Nathan posted on June 28, 2009 18:57
Sunday, June 28, 2009
I believe I wrote yesterday that our plan was to drive all the way to Bartlesville, Oklahoma last night. The GPS was predicting that we would arrive around 4:00 this morning, and I was not looking forward to it. Not only that, but NH was thinking that the best plan would be to just set up tent in a Wal-mart parking lot and spend the night there.
Just before midnight I was driving, and I posited to NH that if we were to arrive at Wal-mart at 4:00 and sleep there, we would not get many hours of sleep before being awakened by the hot sun, let alone traffic and Wal-mart shoppers. I think the heat factor affected him even more than tha lack of sleep, and so he agreed to spend the night where we were and proceed to Bartlesville in the morning.
There were no open camping places, nor Wal-mart parking lots, near where we were. As a rather last-ditch effort we pulled into a rest area, wondering if we could get away with spending the night there. This turned out to be the best rest area I have ever seen, particularly for would-be sneaky campers. We found a picnicking spot beneath a thick clump of trees and not visible from the freeway, and set up camp. My guilty conscience, afraid of being awakened and kicked out by some state trooper, kept me awake much of the night. But NH got some good sleep, at least.
Today we made it to Bartlesville around 1:00, and we were on the trail by 2:00, reminiscent of our first day on the TAT last year. NH fueled up, and washed all the bug guts off the front of the tent, headlights, and windshield. Then he aired down the tires from 35 to 25 PSI, which made for a much more comfortable ride on the trail.
Today was pretty hot. We stopped at some gas stations and filled our Nalgenes with ice, which when held in the lap can be quite cooling. But still, I got sunburned and we were both drenched in sweat by the time our trip ended for the day.
The real excitement of the day had mostly to do with wildlife. We spotted four turtles, five bunnies (one or two of which we may have run over), egrets, herons, hawks, many deer, and several hippopotocows. What? You haven't heard of the hippopotocow? Well, it is a rare species, and it emerges only in the hottest weather. But it proves how hot the weather was. I've often seen cows standing in a pond in hot weather, up to their hocks or maybe their mid-sections. Today we saw cows deep in ponds, up to their backs with just their noses sticking up out of the water. Like hippos.
Within the last hour or so of our trip, tragedy struck, also related to wildlife. We hit a pheasant. This wasn't like the "possible hittings" of the bunnies. With them it didn't seem possible that they could have escaped alive when they jumped under the tires just as we were passing, but also we didn't feel any bumps, so we couldn't be sure.
With the pheasant, we saw, heard, and felt the crash. And the feathers. Also, NH had to perform a pheasant extraction on the front of the Jeep.
I was hesitant to go look at the pheasant--I knew I would be saddened by it. After a few minutes, though, NH persuaded me to come out.
I was even sadder than I had expected. I felt like a murderer. NH wanted me to take pictures and post them on the blog, but that felt too much like something a serial killer would do. So he took the pictures instead, but I'm not going to post them. Poor pheasant.
(For those curious about the pheasant. . . inserted by Nathan)
Camping in a wheat field tonight--probably a good thing you couldn't come, Mark; they grow a lot of wheat in this part of Oklahoma, and it's harvest time. We have to be out of here before 8:00 tomorrow because the farmers are going to burn off the stubble in the morning. So I'd better get to bed. Later.
* Posted from the parking lot of Pizza Pub in Buffalo, Oklahoma.
Posted by EHenson at 7:50 AM