After Albuquerque, I set off for Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to visit one of my Navy buddies, Bill. I had decided to speed up my trip home due to a pressing issue there that needs my attention. Albuquerque to Broken Arrow, which is near Tulsa, is a solid 2 day drive along I-40 across the Great Plains. The scenery along the way had the highway running pretty straight between a series of mesas. Every time I pulled off the highway to get a good picture of them, the scenery sort of disappeared. The best view was from the highway itself and where there were pull offs, they were surrounded by trees and for good reason. The trees sheltered the pullouts from the constant prairie wind.
I got to the Texas panhandle just after sunset and within a couple of miles of entering the state, I was struck by the appearance of massive wind farms. Texas, after all, is number one in wind power generation and the wind farms went on for miles. The turning blades seemed to me like watching a giant ballet. It seems so graceful. It’s clean renewable power (if you don;;t count all the carbon embedded in the manufacture, installation, and maintenance of the towers). Farmers nonetheless are growing crops all around the towers, and cotton harvesting was in full swing as was soybean harvest.
I camped out in a travel information center in Amarillo on Saturday night. It was clean, the toilets were open 24 hours, and they were heated – a good thing since he temps dropped into the 30’s during the night. I cleaned up and attended St. Andrews (Episcopal) Church in the morning, where I was drafted into the choir for the morning. I met a geologist named Darren at the church breakfast who had fascinating things to teach.
After church, I grabbed lunch, checked the tires, and pushed on to Broken Arrow.
