Change of Pace

From Toad Suck, we've traveled 343 miles to Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge to see a change of country and some wildlife. Also to take some time off. Our first day we went from our overnite spot at a Wally World in Chickasah,  Arkansas about 80 miles to the refuge. The next day we didn't travel at all. This is a really neat area of oak thickets, lots of open grassland and big piles of rock. And lots of wildlife.

 They have lots of Bison.

And they are easy to see. I didn't have to get out of the coach to get these shots. Good thing! The whole area is free range. That means the animals can go where they want when they want and they have the right of way.

They also have a large herd of longhorn cattle, again, free range. So you just hope they don't want to lay down in the road.

There's also a whole town of prairie dogs.

This deer was one of three that walked through our site Monday night.

This tom turkey stood gobbling like mad outside our bedroom window Tuesday morning.



One thing that the refuge does not have is cell phone coverage, at least at our campground. I'm sure some of the higher ground has a signal but we had nothing, so, no phone, no internet.

The refuge is hilly, with higher hills of jumbled rocks. It also has several man made lakes that offer fishing and boating but no swimming. The trees are almost a monoculture of a type of oak with a few cedars thrown in. Most trees are no more than 15 or 20 feet tall.

We left the refuge on Wednesday morning to make our way to Amarillo. While we did make it, it was a long, hot, difficult day. The area surrounding the refuge and then on west is very flat and almost featureless. At times, it was like looking out at the ocean with not a tree or bush in sight. The day turned hot and the road temperature was 104. Unfortunately, the motor home could not cope with that level of heat and we were forced to stop several times to let it cool down. We finally limped into Amarillo about 6:30 and stayed at the Amarillo Ranch RV Park, a very nice place that also honors our Passport America membership discount. We wound up driving 226 miles yesterday and today will be that or a little longer. We're heading for just outside Albuquerque and a rise in elevation of another 3000' and cooler temps.