Day two

Monday February 2

When we left Wal-Mart at 8:30AM White One said it was 27 degrees. Plus the wind was blowing so it was pretty cold.

Tonight, Monday night we are in an Oklahoma State Park, We are the only ones here so we had the pick of sites with electric and water hook up for $16. It is an opportunity to get the Michigan Road salt and mud washed off. But what a cold job for Dick to do after dark with unheated water

Driving through Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois looked pretty much the same but as as we crossed the Mississippi River, the geography changed drastically from flat farm land to steep rolling woodlands. I-44 is cut through the hills so there are sheer rock faces. The woods also changed from mixed hardwoods to Oak and Cedar with Sycamore's white tops towering above the the rest of the forest. There was a gradual change, as we crossed Missouri, from the hilly Oak/Cedar forest to the flat open grasslands of Oklahoma. There are odd large mounds occasionally dotted on the flat former Prairie. When we asked about them, a local fellow said he thought they were natural.

As the day progressed the amount of snow also lessened until in Oklahoma there were just the few odd bits left in the shade of buildings.

So the roads have been pretty much the same boring interstates that one too often chooses when you are in a hurry to get somewhere. We started with I-69 in Lapeer, Michigan and took that all the way to Indianapolis, Indiana, then switched to I-70 and picked up I-44 in St. Louis which took us all the way to the Oklahoma border where surprise, surprise we were on the Oklahoma tollway with no other place to go. But it turned out to be not a bad thing. There was a very helpful lady at the information plaza who showed us how to get to Austin without going through Oklahoma City and the easiest way to get around Dallas/Fort Worth. She also pointed us to several Oklahoma State parks – and we picked the first one we came to. It was getting dark and we were tired. We MIGHT get to Austin tomorrow but maybe not. We may just find somewhere to stop on the way.