June 7 - Hopping to It


Bedbugs, cockroaches, a damaged bathroom door, no bathtub plug,


evidently a relatively higher crime area -- much of this is not clear until this morning, so it is definitely time to hit the road again (we have been blessed with fine rooms this entire trip until now, and hope for the best in future).


Back


on


40,


westward


oh,


ho,



 ho,


ho! --


the


greater


Ozarks


through


northwestern


Arkansas


(this southerly return has featured at least reasonable topographic relief every day),


eventually


over


the


border


to


Oklahoma,


with


its 



rich /


tragic


Native


American


experiences --

 39


tribes,


 most



relocated


from 



lands


as


distant from the local Canadian River (itself a nomenclatural outlier) as Pennsylvania (Lenape) and California (Modoc).


To


the


capitol


city


with its revisionist renaming of said stream through its municipal boundaries, and


beyond,


looking


for signs of the arid west /


Great American Desert,


approaching the 100th meridian,


at last,


the


Texas


frontier


(in


both


senses). 


Nice


introductory


canyons


at


the


architectually

 impressive


Welcome


Center,


doubling



ominously


as


an


underground


tornado shelter. 


Paradoxical


flatlands


so flat that one is


hard-pressed to criticize


the placement of


windmills,


even a burning one... 


Amarillo, within reach of Palo Duro (almost, on our schedule). 


More delicious / sober Mexican fare, and another enchanted evening, contitions somehow reflecting the 68th day of summer back home, high down 6 to 84...

Amarillo, 85
Oklahoma City, 84
Little Rock, 81