Our campground was so great, except I couldn’t get on the internet at all, so I’m REALLY behind on responding to emails and blogging. SO SORRY!
We left Gore, Oklahoma and a few hours to Oklahoma City. We drove downtown and ate a delicious lunch at the Museum Café of the OKLAHOMA CITY MUSEUM OF ART. It would have been lovely to go to the exhibit of THE BAROQUE WORLD OF FERNANDO BOTERO, but we still had six hours of driving to get to Amarillo, Texas by 8:00pm, when the OVERNITE RV PARK closed. So, we hit the road and drove, drove, drove (or should I say, Eric drove, drove, drove). Eric won’t let me drive anymore, because he thinks the tires aren’t aligned properly and are not safe enough for an “inexperienced RV driver” like me. We are going to try to get two new front tire for the RV and get them balanced and aligned. Then, maybe he’ll let me drive again!
So, we’re driving along in Oklahoma when Eric sees a cop car behind us, and the cop starts flashing the lights. Eric knew he wasn’t speeding, but he thought maybe the tarp over the bicycles was coming loose. He had put it on the night before, because it rained all night in Oklahoma.
The cop motioned for Eric to get out of the car (which made me nervous to begin with). Then, Eric disappeared. I sat there for a few minutes, then took off my seat belt to look for Eric through the window in the back door. He and the cop were nowhere to be seen. Then, I noticed Eric sitting in the passenger seat of the cop car. From his hands, I could see he was having an animated conversation, but of course I couldn’t tell what they were talking about. I was SO scared. I was afraid the car was going to take off, with my husband in the car, leaving me alone on the road in the middle of Oklahoma.
After another 5 minutes, Eric came back. The reason the cop pulled us over is that the tarp was covering the license plate (which the cop called “the tag”). Eric said he was really nice and asked where we were from and where we were going and Eric told him about our entire trip. I’m in the RV thinking he was getting arrested and they’re making friends! Eric said he was a really nice guy! We were actually really surprised that we hadn’t gotten pulled over before, because we thought cops loved to pull over New Yorkers! So, here we finally get pulled over, but no ticket – just a friendly conversation n a cop car!
After registering at the campground, we requested the free limo service (with the long horns on the hood) to THE BIG TEXAN restaurant, which was a huge restaurant and had more mounted animal heads than I had ever seen before in one place. I’m not kidding. There had to be at least 100 of them.
The whole place was wood, leather and dead animals. They have a 72 ounce steak for $72 and, if you can finish it in 60 minutes, it’s free. They have a table on a stage with a count-down clock. We were hoping someone would attempt it while we were there, but no one dared tonight!
We were serenaded by three handsome gentlemen. They asked for requests and we asked them to play "Yellow Rose of Texas." We thought it was appropriate!
I had the char-broiled fresh salmon (which was fabulous) and Eric had the chicken fried chicken breast with cream gravy. We also shared fried mushrooms and four sides: salad with Roquefort dressing, cowboy beans, Texas rice and mashed potatoes with gravy. We finished it off with a chocolate cake that oozed chocolate, which was called a “Volcano.” We took half our dinner home, and half the dessert, too, but at least we’ll have lunch in the RV tomorrow!
Everything in Texas is big – even the bugs. The Texans even joke about it, saying that their state bird is the fly! There was some kind of black cricket in the bathroom that was the size of a quarter. There are a LOT of bugs here, but mostly flies. I guess it’s because there are lots of cows here and where there are cows, there are flies. I learned that lesson well when I lived in Hershey Park in Pennsylvania the summer of ’81. We would get those sticky strips you hang from a light and they’d be filled up with flies in a day. It’s not pretty. Why is it that some places have so many bugs (Florida and Texas) and some places don’t seem to have any bugs at all? I just can’t figure it out.
Anyway, we had a fabulous night and are looking forward to more adventures tomorrow!