Western Oklahoma

Here we are in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. However Iwant to give you the highlights of Western Oklahoma.
On Saturday we stopped at two Route 66 museums and experienced life on the road. Got to ride in a pink cadillac and listening to the music of the era. In the little recreated diner we bought some Bit 'o' Honey. I haven't eaten that in 30 years.
We arrived at the ranch too late to participate in any activities but we did have supper in Sassy's Cafe. Len had a buffalo burger and I ate the most enormous salad with grilled shrimp. We then drove to Elk City and had a beer or two in the Spurs Club while listening to some authentic country msuic, watching cowboys courting and dancing complete with boots and stetsons!
Sunday we chilled out with a little more shopping, ice cream sundaes and had lunch at Long John Silvers. (Loved the Hush Puppies!) While we were having our hot caramel sundaes a group of men came in all dressed in identical t-shirts which had INMATE written on the back. I thought they must have been a baseball team or some other club but we were informed by a friendly Okie that they were from the local correctional institution on a release problem. Had to be inside by dark!
We planned to watch a Little League baseball match that evening but when we got to the stadium at 6pm (as per the sign outside the stadium) we discovered that the sign was three days old! Things move slowly in Elk City and no-one had thought it necessary to take the sign down as noone expected there to be strangers in town!
Earlier we had wandered up the ridge behind our cabin to take pictures of the Texas longhorn cattle and buffalo and was taken a little by surprise when the Mama Buff decided she didn't like us and charged! You have never seen two people move so fast! We later found out that she could have jumped 7 feet and cleared the fence if she had chosen to and I wouldn't be telling this tale!
Getting up to leave the ranch brought another serendipity moment. The owner of the ranch, Don Whinery, was on duty to check us out and he gave us a truly memorable end to the visit. He allowed Len to wear his gun belt, shoot his Colt 45 and Winchester rifle! I posed with the real cowboy, Snuffy who was off to check on their herd of buffalo.
The trip from the ranch to Santa Rosa was basically mile after mile of road. Texas was awesome and a totally different terrain to Oklahoma and now New Mexico. We had one exciting moment just before coming into Santa Rosa. We drove into a terrible rain storm which was hairy driving through. The road was almost whited out (perhaps from the steam rising?) and the temperature dropped from 91 degrees as we entered the storm to 65 degrees. Once we came out the other side of the storm it was bright sunshine and no sign of any rain having fallen. The other amazing thing was that there were high winds within the storm itself which blew us all over the road. (I was driving at this point and did very well, according to our Number 1 driver, Mr Harvey!)
Oh, yes, another interesting stop was in Adrian which is the mid point geo-mathematically between Chicago and Los Angeles. We stopped for coffee in the Route 66 cafe there - recreated to look exactly like a road side diner. Oh and another stop was in Amarillo when we stopped for lunch at Furrs Buffet. What a feast. We won't need to eat for another week! They had a carrot souffle which was divine and I had chicken breast cooked in hot sauce or something - firey. I had no room for desert but Len tried a couple of the pies. All for under $16. Of course petrol is going up in price. We paid $3.19 today.
I am going to let Len have a go next and he wants to post some pictures if he can. If not you will have to wait for a few more days till we can load them on a CD. Our plans tonight are to go to Joe's Bar and Grill (home of the famous Fat Man) for a drink and maybe some music if we are lucky. Have really been enjoying listening to the country music stations on the radio. Tomorrow we drive even further than today to Arizona where we are meeting my sister, brother in law and brother and exploring the Petrified Forest. Len's not sure about meeting Mother Superior but I told him she is just like me - a pussy cat!