming days we found to be particularly interesting.

An early gasoline pump. Notice the price at 17.5 cents a gallon with almost a third of it being taxes. I thought today’s taxes on gas are outrageous but no where near these percentages. To think, we were alive in a time when leaded gas still existed.

We never knew what the term “chuck wagon” really meant. Here is a picture of one that got fitted onto the rear of a horse drawn wagon. During our RV adventures we run into many folks that have the modern day equivalent of these outdoor kitchens.

Could not imagine having my house catch fire waiting for one of these early fire engines to arrive on the scene.

Not sure if any of you have ever heard of a corn husker machine. We have not but have seen examples of them at many of the museums we have entered here in the midwest.

We have both seen many of these along the backroads of Upstate NY but never really knew what they were for. A silage pit contains corn or hay and is covered to keep the moisture content in. This helps ferment it a bit and makes it easier for the cattle do digest. We can attest to the fact that grasses hold the soil in place, despite the winds offered up on a regular basis here on the prairie!

When bicycling across the country back in the early 80s I signed a pledge to myself that read “I, Roy Dando, will never again ride a bicycle on the prairies due to the God forsaken winds”. After a few weeks of traveling with the kayaks strapped to the top of the truck and having the strong winds play havoc with them and our camper, I can see why I signed that pledge.

This small town of about 3500 people located in the southwest corner of Missouri.

As we were heading through Missouri on our way west we decided to reminisce about Laurie’s teen aged years. She spent her early teenage years in El Dorado Springs. She has some fond and interesting memories of the town. She remembered the layout of the town and easily found her old house.

Laurie is standing in front of 315 St. James Street. This was her home for 3 years.

If only a road could talk. This took Laurie from her house to wherever things were going on in town.

This building, no empty, housed the billiards room for the folks in town to spend a nice Friday or Saturday evening. Laurie’s brother was given the job of carrying in the firewood to heat the pool hall in the colder months.

Main Street in El Dorado Springs had quite a bit of life the day we were there. Very few empty storefronts could be found.

This used to be a hotel run by one of Laurie’s friend’s families. Evidently it has been turned into a museum by the Historical Society. It was not open the day we were in town.

There was a really nicely done community park in the center of town. This park is centered around the actual spring in the town’s namesake.

This interesting fountain in the middle of the park had its water dyed blue for some reason. Maybe it prevents folks from trying to drink the water?

This is the spring the town was built around. In 1881 the town was chartered and folks came from all around to drink the water for its supposed medicinal purposes.

Small town memories to last a lifetime!!

From Nashville and its country music themes we headed for a week in the Memphis, TN area to check out the birthplace of the blues. The city sits on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River so at least one kayak journey was in order. I have always wondered what it would be like to paddle a small craft on the current of “Old Man River”. We stayed at an appropriately named RV park called Tom Sawyer’s Mississippi River RV Park. Although it was hot as hell and there was no shade to be found in the park, our lawn chairs sitting right on the banks of the river in the evening made it worth the stifling heat. The owners had built a very rickety ladder to a tree house that gave us a nice view up and down the river. The sign at the bottom of the stairs said “Climb at your own risk”. Even us adventurous souls found the level of ricketiness to be a bit much for more than one climb.

Would you climb the 20 feet up this homemade treehouse? The middle pic shows our RV campground and on the right you can see Laurie deciding whether to trust the structure.

We found yet another city on our journey with multiple interconnecting bike paths. So cool to simply go and not worry about where the path takes you as, no matter how we chose our route, we would always end up somewhere near our truck and the starting point of the ride. Our first ride was on the Wolf River Greenway. We chose this as it’s course was parallel to the Wolf River which was a potential destination for a kayak float or two. Turns out the river is a bit shallow with many downed trees so no kayaking there for us. That’s okay scouting and getting to know our way around the area is half the fun!

As usual we found a nice 2 hours walking tour to educate us about our home for the next week. Unfortunately, right after our tour started so did the rain. Buckets upon buckets poured down on our group of 8. The guide had a good personality and sense of humor but had no interest in holing up under an awning or crawlspace to let the rain pass. We all got drenched before she decided it was time to go inside of the fanciest hotel in town. Boy did we look like a bunch of drowned rats.

We enjoyed a nice market around the Memphis area. The South Memphis Farmers Market was indeed very interesting. We purchased some nice looking home grown veggies and met the owner of the small grocery store that allows the market to run in his parking lot. He was very proud to talk to us about his mission to help feed the folks in this urban area that has no real supermarket. He runs free cooking classes where he tries to teach locals how to cook healthy meals. He then sends them home with all the ingredients necessary to cook the meals they learned to cook. He had a few recommendations for us regarding a good pizza joint and where to find live music.

Another day was spent downtown checking out the Memphis Museum of Rock and Soul. We figured that since it was a Smithsonian Museum it had a good chance of being well done. It was a very nice place to escape the heat of the sun while listening to a lot of good blues and soul. The tour was an audio tour that actually worked very well. Usually when we get handed a headset with directions on how to do a self guided tour that means nothing good to us but this time (maybe it was the third time) was the charm.

After a wonderful tour of the city’s musical roots we walked the 3 or 4 blocks of Beale Street trying to find some live music. We ran into a track and field display where folks were trying to clear a 14.5 foot bar by pole vaulting. Really cool to watch up close. One of the many dive bars near the end of the street had a duo performing bluesy tunes so we stopped in for a flight of local IPA beers and some good music.

Today was the day. Up late but it was overcast so the sun would not be blaring down on us as we made our virgin paddle into the Mighty Mississippi. There were a few advertised public boat launches on Mud Island but we found only a private one at a marina for the Memphis Yacht Club. They were nice enough to waive the $15 launch fee for us as we were only using our kayaks. Immediately upon entering the bay in between Mud Island and Memphis proper we realized this would be a different kind of paddle. The local fish must have been intrigued by our boats that made no noise as they continually jumped out of the water as if trying to feed on the plastic in our boats. Huge fish too, maybe catfish? Occasionally they would misguide their jumps and run into the bottom of the boat. Very strange feeling indeed. Not sure what kind of fish they were but they were avoiding the spots that all the fisherman were casting lines so we will not call them stupid.

We pulled out of the bay and into the big river with a bit of trepidation as the current toward the middle where it had been dredged for the barges was moving rather quickly. We found that as long as we stayed near the shore we could easily paddle upstream toward the main bridge that held Interstate 40. Lots of older driftwood floating downstream along with a number of tug boats pushing really large barges. Not sure what was in them but boy were they big. After a few hours of paddling we opted to get out of the heat and find a nice ice cream shop. Dairy Queen is very popular here, but we did manage to find homemade ice cream Memphis is a large city but there is surprisingly very little traffic downtown. Not the standard urban driving setting.

We have been asked many times recently “Why are you travelling across country on a southerly route during the dog days of summer?” The reasons are many but the first is that Son Chris and family moved from California to Nashville last month and this seemed like a nice time to pop in and say hi. Other reasons include a desire to see the four states we have yet to travel through (Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa) and the location of the national park Mesa Verde is on the same latitude as Nashville.

Cincinnati was our first stop for 4 days. We found quite a few things to keep ourselves occupied inside in the AC and outdoors in the morning and later afternoon when the heat was not as oppressive. We found a really cool indoor/outdoor market called the Findlay Market. The type of market where locals stop on their way home from work to pick up everything needed to cook a nice meal. We found a nice butcher there for assorted sausages and hamburger for the upcoming pan of lasagna. The cheeses in the cheese shop were fabulous too. Lots of good produce made for a nice salad. A Mediterranean food store sold the fixings to make our favorite pasta salad.

On one of our “floats” in the lake that is the namesake of the state park we witnessed an eagle attacking a heron. We have seen many heron on our river floats but have never heard their distress noises. Very strange indeed. As far as we could tell, the heron escaped unscathed.

The pics above are of a “slave pen” where slaves awaiting sale to new owners were kept. This particular one was built almost 200 years ago and happened to be located in a tobacco barn. This kept it from deteriorating over the years. When the museum acquired it they had to dismantle it and rebuild it on site in the museum. It was a huge undertaking as the size of the building was great. Check out the people for relative sizes.

As we headed to the Nashville area we opted to stay at a resort type RV park just 4 miles from the new home of Chris and family. Figuring that the grandkids would like to spend time at “our place” if we had a nice setup for kayaking and swimming. There was good swimming in the reservoir right by our site. The highlights of our visit included a few nights of catchup conversation around home cooked meals. We rented a jetski to explore the lake and give the kids some speed to go along with their patience exhibited while slowly kayaking the day before.

As we left Chris and family in their new house in Nashville we had a good feeling they found a nice place to be and that we will be back to visit again.

Well, why not? After living our lives in the Northeast of the United States we have visited most cities and places of interest at least once but never Pittsburgh. In deciding on a route out west for an October wedding we had four states we have yet to visit. Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. Son Chris and family have also recently relocated to the Nashville, TN area so that was a must. A look at the old paper map of the USA quite clearly told us that Pittsburgh would be a nice jumping off point for our journey. We made a special side trip to Philly on the way as we would not see Mom again for a while. The fact that Pittsburgh has the confluence of 3 major rivers for kayaking, the Great Allegheny Passage bike path ends up there for biking and the North Country National Scenic Trail also goes by the area made it the perfect spot.

We managed two nice 20 mile bike rides on the Great Allegheny Passage. Each being an out and back ride so no need for the scooter to transport us back from our destination. In 2013 we decided to train for our upcoming Alaska Highway tandem ride by cycling the C&O canal towpath from Cumberland, MD to Harper’s Ferry, WV. We had such a wonderful time we promised ourselves to not only finish the path from there to Washington, DC but to also go back to Cumberland and cycle north towards Pittsburgh someday. No overnighting on the trail this time but the free camp spots along the trail reminded us of our time a decade ago. We encountered many a fellow cyclists on our two rides. Some doing the entire trail and others just out like us for a few day rides. One elder couple (80s) was back on the trail for the first time in a few months as the lady just finished a month long rehab stint from a crash suffered on the trail itself. Seems she had a run in with a hedgehog and tumbled to the ground. Nice to see her showing the hedgehog who is boss and returning to the trail.

As it turned out the Ohio River, the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River are all very large, deep, wide rivers without many turns or rapids to keep us interested so we found a tributary to the Monongahela for our floating pleasure. The Youghiogheny River (pronounced Yuck-a-gainy) is a gem to kayak on. The fact that the GAP (Great Allegheny Passage bike trail) follows its banks for miles helped out also. Our two floats were each about 7 or 8 miles. Our first from the boat launch in West Newton to a take out in Buena Vista involved only one portage across a shallow area of the river. This time we positioned the scooter for a quick ride back to the truck after our float. Our second picked up by putting in at Buena Vista and taking out in the town of Boston, PA right next to the bistro.

For what we call a trifecta of an outdoor experience we needed to find a nice hike to go along with all the biking and kayaking. The phone app Alltrails to the rescue. Wherever we are in the country, it will find all the local cool hiking spots and even allow you to preview the route with a 3D visual tour with elevation change and everything.

We opted not to go to a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game as they were only in town for the first two nights of our weeks long stay. We chose to take a guided walking tour of the city instead and try to do what most locals call a must-do while in Pittsburgh. The newly formed (post pandemic) company advertised as “free walking tours”. Just pay what you think it was worth when done. Seemed fair enough to us so off we went. The 30 minute drive to Point State Park was not too bad except for the traffic caused by an accident and construction as we neared the city itself. The Point as locals call it is the confluence of the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers hence, the Pirates Ball park there is called Three Rivers Stadium.

Our guide gave us a quick primer in speaking “Pittsburghese”. Folks like to be called “Yinzers” around here. The expression is similar in meaning to “Y’all”. “Jeetyet” means Did you eat? A “Jagoff” is a jerk. A “Crik” is a creek. “Bince” means Being as. “Cupple Tree” means two or three. “Bowchyins” means both of you. We found it amazing that after our brief vocabulary lesson we actually caught folks talking like that throughout our day.

Notice the bottom 10 feet or so of each building above. Our guide pointed the difference in look and color to us and pointed out that when the buildings were originally built, that bottom 10 feet was underground as a basement of sorts. At some point in the 1920s the city decided to excavate about 10 feet of earth in many of its neighborhoods so the roads coming into neighborhoods were not as steep and daunting to the newly minted automobile. That meant that the basements of the building were now going to be first floors. Our group had consensus that the building on the right did a better job of making the new first floor look like it was meant to be that way.

Our guide noted that the planning commission in the area requires companies that want to build large buildings downtown have some kind of theme regarding what their company actually produces. The building on the left was the headquarters for Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) and its entire exterior is made with aluminum. On the right was the headquarters for USS (United States Steel). You guessed it, the outside is made with a special steel that rusts quickly so as to not need coats of paint to preserve it. A bit counter-intuitive but…. As the tall steel beams are outside the structure they had to come up with a method of preventing collapse (ie. World Trade Center) if there were ever a large fire inside. Turns out they pump water through all those beams 24-7 as a means of accomplishing this.

The famous Monongahela Incline. It was built in 1870 to ferry workers from the city below to the top of Coal Mountain. This is currently named Mt. Washington but back in the day workers literally banged on the mountain top with their hammers to loosen nuggets of coal. Although it is a tourist attraction for folks like us it is still used as a commuter vehicle to many folks in the neighborhood up top that work downtown. It was not a thrill ride but something worth doing if you are in the area.

As we wrapped up our week long visit to the steel city we both agreed that we would indeed return to the area in the future.