We're on the last leg of the trip and it takes us through north eastern NM, the Texas panhandle, central Oklahoma... then along the same incoming trail from St Louis on. Doesn't look like much on a map, but it's about 3,300kms! We'll be averaging 500 kms / day hopefully. We found a great boondocking site in a place called San Jon... a municipal park with a large sign reads "Free Overnight Parking". Rare sight indeed. So was this water tower!
Interstate 40 follows almost exactly historic Route-66 to OK City so far, and you can see the old 2-lane road following the south side of the Interstate.

We're making one tourist stop along the way in Oklahoma City, at the suggestion of Ken. He says the cowboy museum in OK City, is not to be missed. So, we parked in a municipal campground just west of a place called Yukon, OK. Just happens to be the place where Garth Brooks is from. This town is also dead centre in the middle of the Chisholm Trail. That's the trail used for the great cattle drives from places like the King Ranch in Texas to Kansas, 1,000 miles north. Another interesting tidbit... there are two rivers here named the Canadian North and the South, and the County we're in is called Canadian County!  Whew... must be getting close to Canada, eh!

So we went to visit the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and what a place it is. It has everything Cowboy and Indian, and it's done to the nine's. This sculpture to the right is named "End of the Trail". It's 18 feet tall and everyone has seen a reproduction of it in one form or another, but the real thing is here.

The museum details things like all of a cowpunchers clothes (chaps, hats, spurs), to a horse's equipment (bits, saddles), to all the equipment ever used on the trail, right down to all the guns ever used in the old West. All these items are here, authentic and in superb condition. Even 100 year old Indian artefacts and many you never see any other place, like 120 year old beaded leather ceremonial clothes.

How about things John Wayne, like famous original paintings of him or a gold plated Colt 45, given by Colt to commemorate the movie "The Alamo". ________    

The art work is mind boggling. Some galleries, like the Joe Grandee  Frontier West, has over 5,000 artefacts and took over 40 years to accumulate.

There are hundreds of original paintings, many by Remington including some of his bronze statues. And then there's the Duke, Mr. Western himself, and many of John Wayne's personal collection of artefacts, clothes and awards donated by his family are here.

This museum was a great way to end a wonderful Winter. It explains so many things "Western" that you come across travelling the southwest. It's the best Ten bucks I ever spent on a museum.

Tomorrow, we make tracks for home. The good part? The price of fuel around these parts is back down again. I paid $2.60 a gallon in Santa Fe! Here I paid less at a corner station than at the Flying-J... a rare thing.

April 9, 2009, Arrived Home 3:00pm - 3C - 800 ft elev. - Diesel fuel 83.9c / l Ouch! - some snow left here & there!

Well, we've arrived, safe and sound. After Oklahoma City, we camped out at casinos all the way home. In Miami, OK, they even provided free Hydro! The neatest casino was the 4-Winds Casino in New Buffalo, MI. Wow, what a beautiful place. Of course it's only a couple of years old, but we did make money at that one. Last stop before crossing the border was at a fuel station for a belly full of that $2.03 / gal US diesel! What a deal especially after seeing the prices in Ontario still almost the same as when we left. Boy, are we getting raked over the coals on fuel prices up here.

Trip Summary

One thing we learned for sure... stay along the river valleys in Winter and early Spring. We froze once we left Texas to AZ and when we left Nevada for UT. Zion was great and so was Santa Fe (expensive though), but darn these places are still cold in late March and April.

We really enjoyed being with friends in Texas, but, we love the desert too much. We also realized that we still prefer to boondock in the desert over being in a resort. We had a month at a reasort in Texas and one in Arizona, and we missed the peace, the quiet, and the walks of desert camping.  Maybe later we'll appreciate resorts more.
But for sure, we won't be leaving the Rio Grande nor the Colorado valleys early again, unless it's for the trip back home.

You know what they say, eh?  A cold day on vacation still beats a hot day at work.

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