Monday, May 12, 2008

I was feeling a little "not so good" yesterday. Allergies have been tough on me... the pecan trees got me pretty good at the last campground. I didn't feel like doing much of anything... even take pictures.. Frank said he knew I really didn't feel good if I didn't feel like taking pictures. Fluid had gotten in my ears... with some pain. I used my mixture of half and half alcohol and vinegar drops and my ears feel better. I felt like I was running a bit of a fever. I was beginning to think I might have to find a doctor. The drops worked along with extra doses of antihistamine. Getting away from the pecan orchard helped a lot too :-)


We left Juniper Point at Lake Texhoma at 8:50 (GA Time... we are still in Central Time Zone).


The scenery changed a lot today. The mountains came into view and the trees changed. Juniper Point had cedar/Juniper and I think what they call Post Oak trees.


Oh a note on Juniper Point... as we were leaving Frank saw a glint of sunlight reflecting off glass up the hill into a heavily wooded area just before you get to the boat ramp. It was the bath house... no sign as to what it was from the parking lot and no indication of it on the map of the campground.


Okay... back to scenery.. some of the road was cut through rocky hills and had beautiful colors. There were still the same type of wildflowers along the roadside. Much of them are planted through their DOT program... just as they do in Georgia.


As we drove past Lawton and Ft. Sill (Oklahoma) we didn't recognize much of anything. We did recognize the old stables on Ft. Sill.


A real treat driving onto the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge. Lots of yellow flowers are blooming on the hillsides. There are also Indian Blanket flowers... I guess reddish-orange might describe their color. There is a pinkish hue to the mountains... from the rock and clay here. Buffalo, longhorn cattle and prairie dogs are dotting the grasslands.


We arrived at Doris Campground around 1:00 pm (GA Time). We drove through and found a faucet to fill up the holding tank with water and filled up with water. There are electrical hookups, but not water.


We set up camp and had dinner of grilled pork chops, lima beans and corn... Frank had grilled enough chops before we left home to take on the trip. We watched deer graze outside our window as we ate our dinner.


Then we did some exploring around our camp site area... we are in site # 58. We figured out how to get to the showers and where the flush toilets are... the chemical toilets aren't pleasant :-)


We went up to the visitor center and walked around the museum. We watched hummingbirds outside of one of the windows eat at a feeder. The exhibits were interesting. We were going to listen to a lecture, but one of the campers kept interrupting the speaker so much that it was just plain boring.

Familiar with the western trees we are not... we went into the bookstore to look for a book on trees. We talked to a nice couple who live in the Lawton area and were showing the wife's mother around. The husband was nice enough to go out to their car and bring us a map of the Lawton / Ft. Sill area.

While in the bookstore I looked up the yellow bird that Frank took a picture of at Juniper Point.. it looks most like a female Baltimore Oriole.


We drove up to Mt. Scott... the highest mountain of this range. The wind was blowing at about 50 miles per hour up there. Frank had to help me open the truck door.... the wind force was just too much for me to do it. It is beautiful up there. Frank video taped it and we both too pictures.


I'm never going to have enough time to edit all the pictures I've taken and am going to take. I'm just going to edit a few and post them to this journal.


We were exhausted by time we got back to camp. We took our showers and ate a ham sandwich for supper and watched the deer graze. Oh... on the way to the showers we saw a turkey hen. Later on we saw a tom... he was strutting and fanning his feathers. The lighting was awful so no pictures of him yet. We also saw some Cedar Waxwings up in the top of a dead tree... us with no camera in hand.


Frank talked to our neighbors across the way. One has been playing beautiful music on his flute.


We drove 173 miles today... plus what we drove on the refuge later in the day.