Fort Worth: 342 miles, 2 miles walked (most of it in the mall looking for food!), 14 caches, Merci Boxcar, Oklahoma State Capitol.

We started toward Oklahoma City with one goal on the way, the Cache Across America cache near a wind farm. Rich says "No wonder there are windmills. This is where the wind comes sweeping down the plains!" Heh. In the event, the nearest exit was 5 miles on, and we didn't want to detour that far, so we skipped it and went into OKC.

Now, I didn't have a city map, so we just knew we'd have to find the Capitol using a waypoint nearby and signage. The sign was for the Oklahoma City Memorial. For a short time I had forgotten the bombing here. I need AAA books to help me know about this stuff, because we'd have stopped. What we saw was very impressive, but it wasn't till I got to the motel tonight that I realized why it's there. This is something we have to come back for, one day.

We finally saw the Capitol, but it was hard to get to with a lot of streets and lanes blocked off (for a bike race, it turns out.) At the Veteran's memorial I asked a guy why it was so hard to get to, was there a parade, and he didn't know, he was from California, and he was a talker. I finally finished the questions and then rescued Rich. We walked over to see the Capitol, the only state Capitol with an oil well in front of it. There was a future bride and her family measuring cloth for the steps: in the wind this wasn't easy. Then we figured out how to get out of town.

Onwards to Norman, where we located the Merci Boxcar. It's on the grounds of a state school for developmentally challenged students so we had to go past a gate guard. The boxcar is in good shape, though there are only shields on one side.

And onwards. I saw a dead -- of course -- armadillo at the side of the road. We couldn't find one cache, then stopped at the Two Frogs grill. They were busy booking tickets for Rick Springfield. It's the first I've heard of him for years! Near the Texas border we went off the highway to the old highway 77 for a cache. Two puppies came burbling up to see us, and they kept running into the road. I spent more time worrying about them than looking for the cache. Finally Rich enticed them in the direction they'd come from and then scared them away, and I could relax and sign the log.

In Texas, we missed the turnoff to one cache because we were so amazed by the Texas Speedway. We saw a sign for Big Fatty's (the link has the picture and why I remember it.) Then we got to the Cattle Baron: wow. We find out that Sacramento was 107 degrees today!

Once we checked in, we started caching in earnest, and found 8 in a couple of hours. One Travel Bug Inn close to the highway is new, and we were second to find. I find that hard to believe. We got a lovely coin shaped like Texas that wants to go to California. I was getting really tired at the end of this, beginning to feel weepy. I know I have to log all these things, and it takes time.

Back at the hotel, we asked where fast food was and got told about the nearby mall. Yes, at 8 the food court was still open. The place was so big, Texas big, and so busy I wondered "what recession?" We had to walk so long to get to the mall that I was on the very edge of falling apart. I'd reached the point of hunger where nothing at all looked good. Then I almost dropped my salad, which would have truly been the last straw.

The mall is plagued by grackles. When we got gas, the trip meter said 16.8: we've gone over 2000 miles so far. Only a week to go for Geowoodstock! A week ago we were in Coloma. It seems much longer!