Pat's Western Oklahoma Tour

My friend Pat came to Western Oklahoma from Northwest Arkansas on Friday. Our goal was to travel the countryside and take photos. She is interested in abandoned towns, so in two days we covered 290 miles and took over 800 photographs! I have not had so much fun and laughed so hard in forever. We got up Saturday morning and my husband made us Egg McWiley's which are like the famous Egg McMuffins except made by D. Wiley. He packed us a cooler with water, tea, pop and ice and away we went. The Oklahoma wind did not disappoint...it was blowing like crazy! We even had a six inch rain...where the drops are about six inches apart and only dirty the car. Pat is a REAL photographer so these are my photos of Pat working. She got some great photos to use in her Graphic Design career and I got some fun photos.

We went to the Weatherford Quilt show at the Western Oklahoma Historical Center, Foss, Canute, Elk City, Sayre, Hext, Erick, Cooperton, Gotebo, Cloud Chief, and Corn. All along the way we were pulling off along side the roadway to snap photos of something that was of interest to one or both of us. Some of the sites we photographed were sad, because we could see how beautiful they had been. The workmanship in some of the structures was amazing.

OK now this made us both laugh! 10 minute parking and we were the only two people on the streets. Good thing we were the only ones, because we were there longer than the allotted time. I did stay close to the car. I am sure during the week the sign is needed.

Her plan was to come to Western Oklahoma and then venture on north to the mountains.

Since I really wanted her to stay longer, I just drove her south to see some Oklahoma mountains! Between the great wide open, "you can see forever," landscapes and these mountains she stayed until Wednesday! Thank you mountains!

I had never been to Erick, Oklahoma. I'd been by Erick on I-40, but never ventured to downtown Erick. My son's name is Erick, but I named him before I ever heard of Erick, Oklahoma. Pat took lots of photos there, because of the court type motels along Historic Route 66 "The Mother Road" in Erick.

This church was one of my picks, because I just love church buildings. The Erick Airport sign photo I took out the window, because I thought it added a little character to a plain sign. Also, by the time we got to Erick and had been in and out of the car a million times I was just plain tired.

The one place we would have loved to get closer to was the Cloud Chief school. It sits on private farm land and is posted no trespassing. We tried to be very careful and watch for the signs every place we stopped. Note to self: when going on a Sunday drive in southwest Oklahoma take a five gallon bucket with a lid and a roll of toilet paper. We drove for miles and miles and there was nothing open, and the majority of the time there was just nothing but highway and land.

On Saturday night we drove out of town and took photos of the moon. It was the night it was the closest to the Earth that it had been in 18 years. My husband said it was 17% bigger and 30% brighter than a normal full moon. It was so cloudy we had to try to get photos when it peeked out.

It had to be pretty bright, because I only have a Kodak Easy Share 10.2 Megapixel camera with a 3X Optical Aspheric Lens. I think the moon, clouds and the colors behind them are still pretty. Pat, my husband and I all enjoyed a break in our routines. Her visit was too short, but so much fun. Everyone should be lucky enough to have a lifelong friend like Pat.

Check out her blog at http://pearlcabin.blogspot.com/