We chose to spend a couple of days helping college daughter get settled into her new apartment before leaving Tuscon, Arizona. But that left only two days to travel the 1,055 miles to our next job near Tulsa, Oklahoma. So the only sightseeing we did along the way was through the front windshield.
It would have been sad to leave the southwest if it had not been for the heat. Although I wasn’t exactly looking forward to getting back to the humidity we had left just a month ago and I had no idea what weather to expect in Oklahoma. (clue – it was hot!)
Traveling through New Mexico, I picked a route through Roswell, just so I could say I’ve been there. I wasn’t surprised to see little green aliens in all the storefronts as we drove through town.
What I didn’t expect was to see all the signs proclaiming Roswell as the “Dairy Capital of the Southwest”. Who knew?
We didn’t stop (hence the blurry photos) because it was already getting late but we did stop for a quick meal before landing at a Walmart somewhere on the way to the Texas. We got to enjoy a sunrise as we crossed the border.
“Why Oklahoma?” we have been asked. (Besides the fact Garth is from Oklahoma City!) 
Well. . . back when we had a plan for 2018, the only commitment we made was to be at Nomadfest in Wellington Texas at the end of October. With that in mind, we thought September would be a good time to visit my brother and uncle and families who live in Arkansas. And then. . . since we were going to be in the area anyway. . . we committed to (i.e. paid for) a conference in Little Rock in mid September. So we needed to make our way back east from California. Then we added in this job thing – and were already behind in obtaining our quota for three jobs in the first three months. So we had to work them in based on what was available between Arizona and Arkansas, and that was in Oklahoma.
Tom picked the place near Tulsa because he had family there. In fact, his parents were part of the tail end of the great exodus from Oklahoma to California after the dustbowl. Last time he had visited he was in his early teens, but he was determined to find his cousins. Sadly, we learned that most of them had died. Like an investigator, he tracked down the two left, and we ended up going to dinner with his cousin Billy and his wife Paula, which was great fun.
You probably can’t tell by the picture, but I was the only one with brown eyes. In fact, I have never in my life been surrounded by so many blue eyed people!
The McGuire’s used to be big in Kellyville and Sapulpa, which were in driving distance, so that’s where we went. Route 66 cut right through Sapulpa, and gave it its name of “Crossroads of America”.
In Kellyville, we saw signs for car races on Saturday night, so we drove back for that. They had a turn out of almost 100 racers and we had fun watching Stock, Modified Midgets, and Sprint Cars.
We didn’t spend much time at the campground in Sand Springs because we were on the road selling for the most part. The first morning we were there, I woke up to fresh mushroom rings behind our campsite, so of course I had to take some fairy pictures.
We crossed the Arkansas river multiple times for business and were surprised to see it some days at a trickle and some days looking pretty full. 
The dam that releases wasn’t far from our camp, near Keystone Lake. We went there looking for business as well, and saw the biggest patio boat I’ve ever seen. 
They had amazingly large boats docked as well. But we had no time to enjoy the lake.
We did get quite a bit of scenery in as we drove about. I just wasn’t “feeling” the area. Yes, there were nice rolling hills and it was very green. The woods were less forest-y and more shrub-ery, but there were plenty of ferns and exotic looking vines around. Still, this place has not been my favorite. I think because the hazy skies remind me of central Cal.
Looking for business does take us into some interesting stores. Some we just go in to window shop, like the store below that reminded us of the shop we had.
Of course, it wasn’t all work and no play. We went into nearby Tulsa several times both on work and pleasure and I’ll do a blog about that next.
Happy Travels,
Peace & Love, Joy
Your’s is the second RV full time travel blog I have read today that is talking about the Oklahoma area. It must be a sign. My family and I are heading to OKC in a few weeks. Any suggestions of interesting things to see in the area?
I love that you pay attention to signs! We rolled right through Oklahoma City on our way to Tulsa, so I don’t know of anything specific in that area. In Tulsa I would recommend downtown: “The Center of the Universe”, the Woody Guthrie Center, the interactive art place called “ahha”, and if you like museums, the Gilcrease Museum is amazing!
Innteresting thoughts