Sunday, 11-23-97

We got around a little late this morning. It felt good to sleep in for a change. Our camp for the night was the KOA campground in west El Reno, Oklahoma. It is a nice campground with a lot of trees and a fishing lake/pond. The KOA brochure refers to the body of water next to the campground as a lake. But I could cast a line to the other side of just about anyplace on the lake. So I consider it to be a fishing pond. At the registration desk, I saw pictures of stringers of fish caught from the pond. Most of the catches were made up of respectable sized crappie.

The full hookup sites were out in the open and arranged very much like a parking lot. The campsites with only water and electricity were arranged in a grove of evergreen trees and oaks.

Our campsite in the El Reno KOA campground

Many of the campsites have a generous amount of space between sites. All the nice landscaping came at the lowest price for any of the campgrounds we've used on this trip.

We got on the road at about 10:30AM and headed east on I-40. I drove for about 20 miles to a place to top off the fuel tank. When I got off the highway, I found that we were in east El Reno. This little town really covers a lot of territory.

Sign at the East Side of town

Because we got around so late this morning, we missed breakfast and ended up having an early lunch. I guess the most interesting thing to happen on this trip took place where we bought gas.

When I was putting gas in the motorhome, I noticed a young woman on the other side of the pump island sobbing loudly. I was about to ask her if she needed any help when her husband showed up and he tried to calm her. She was very upset and would not be calmed down. She was crying so hard that I could not imagine what could cause such an outburst at a gas station. The woman’s husband walked out to the road and looked up and down the roadway.

It was then that the woman looked over toward me and sobbed that her cat was gone. I asked when she had last seen it and she couldn't remember. She told me, with her face covered with tears, that she had gone up to pay for the gas and when she came back she was going to feed her cat. She opened a small can of food for the cat and could not find the cat. The back of her car was full of clothing and suitcases. There were a lot of places for a cat to get "lost" in her car. I wished there was something I could do to help, but I didn’t know what would help. Her husband was looking for the cat up to a block away from the gas station.

I went in to pay for my gas and while I was waiting there, the young woman came in looking very sad. She talked as if she was making a speech to everybody in the gas station. She said that somebody must have stolen her cat. "There was no way my cat could have gotten out by itself," she exclaimed. I heard her say as I left to go to the motorhome, "It was a full blooded Persian."

Well, I finally found some rough highways. Just west of Oklahoma City on I-40 and all along Highway 44, the road was old, bumpy concrete. It was like driving on railroad ties, thump-thump... thump-thump. This still continued on I-35 for a short distance. It was a real pleasure to get to smooth, quiet pavement again.

As we approached Oklahoma City, I saw several signs advertising gasoline at 97.9 cents per gallon. That is the lowest price I’ve seen so far. I found later that the price in Wichita was 98.9. I was thinking about how the price went down steadily as we traveled east. The price in California, when we left, was $1.35. In Arizona the price was generally around $1.25 and in New Mexico the norm was $1.18 per gallon. In Texas, the lowest price I saw was $1.06 and of course the price in OK City of $0.98 per gallon was the lowest. Now I was thinking; if I continued east far enough, maybe the price might get down to say 50 cents per gallon. There is probably some flaw in my logic on that one.

The final leg of our trip to Wichita was uneventful with us enjoying beautiful weather all the way. We’ve had shirt sleeve weather for the whole trip to Wichita. We arrived in Wichita at about 2:30PM. Jim came out to meet us as we drove in to a very familiar "campsite," his driveway. Donna was asleep recovering from the third surgery on her knee.

Sophia Elizabeth

Steven came out to say "Hi" and we were introduced to Sophia, Steven’s new Basset Hound puppy. She is a little cutie. We played with her for a while as we recounted our trip experiences to Steven.

We no sooner got in the house than Donna’s brother Terry came in to greet us. He is living and working in Wichita again. Then a few minutes later, Kay’s mother and father (Lois and George) stopped by to see us. I called my mother (Floraine) and my sister (Lana) to let them know we arrived safely. I also called Michael to let him know we made it to Wichita okay.

Jim drove me out to the airport so I could rent a car. I got a brand new Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight with only 3500 miles on the odometer. It is a cushy car. We went to a new Chinese restaurant for our evening meal and as usual I ate too much. After our meal Kay, Jim, Steven, and I went over to see Lois, George, and Pete. Pete is Lois and George’s German Shepherd dog. I spent most of my time there playing with Pete. I also made a quick repair on the TV remote control for George. After a nice visit, we came home and got to bed early.