I spent the morning dealing with a point of contention between the Internal Revenue Service and I. I know that I was wrong on the form, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to write a kneescraping letter begging for mercy. The night before I had tried to go to ‘I love this bar & grill’ by some country music star, but they were making a racket with some sort of singing contest so I went next door to the Bass Shop – a somewhat lesser attempt at the palace to the outdoors created by Cabela’s. So this morning I got off the dime about a camping stove I had been hemming and hawing over and went ahead and got a lantern for good measure.
That stinks: I drove southwest and enjoyed watching the thermometer periodically tick up a degree until I was over forty degrees! Unfortunately with the warm weather, some of the less pleasant aspects of the road are brought to the fore – no longer masked by a few inches of snow, or having their rotting smells frozen inside, the roadkill was omnipresent. During the short trip between Apache and Lawton (maybe twenty miles) I tallied no less than fourteen skunks that were smashed. [I chose skunk because they are easily recognized by stark black and white that avoids confusion with most other road kill – unless pepe lepew was out, and they normally are small enough to stay in the vicinity of the road bed, and when all else fails the smell was the secondary indicator]
I stopped in Lawton long enough to stretch my legs in a local park near Fort Still, and I was amazed by the prairie dogs – there were hundreds of the little bastards, everywhere! They were tame enough that they didn’t flee into one of the thousands of holes around the park immediately, instead they all communicated to each other about my presence with tail wagging and little barks that were like chirps. The devils were cute as hell to watch run – but seeing the destruction the bring, I can see why they are trapped, shot, and vacuumed. Somehow I got turned around in Lawton with a couple bad turns and ended up in the school zone at last bell – hundreds of little bastards, everywhere, but not as cute. So I ended up taking a revised route south rather than west (I refused to backtrack through the school zone).
I cruised through some beautiful plains of Southern Oklahoma and into the panhandle of Texas. It was downright beautiful outside, and I decided that I was feeling pretty good and I would go ahead and try camping – so I stopped at a grocery in the next town, and also visited a wal-mart, and started making tracks. I have complained in the past about getting to a town late – there is no option with camping. I haven’t used my tent in years (not the one lance and I drove cross country with – that was lost in SF, and not the one I got a few years ago – Jin Ah left that one in Hawaii [who brings a tent to Hawaii?]) and I wasn’t even sure I had all the parts anymore. But I made it to the park with about forty minutes of sunlight left, and no park ranger, and not another soul in the park…. Except for a couple of armadillo that weren’t so keen on my arrival. I pitched the tent on a dry, flat, and soft space, did the late check-in paperwork and made camp with about ten minutes before the sun had dropped off the horizon. Unfortunately, while I am only about twenty yards from the restrooms / showers, I observed several piles of presumably armadillo droppings between the tent and the shower, so I am leery of stepping in yet another species’ feces. FYI (for you skat lovers – not ella though) imagine a deer, but constipated.
So, in the spirit of ‘roughing it,’ I fired up the lantern and the stove and made some Kosher hotdogs and chased it with a gourmet beer from the Boulevard Brewery Limited Edition Smokestake Series (no review – beer may have been frozen) while I tuned in a classic rock radio station for eine kleine nachtmusik. My laptop was charged up (via the Beast – love the outlet in the bed) so I nestled in the super sleeping bag I got for Christmas and tapped away this entry.
Movie Review: Last night I made the mistake of letting a movie start, and I can’t turn them off. I was up until 2:30 watching ‘Brick’ – and it was tremendously worth the slow start this morning. I’m no movie scholar, but for my taste it was a great combination of Teen Angst, Pulp Dialogue, and Film Noir – imagine splicing ‘Three O’clock High’ & ‘Heathers’ with ‘The Maltese Falcon’ and ‘Miller’s Crossing.’ The dialogue is indecipherable at first until it is clear (sorta) that it is basically American hackney. Probably not a film for my parents, but it has no boobs and limited f-bombs so it is safe for a Thanksgiving rental that will have the grandparents shaking their heads.
Fun & Games: Can you name the states that have panhandles? (Answer in comments)
That stinks: I drove southwest and enjoyed watching the thermometer periodically tick up a degree until I was over forty degrees! Unfortunately with the warm weather, some of the less pleasant aspects of the road are brought to the fore – no longer masked by a few inches of snow, or having their rotting smells frozen inside, the roadkill was omnipresent. During the short trip between Apache and Lawton (maybe twenty miles) I tallied no less than fourteen skunks that were smashed. [I chose skunk because they are easily recognized by stark black and white that avoids confusion with most other road kill – unless pepe lepew was out, and they normally are small enough to stay in the vicinity of the road bed, and when all else fails the smell was the secondary indicator]
I stopped in Lawton long enough to stretch my legs in a local park near Fort Still, and I was amazed by the prairie dogs – there were hundreds of the little bastards, everywhere! They were tame enough that they didn’t flee into one of the thousands of holes around the park immediately, instead they all communicated to each other about my presence with tail wagging and little barks that were like chirps. The devils were cute as hell to watch run – but seeing the destruction the bring, I can see why they are trapped, shot, and vacuumed. Somehow I got turned around in Lawton with a couple bad turns and ended up in the school zone at last bell – hundreds of little bastards, everywhere, but not as cute. So I ended up taking a revised route south rather than west (I refused to backtrack through the school zone).
I cruised through some beautiful plains of Southern Oklahoma and into the panhandle of Texas. It was downright beautiful outside, and I decided that I was feeling pretty good and I would go ahead and try camping – so I stopped at a grocery in the next town, and also visited a wal-mart, and started making tracks. I have complained in the past about getting to a town late – there is no option with camping. I haven’t used my tent in years (not the one lance and I drove cross country with – that was lost in SF, and not the one I got a few years ago – Jin Ah left that one in Hawaii [who brings a tent to Hawaii?]) and I wasn’t even sure I had all the parts anymore. But I made it to the park with about forty minutes of sunlight left, and no park ranger, and not another soul in the park…. Except for a couple of armadillo that weren’t so keen on my arrival. I pitched the tent on a dry, flat, and soft space, did the late check-in paperwork and made camp with about ten minutes before the sun had dropped off the horizon. Unfortunately, while I am only about twenty yards from the restrooms / showers, I observed several piles of presumably armadillo droppings between the tent and the shower, so I am leery of stepping in yet another species’ feces. FYI (for you skat lovers – not ella though) imagine a deer, but constipated.
So, in the spirit of ‘roughing it,’ I fired up the lantern and the stove and made some Kosher hotdogs and chased it with a gourmet beer from the Boulevard Brewery Limited Edition Smokestake Series (no review – beer may have been frozen) while I tuned in a classic rock radio station for eine kleine nachtmusik. My laptop was charged up (via the Beast – love the outlet in the bed) so I nestled in the super sleeping bag I got for Christmas and tapped away this entry.
Movie Review: Last night I made the mistake of letting a movie start, and I can’t turn them off. I was up until 2:30 watching ‘Brick’ – and it was tremendously worth the slow start this morning. I’m no movie scholar, but for my taste it was a great combination of Teen Angst, Pulp Dialogue, and Film Noir – imagine splicing ‘Three O’clock High’ & ‘Heathers’ with ‘The Maltese Falcon’ and ‘Miller’s Crossing.’ The dialogue is indecipherable at first until it is clear (sorta) that it is basically American hackney. Probably not a film for my parents, but it has no boobs and limited f-bombs so it is safe for a Thanksgiving rental that will have the grandparents shaking their heads.
Fun & Games: Can you name the states that have panhandles? (Answer in comments)
Pics: a) Cute little bastard; b) pimp his ride in hollister, OK; c) cribs at copper breaks SP
.GIF)
Today Miles: 232 Trip Miles: 8,837
Starting: Oklahoma City, OK
Ending: Copper Breaks State Park, TX (near Margaret)
Route: 62S, 36W, 5W, 54S, 70W
Exercise in Redundancy: City of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (official name)
Businesses currently on Do Not Use (DNU – pronounced ‘nyuah’) list: Ramada (product), Office Depot (service)
Cost for camping in Copper Breaks State Park: $10.00 (I waived myself on the $2.00/person use fee)
Semi-scientific tally of radio station genres in OKCity, OK
Christian: 10
Jazz/Classical: 3
Rock / Classic Rock / R&B: 8
Country: 5
Talk / Spanish: 4
Starting: Oklahoma City, OK
Ending: Copper Breaks State Park, TX (near Margaret)
Route: 62S, 36W, 5W, 54S, 70W
Exercise in Redundancy: City of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (official name)
Businesses currently on Do Not Use (DNU – pronounced ‘nyuah’) list: Ramada (product), Office Depot (service)
Cost for camping in Copper Breaks State Park: $10.00 (I waived myself on the $2.00/person use fee)
Semi-scientific tally of radio station genres in OKCity, OK
Christian: 10
Jazz/Classical: 3
Rock / Classic Rock / R&B: 8
Country: 5
Talk / Spanish: 4
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Alaska, Connecticut, Maryland, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Idaho, West Virginia (Source: Wiki)
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