17.-24.7.2008: Woodward - Alabaster Caverns SP - Great Plains SP - Little Sahara SP - Gloss Mountains SP - Red Rock Canyon SP - Oklahoma City - Arcadia - John Hall Lake (Henryetta) Our first stop in Oklahoma was at a very good visitor centre where we picked up lots of tips and discount coupons. Then we headed north to Woodward to go and see a rodeo that was taking place there for three days. We managed to beat the traffic afterwards by using Winnie's size and forcing our way through to the exit! A bull compared to the little calves! We'd found out that all the State Parks in Oklahoma do not charge an entrance fee so we went to a number of them. The first was Boiling Springs to see a small area with a bubbling mud pool and then did a short hike to the river. It was 38° C (100° F) and we were definitely suffering with the infernal heat. So our next stop was Alabaster Caverns SP and Kirsten paid the $8 for a 45 minute tour to take photos. Helen was saving us a bit of money by just looking at the photos afterwards. Well, with the price of petrol at an all time high of $4 and the prospect of travelling at least 6,000 miles in the next 3 months, we have to save money somewhere!! We went to Great Salt Plains SP and found a free shower but we started sweating again as soon as we got out! It was even too hot to cook in Winnie and so hot that we didn't even feel like eating! This is the first time we have been to the US in the summer and we are simply going to have to return to our spring and fall strategy. We managed to find a shady spot near the lake to stay overnight though which helped. We stayed in the shade the next morning and then drove to the only remaining Sod House built by a homesteader on Oklahoma. The house is made from slabs of grass and the attached earth to make houses. Little Sahara SP is exactly that - an area of sand dunes that is visited by lots of ATV riders and quad bikers. It was quite noisy but we found a shady spot and went for a short walk to the dunes and the recreation area. Afterwards we put our feet in a bowl of water and cooled them down by drying them in the breeze. That evening we drove to Gloss Mountains SP and found nests of baby swallows. We found a free spot to stay overnight and got up for the sunrise. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and so we didn't really get a good shot of the mountains in the early morning sun. We headed south and drove through Roman Nose SP (named after an Indian Chief) and then went to Red Rock Canyon SP. This is a recreation area for rappelers and rock climbers and is well visited. We parked in the shade and chilled out as much as we could in this heat! After a shower we drove in the evening to just outside Oklahoma City and the next morning we went to the largest cattle auction in the world. It was quite smelly seeing as all the lots of cattle for auction are kept in hundreds of outside stalls. But there is a board walk above to view the cattle and then we went into the auction room. The auctioneer spoke gobbledegook and we never even saw people bidding! How on earth he knows who is bidding is beyond us. It all seemed to be done by telepathy! You pick your nose at the wrong time here and you'll end up with a load of heifers!! After a quick visit to a cowboy shop to dress up for photos we went for lunch at a pancake house and then got a trolley for 25 cents to the National Memorial Museum which is dedicated to the 168 people who died including 19 children and over 700 who were injured when the Federal Building was bombed by McVeigh and Nichols on the 19th April 1995. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil at that point. The tour is self guided and very well done, but you come out feeling extremely depressed at what human beings are capable of. The stories of the survivors and the families of those who died is heart wrenching. The bomb was self made and placed in a rental truck that was parked outside the building and exploded at 9:02 am. Children had just been dropped off at the day care centre on the second floor. The explosion ripped out a third of the building and a total of seven buildings had to be demolished due to severe damage. The amount of destruction was unbelievable and the willingness and effort to help by so many people in Oklahoma City and the surrounding areas was heart warming. McVeigh was sentenced to death and executed in 2001 - normally offenders are on death row for about 17 years, but the families worked tirelessly to get closure. Nichols got life imprisonment without chance of parole. Others were convicted of offences relating to knowledge of an upcoming attack b failing to inform the authorities. Both were former US army soldiers and linked to extreme right wing groups. The date of the Oklahoma City attack was doubly significant, falling on two notable anniversaries. April 19 marked both Patriots' Day, the anniversary of the American rebellion against British authority at Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1775, and the date that federal agents raided a heavily armed religious sect in Waco, Texas, in 1993. McVeigh claimed that the building in Oklahoma City was targeted to avenge the more than 70 deaths at Waco. It is well worth visiting the museum but be prepared to be shocked and bring some tissues. See also www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/okc/index.remembered.html. Only six years later the World Trade Centre was attacked. Where will it all end? We drove to the Capitol building for photos and then drove north out of the city and along the famous Route 66, where we stopped at "Pops" which is a petrol station and shop selling hundreds of bottled drinks and a huge coke shaped bottle lit up outside. We had to sit outside until after 11pm because it was still too hot in Winnie. We headed east and then south and went past a round barn and drove to John Hall Lake in Henryetta where we found a campground with electricity and water for $6-50. We sat in the shade and yet we still got sun burnt - how on earth did that happen! Maybe it is just so hot we got scorched! The temperature went up to 41° C.