Week 40: Goat Heads, a Kitchen With Eight Burners & the week I almost quit
August 1 – August 7 | Brule, NE (100s) → WaKeeney, KS (100s) → Woodward, OK (100s) → Wichita, KS (100s)
Where We Stayed
Eagle Canyon Hideaway, Brule, NE (Saturday)
Rosie's RV Park, WaKeeney, KS (Sunday)
Boiling Springs State Park, Woodward, OK (Monday)
Short Term Rental, Wichita, KS (Tuesday through Friday)
This is week 40. I had to sit with that for a minute. Forty weeks on the road. When I started this blog based on weekly updates, 40 felt like a number so far in the future it was almost abstract. Now here we are, and the weeks are moving faster than I can keep up with. The last stretch of this trip has a different feeling to it; I keep thinking of how close we are to home rather than how far we are from it. Another big emotion about Week 40 is that it was about as far from our original mission of chasing 70 degrees as we could possibly have gotten. We spent the week in triple-digit heat, crossing Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma in a tin box on wheels, fighting goat heads, a heat dome, and our own limits. Chasing 70 degrees. Sure. We'll hopefully get back to that.
Heading South
Our last day in South Dakota. We arrived at Wind Cave National Park without reservations for the cave tours (our fault entirely) and couldn't get in, so Wind Cave joins the "barely visited" list. We did see bison again, and I say this with full awareness of how spoiled it sounds: I thought I was done with bison. Then two of them started sparring. Horns locked together, shoving each other around, bison fur flying through the air. Our friends from Heartland RV had told us the Wind Cave bison were bigger than any they'd seen, and they were right. I was very glad to be watching from inside the bus, about 50 yards away.
We also had to backtrack to Heartland RV Park, where, in the chaos of the breakdown last week, we had left our two camp chairs, our sturdy shoe box, and our very good extension cord. They were wonderful about it and had everything in storage waiting for us. It added an hour to an already long day, but what can you do?
We stopped at Carhenge, Nebraska's unique tribute to Stonehenge, built entirely from vintage cars. It was only five miles off our route and a perfect midway pause. The heat made lingering impossible. I flew the drone, with permission, that came with a warning that the resident pigeons have taken out drones before. I took that seriously and kept a close eye on them. We bought a sticker, a walking stick medallion, a soda, and ice cream, and continued on.
Our overnight at Eagle Canyon Hideaway on Lake McConaughy (Lake Mac) was a fun surprise. The host gave us a shaded site with a lake breeze, and the campground itself was alive in a way that reminded me what summer is supposed to feel like. Families cooking out, kids coming back from the lake, people in the pool, everyone enjoying a summer day. It's August, and this is what August is for. It made me happy.
Kansas came next, a one-night stop in WaKeeney. Originally a Harvest Host, we upgraded to their RV park for the electric hookup. Lucky had the AC in the bus, and Don and I sat in the restaurant with beer and Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. The park itself was a little odd: no office, no check-in, no bathrooms, no other campers. They did have covered wagons for rent, which is cute in theory. We left early.
Oklahoma and the Goat Heads
Most of this week belongs to Oklahoma, even though we only ended up staying one night.
Back in February, we had a full Oklahoma itinerary: Tulsa, Route 66 stops, the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. We scrapped all of it to avoid an ice storm, got stuck in it anyway outside of Dallas, and ended up in a short-term rental in Athens, TX. Oklahoma became one of the loose ends of the trip. Since one of our goals is to visit all 48 contiguous states, we had to go back. We drove 687 miles south from South Dakota in three days, the longest stretch of the trip so far, to give Oklahoma another shot.
And then the goat heads found us.
Goat heads, also called puncturevine, are an annoying summer weed with burs that have sharp spines capable of injuring animals and puncturing bike tires. They are awful. We first heard about them when I visited Jeanne in Panama City Beach. Her dogs are constantly plagued by them. We dealt with them through Texas and New Mexico. In Las Cruces, members of the Habitat for Humanity crew told us they'd gotten four flat bike tires from riding on the grass. Four. All of them. In one go. During a stop in Buffalo, OK, for Don to take a couple of meetings, Lucky and I walked the local park. She came out with more than ten of them embedded in her paws and fur. As I tried to pull them out as gently as I could, she tried to bite me. I completely understand. She only has three teeth, so I survived, but it was not a fun afternoon for either of us.
We arrived at Boiling Springs State Park with temperatures over 100°F. I know the irony. I thought the creek and the shade might make it bearable. I set up the table, hung the hammock, took out my painting supplies and my book, and genuinely tried. I lay in the hammock in the shade with a nice breeze and pretended it was fine. It was not fine. Don and Lucky were inside with the AC. I went to the bathhouse and stood under the coldest water they had, which was lukewarm at best. I went back to the hammock, wet, and convinced myself I was cooler. There were goat heads everywhere. After another thirty minutes of sweating, I caved.
I went inside and said to Don: "Do you trust me?"
This is the closest I've come to quitting this trip. The heat since Medora has worn me down in a way I didn't anticipate and haven't fully recovered from. A month of triple digits, a bus that absorbs heat like a tin oven, an AC unit that helps but can't fight physics. I'm done. I needed a radical change.
My mom had helped us out with some funds after last week's mechanical situation, and I decided to use what was left for comfort rather than continuing to suffer. I booked a short-term rental in Wichita, Kansas. We were leaving Oklahoma and heading north, in search of something less than 30 degrees away from 70 degrees.
Wichita
One of our favorite movies is Planes, Trains and Automobiles. There is a moment where a character is told he is stuck in Wichita, and his face says everything. We also didn’t choose to be in Wichita, but the driving distance and the short-term rental itself were great. Good AC. Stable WiFi. No goat heads. My mood improved approximately the moment we walked through the door.
The short-term rental had an industrial eight-burner stovetop and a double oven. I cooked. Really cooked, for the first time in months. I meal planned and prepped for the bus: shredded chicken for sandwiches, biscuit vegetable casserole, baked feta pasta that can be served cold, salmon with roasted potatoes and asparagus (we haven't had salmon once on this trip because I don't cook raw or smelly meals on the bus), rice shrimp scampi, banana bread, and a rice and chicken and lentil mix for Lucky's meals.
The neighborhood around the rental wasn't the nicest. Lots of trash, which has become my personal metric for evaluating a neighborhood. Not the fanciness of the houses or the tidiness of the yards, just the trash. Pick up the trash. Lucky and I had a couple of interesting walks, including an encounter with two collarless Shih Tzus. I crossed the street before they saw us, but they followed anyway. I was not going to be responsible for two cute small dogs getting hit by a car, so I ensured they got back to the yard where I saw them. The next day a man on the street asked if I was interested in two Shih Tzus. Don also saw someone get arrested while walking Lucky.
Friday night we left Lucky in the house and went to check out local breweries, because some things are constant regardless of the neighborhood. We visited
Hopping Gnome - where we bought cookies from a local vendor. They had a small market because it was First Friday
Central Standard Brewing - They had a great live band and the most amazing ambiance with big plants everywhere
Bark & Brew - we watched dogs play around, and Don bought a rum and Coke with Flor De Caña!
Tor Brewing - We shared an amazing smashburger!
Saturday we made it to the farmers' market. I've missed them. It was hot, but it was worth it. Bread, vegetables, popcorn, canned jalapeños, and art for our travel wall. Good vendors, good conversations, a good morning. The end of this trip is getting closer, and I feel it in ways I didn't expect. Not ready. Still not ready.
Next up: Wamego, KS, and Nebraska.
Comments