5 States in 1 Birthday |

June 27, 2013

Happy Birthday Legoboy! I hope this birthday is one you will remember! Our plan is to be in 5 different states today. We will see what the day brings.

We started out a little later than we had wanted. The temperature is supposed to be 110 degrees F today. We have a few hours to drive to our first destination in Texas and we know the high heat will be a challenge for Flyer, even though we finally made it out of the Rockies last night.

The road is flat on this Eastern side of New Mexico.

Wide open fields surrounded the road on all sides as we entered Texas and we passed through Rita Blanca National Grasslands.

It was bone dry under every bridge on the road, even though it said there was some river that was supposed to be flowing there.

We passed a gigantic cattle ranch. Thousands upon thousands of cattle stood in the sweltering heat tightly packed in small feeding paddocks. As far as the eye could see, cattle.

Our stop in Texas was in Delhart. We toured the XIT museum. It represents the 3 million acres in that region of Texas that they had thought would make millions in the early 1900′s. A group of entrepreneurs had bonded the land with some European investors and when the land couldn’t produce the income promised the investors called the bond and the group was forced to stop operation in 1912 and sell the land to repay the debt. The last of the land was sold in 1963. To this day they have an annual celebration and memorial on the first week of August for the XIT.

The kids explored lots of native artifacts and a section about the cycle of farming to dairy processing.

Sparky took a few back alleys trying to get back to the main road. Tight squeeze.

Sister Bear loves to ride up front with her Daddy.

We then moved north to Oklahoma. More flat. Yellowed grass fields as far as you could see. The sun was high in the sky by now and temperatures were over 100.

Flyer was sputtering, we know the gas and engine are hot so we wondered about that check valve that had melted back in MT. Maybe that was happening again. We found a parts store and picked up the filter and some ethanol treatment formula to help Flyer manage the ethanol in the gas.

Sparky dropped the kids and me off at the Cimarron Heritage Museum and then went over to a local auto shop to switch out the filter.

At the museum we learned about the Santa Fe trail and how the first folks traveled to sell their goods to the Mexican merchants and made a huge profit, but with serious risk and hardship. Very interesting museum with lots of Oklahoma information, historical items and antiques.

Sparky picked us up and we continued North into Colorado.

Luckily the road was flat as the heat climbed to 111 degrees F. It was hot. We looked for a campground where we could set up, get plugged in and let the kids swim, but no such luck. Instead we found a LOVES gas station that let us plug in. We got cooled down and had some Subway.

We waited until the outside temp dropped below 100 and then we started out again. This time East towards Kansas. That will be our 5th state of the day and our final destination for this special day.

Legoboy chose sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles for his “birthday cake” and we put his #9 candle in that and sang to him. What a memorable day.