Slipped out of Arkansas in the heat of the day and headed west, a late start this morning but still manage to put on 504 miles and Elk City is just southeast of Anchor Point by 5,322.8 miles. Had a beautiful drive out of Arkansas, went down through the Ozarks, very beautiful country. High rolling highs with a great variety of heavy tree coverage. The oak trees are just now starting to turn color. Heading west into Oklahoma, not what I expected, up to Oklahoma City it was nice gentle rolling hills with dense forest, primarily walnut trees. Picked up a bunch of walnuts in the various stages of ripeness for the kids to see. West of Oklahoma, the hills flattened out and now we are into more of a prairie type country. Out timing was perfect coming out of Arkansas to put us into Oklahoma right at rush hour traffic - but Suzie took us right through the traffic without incident. Oklahoma City should be the largest city that we pass through on this trip. Made good time on the Interstate, especially when a bunch a "wild eyed" truckers are pushing you - but I surely do like the secondary roads better for sightseeing. Will pass through Texas and into New Mexico tomorrow, likely make the Colorado border but doubt we will go all the way into Montrose.
Everything is still going great, had a little tube problem today, blew out to inner tubes within just a few miles of each other - fortunately I bought two so I had a spare and was able to change it out on the spot.
Dutch has proven to be a great traveler, he is now use to it and when he gets to bored sitting up front, he crawls through his exit door and lays on his bed in the back of the truck so he can look out the rear window of the camper. He does enjoy the rest areas. When he was a puppy, he was a real chick magnet - now he is just a magnet - getting a little tired hearing, "Oh, what a great looking dog", I never get any compliments!
Checked out the weather in Anchor Point this evening, sounds a little nippy! Our high today was 86 degrees, now that I have discovered my Ford does not have air condition, I discovered a new way to keep cool. By taking a bag of ice and putting it in the drivers window and then raising the power window until it is held tight,the air blowing through the window over the ice provides a great cooling affect, something like a "swamp cooler". The other thing that has aided in keeping comfortable is that I have started driving in just my shorts. I just have to remember to get dressed again when we stopped at a rest area or to gas up - walked into Walmart today before I realized I had not put my pants on.
A couple of you have made a stab at trying to guess how my grandfather got the nickname of "Ten". Since I told Ranger Bill on the phone today, perhaps I had best tell all of you the rest of the story. The mystery was easy to solve, if I would have just thought the obvious instead of looking for something deeper. Henry Philo Harrington was called "Ten" because everywhere he went, he carried a Parker Brothers, double barrel 10 Guage Shotgun with him so they naturally just called him "Ten". Some of you may have guessed by now, others may not know the entire story, but this particular shotgun was given to my father by his father, Henry Philo. It was a family heirloom. My father passed the shotgun down to me and it remains in my gun collection today. I knew that the shotgun belonged to grandfather, I even had brass plates made for it with his name and a second tag with my fathers name on it, but after all these years, I did not know that this particular gun earned my grandfather the nickname of "Ten", it makes the gun even more special. Darkness is burning and daylight comes sooner down here than in Alaska, so I had best close her down for the night, see you on down the road a piece. Just noticed the date, 44 years ago today, I enlisted into the U.S. Navy - I should go have a rum and coke to celebrate!