April 19, 2014.  Today we covered three states on I-40 — the remaining 100 miles of Oklahoma, all 200 miles of the Texas panhandle and 100 miles of New Mexico to Santa Rosa.  I have very little to say about the driving portion of the trip, other than that the truck performed admirably, the scenery was consistent, and nothing bad happened.  Oscar,  the weather was fine until we arrived in Santa Rosa (when it began to rain) and the road conditions were quite nice — one straight smooth line through endless cattle ranches and more windmill farms. We covered 400 miles in about 6 hours, stopping several times.

When we got close to Santa Rosa, we jumped off I-40 and drove for a while on historic Route 66, which is much touted here as a tourist attraction.  There are museums devoted it.  It was not particularly interesting to me — it looked like what you would expect: a two lane road peppered with motels, gas stations, casinos, bill boards, car washes and the like.  It had the feel of Las Vegas in the 1960s (as I recall).

We are camping tonight in Santa Rosa Lake State Park which is high above the town itself — about 7 miles away.  When we arrived it was raining and looked rather bleak.  So we took a nap and waited for the weather to clear up.  After about an hour, the sun came out and we hiked along a desert trail that circled down to the lake.  It was quite pretty, in a very different sort of way.  It reminded me very much of the desert hikes I took in Tucson AZ a couple of years ago, except that today’s hike was not nearly as hot and dry (given the recent rain) and there are fewer varieties of cacti here.  We studiously avoided the type of cactus that literally throws its spines at you if you get within a few inches of it.  I saw those (and was attacked by one) in Tucson and the guide had to pull the spines out of my leather boot with pliers!  I was really afraid today that Doris would get too close to one, but she didn’t.   The water in Santa Rosa Lake was muddy due to recent torrential rains in the area — I understand that it is normally quite blue.  Brad took some good pictures that tell a better story than I can about what this ares looks like.  However, we are having trouble with internet connection, so I will have to wait until that improves to attach a few pictures to this post.  Check back later if you are interested in seeing them.

Tonight, we had cocktails while watching the Braves eek out a win over the Mets and then grilled dinner (we are in Mountain time now).   It is fun to have the Braves to keep us company every night.  That’s what’s so great about baseball.