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As I woke up today the wind was blowing west of Amarillo, TX - a sign the storm was nearby. I got a bit nervous, did the storm decide to move West? I checked the weather and it turns out tropical storm Bill did hit Oklahoma City last night, still had strong winds and rain, and was hanging around that area today. After only covering 333 miles yesterday, I was hoping we could do more miles today. At this point, I thought it would be best not to linger in this area so we skipped Cadillac Ranch. We had skipped another possible stop at a National Park near Albuquerque since stomachs were rumbling so no one was in the mood to sightsee.
Thanks to not relying on a GPS but MS Streets and Trips, I was able to map out a route that would avoid the storm. For now we would drive into Oklahoma and head north towards Kansas at that point I would have to check the weather again to decide where to go. Avoiding this storm is going to add miles to our trip for sure, at this point I am not sure of just how much.
Driving through Oklahoma added one more state to my list to make 44. I officially only have 6 states to visit - Arkansas, Delaware, New Hampshire, Maine, Alaska and Hawaii, I marked the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum as a place to stop to visit to break up this leg of the trip, but Gil did not want to stop, so we went on. Due to this I got confused and missed the exit to take the road to head north. We had to keep driving east on 40 until I figured out another good two lane state road to take.
We ended up getting really close to the beginning of the storm, I was getting nervous because I could feel the wind picking up the closer we got to Oklahoma City. The mistake took us through Kingfisher, OK - Sam Walton's birth place, While there is a lot of controversy over his business practices, I have learned to appreciate the hospitality the company extends to RVers and I have to say the Wal-marts out West are much cleaner and organized than the ones in the east - I wonder why.
After driving almost 600 miles we made it to North Lawrence, KS. I wanted to stop in Topeka at the Deer lamp park - I mean Deer Creek, but they were full. We ended up in Jellystone, a place not on my list to come back to. In general I do not like to stay at KOA or Jellystone parks. Most KOAs in my opinion are overpriced for the quality of the facility - some are older, cramped, gravel road parks. I would much rather pay that rate at a newly renovated private park with the same amenities if I am going to spend that kind of money. Jellystone is also priced based on all the activities they offer and they were a good option when the kids were little, but now I do not feel like paying a price for activities I will not use and their parks are not all in good condition.
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