The University of Oklahoma at Norman

Norman, Oklahoma is home to the University of Oklahoma (OU) and I'd never been there although Wayne had been a few times for banking school.  We're staying in the Clear Lake Campground in Thunderbird Lake State Park a few miles out of town.

Our drive into Norman was uneventful and the weather was very near perfect. The OU campus is beautiful with so many nice old buildings.  I won't attempt to remember all the building names, I'll just give a photo overview instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the last picture I snapped around campus. From here we were riding along when I heard Lexie whimper in the back seat.  For the second time in a little more than two days, I turned around to find her in what appeared to be a seizure. Wayne quickly found a place to pull over and we gathered her in our arms to comfort her. We managed to find a vet who could see her right away but they could determine nothing. Bloodwork was done but it was normal.  We'll watch her closely and, if the seizures continue or worsen, we'll have to have a more indepth research done.  She seems fine now.

It was late in the afternoon when we finished at the vet's office and we made our way back to Thunderbird Lake State Park.

 

A dead snake we passed along the road to the campground. 

These "horse statues" are everywhere around here. 
Must have been a traveling salesman...

Friday night the campground at Thunderbird Lake filled completely with families.  Bicycles, dogs, boats, campfires and the happy sound of weekend camping was everywhere. 

Saturday morning we pulled out to move on through Oklahoma City and then back into Texas heading west.



Lexie and Ozzie In A Kodak Moment

 

Just thought these were worth sharing.

Along The Road From Denton, Texas to Norman, Oklahoma

In the end, it took nine days to replace and then install the shattered window so we finally left Denton, Texas and went looking for cooler temperatures.  It's already reaching into the 80's nearly everyday.

One of the things I did to occupy my time in Denton was play around with pictures in Picasa and Picnik. The purist in me gave way to a bit of daring and I promised I'd do some fun things with some of the pictures I take and then post on the blog.  Here's some of what I've been doing.

This Denton water tower is along I-35 north.
I "neonized" it!  But nothing too dramatic.

Wayne did some system maintenance checks on Endie while we waited around in Denton and found the batteries were very nearly dry.  This isn't a good thing to find on a brand new coach and he was a bit angry at the prospect of damaging to the pricey replacement. To add water, he had to disconnect the house batteries and  then found the solar panel inoperable.

On our way out of town we passed I-35 RV Center and decided it would be worthwhile to make the U-turn to ask Craig and Johnny Stack to take a look. Johnny came to the campground last week to replace the tan window awning that was mistakenly put on the curb side with the new black one sent to us from Tyson at The RV Shop in Baton Rouge.  We were real happy with the work Johnny did and sure enough, he fixed the wiring problem quickly and we were back on the road quickly.

This is an enormous facility along I-35 going north. I guess they make those giant wind turbines we've seen. Those are individual wings lined up along the left side and those housings are on the right. A terrific site!



This is one of those huge wind turbine wings ready to travel!
Gives a good perspective of the size!

I've decided to put some captions directly on the pictures occasionally. 
We crossed the famous Texas Red River and you know... it is red.

We stopped in at the Oklahoma Welcome Center on I-35 to get a travel guide.  I had to take this photo of Ozzie taking his position on Wayne's arm. He gets into this position every time and just begs to have his picture snapped!

Sign at the Oklahoma Welcome Center. Nice

I was pretty far away when I took this this picture. I had to zoom and crop so it's a little fuzzy.
Anyway, it's our rig parked at the Oklahoma Welcome Center.

We only got as far as Ardmore, Oklahoma that day. We drove the few short miles east to Elephant Rock Campground at Lake Murray State Park.  Just one night though and we're off again. The temperatures and humidity are so uncomfortable to us we've just got to get into some cooler weather.

Next day, Lady GaGa found a Walmart at the Pauls Valley, Oklahoma exit and to our surprise, we saw a Braum's Ice Cream Store too!  Hamburgers, fries, shakes and two waffle cones later, we returned to the coach to find almost our entire supply of paper napkins shredded all over the sofa and in the dog beds. For a good long time Ozzie has been shredding paper when we leave them alone. This day, he walked along the counter from the window sill to the table where he simply gathered the napkins directly from the dispenser! 

My dear sweet, one-in-a-million husband never looses his cool with me, Lexie or Ozzie.  He simply said, "who did this?" Of course, the Oz-Man was already hiding under the table by this time. 

By early afternoon we reached our Norman, Oklahoma destination, Turkey Bay at Lake Thunderbird State Park . It's about 13 miles east of I-35.  The campground has paved interior roads, plenty of trees, concrete pads and lots of empty spaces from which to choose (first come, first serve).  We didn't disconnect the car and found ourselves in one of those tiny circular dead ends with the car at an angle that wouldn't allow disconnect.  The situation quickly deteriorated to the point of requiring Wayne at the wheel of the coach, me at the wheel of the car (still attached) and a good Samaritan coaching us out of the sticky situation.  We were exhausted in the end and appreciated the Camp Host's offer let us park in one of the nice wide handicapped spaces.  Turns out we would have found ourselves in this situation sooner or later as the campground has several of these tight turns. We've been given permission to retreat from the campground going the wrong way on a one-way road. 

To add insult to injury, the grounds are covered with tiny burrs that bury themselves in the dogs' paws. They are round and spiky and get twisted all around their hairs.  Uck.  We'll spend one day around the OU campus and then we're outta here!

Sweet Potato Treats For Lexie and Ozzie

From the very beginning, Wayne has been the feeder of Lexie and Ozzie.


I do not feed them; I'm really not allowed, he does. Period. 

There is a reason for this arrangement.  Wayne has a way with animals -- they love him naturally.  


Not so with me. I have to earn the love of pets.  I don't know why that is true, but it is. My "feelings" are not hurt.


But things are different with Lexie and Ozzie.


EVERYTHING is different with Lexie and Ozzie -- I expect that's because they have such an unusual and bad history. 


Ozzie is particularly a "Momma's Boy". 


And Lexie, dear sweet, weird little Lexie.  I held her so much during the first year, she probably grew to believe we were attached.


I held her when we rode in the car and the coach. I held her when we relaxed in the evenings and she slept in the nightstand drawer on my side of the bed.

That's why Wayne began the feeding routine. He said it was the only "bonding opportunity" he had.

It worked.

Lexie now will go to him before she comes to me.  He loves it.

Occasionally, 
he discovers new treats that get his seal of approval.

Their food is holistic and he reads the labels.  As of this writing, they are eating Wellness Small Breed. He buys it in the largest bag.                    
But I digress.

So recently Wayne discovered both Lexie and Ozzie would eat bites of baked sweet potato.

Soon they began looking to him any time he went to the kitchen counter.

They think it's time for sweet potato.

On this particular evening, just before he began the sweet potato snack, I grabbed the camera and stood behind him.

They were so cute gobbling up the sweet potato treats!

I cropped the photos and added captions. I posted them all on Facebook.  Now they are posted here for us to see occasionally.

Such terrific little dogs.

Enjoy!

Southfork Ranch at Parker and the Old Stone Dam in Allen, Texas

The tiny town of Parker, Texas is home to Southfork Ranch. "So what?" you ask.  Well, if you asked, you just don't know about the famous Ewing family of Dallas. 

Southfork was really named Duncan Acres.

Joe Duncan built this house for his family in 1970 and called it Duncan Acres for the obvious reason. The 4,769 sq. ft. home sits on 200 acres of beautiful grassland.

The house gained publicity when, in the second season of the nighttime television soap opera, Dallas, it was given the fictitious name Southfork and called it home to the notorious make-believe Ewing family. 

Main entrance to Southfork Ranch.

All the outside scenes of Dallas during the 1978-1979 seasons were filmed at this location. No interior shots were used as the home was occupied by the owners. Later, the reunion movie, J.R. Returns (1996), then War of the Ewings (1998) and finally the reunion special Dallas Reunion: The Return to Southfork (2004) would be filmed here too. The only time the interior of the house was used for production was during the 2004 filming.

The Duncan home was also used in a music video called God Blessed Texas.  The property is now an event and conference center complete with tours for $9 each. A Christian broadcast group is based here too.

We visited the property today but didn't tour the home. It just didn't prove to be that interesting to either of us as neither of us were fans of the television program.

We drove through Plano, Texas on the way to see Southfork in Parker. All these small cities are outlying communities of Dallas and all are quite nice.  Today however, for the second time in a year, we happened upon a motorcycle accident with the victim lying in the street with emergency people all around. The motorcycle itself lay on it's side some 100 feet away.  We'd come upon a similar accident, again, just after paramedics arrived, last year when we were in California.  The victim of that accident died and I'd be surprised if today's victim lived.  So sad.

Our lunch stop today was at Braum's. We each had hamburgers, topped off with ice cream sundaes.  

Braum's. Some of the best ice cream we've eaten lately.

From Parker we drove just a few miles to the city of Allen to see what is, perhaps, the country's only remaining stone dam. It was built in 1874 and was used for the railroad steam locomotives.  In 1912 a larger dam was built that caused this one to be submerged. In the 1960's the newer bridge was breached, causing the older dam to become visible again.

The Stone Dam at Allen Station.

We've both taken notice of the elaborate high schools in Texas.  We passed several really nice ones today and I couldn't resist taking a photo of this already huge football stadium being enlarged.  Incredible.  Texas loves high school football.

High School Football Overkill.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we've discovered both Lexie and Ozzie absolutely love baked sweet potatoes.  Wayne's begun baking a small one for them every week. He keeps it in the refrigerator and gives them "sweet potato treats" by hand, every evening.  I've never seen them so excited as when they're having these treats. Lexie, as timid as she is, will climb right up onto Wayne's lap to get her sweet potato bites. 

We both are getting a bit antsy to leave the Dallas area. We're moving along toward New Mexico when we leave here but for now, we're stuck waiting for the replacement window to be delivered and installed.  If it doesn't arrive today, it should come by Monday.  ho hum.

 

Texas Motor Speedway

Driving home to our campground from Fort Worth two days ago, I "blogged" that we passed Texas Motor Speedway along I-35. We were impressed at the size of this complex. As we're not race fans (of any kind), I had to do a little research to find more.

Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth is the second largest sports facility in the country.  Both Indy-style racing and NASCAR Nextel Cup stock cars run the course.  The speedway inflield alone is large enough for four Cowboys Football Stadiums. Yes, I had to read that twice too. 

190,000 rabid race fans can be seated simulaneously and there are 194 skybox VIP seats.

Last week when we checked in at our campground in Denton,  we saw lots of NASCAR signage.  More flags and banners are going up every day. I expect the campground will be filled to capacity very soon.   Turns out April 12-14 is Samsung Mobile 500 Weekend.  We do not plan to attend.

Feels Just Like I'm Walking On Broken Glass....

The "dime" sized chip in Endie's windshield, created by a flying rock along I-10, was a minor annoyance compared to the shattered window we received this week from the campground's lawn service.

Mowers, edgers, blowers and other outdoor noisemakers are among Wayne's greatest peeves. Before he retired, it seemed the lawn service workers were always around our house when he was home for lunch and he always complained -- to me... not to them.   But I digress.

Sitting at the computer Wednesday morning I could hear the hum of the edger and the roar of the lawnmower.  I like the sound. It comforts me to know that somebody is working out there.

Suddenly I began hearing what sounded like scratching. I checked Lexie and Ozzie only to find them both sound asleep.  The scratching continued for a few minutes more but I didn't continue to look for the source of the sound. When Wayne came into the coach, he immediately saw the window. That's what was making that scratching sound? Yup. The stone hit the window but did not break complete through it -- it's shatterproof.  Instead, the scratching sound was the thousands of tiny breaks in the window. 

Here's the final result of the scratching.

This is how it looks from the inside.  Beautiful. Almost like a stained glass window without the stain.

It looks like this from the outside.

The lawnmower operator was still nearby and he was heartbroken (or appeared to be) when I told him what happened.  Within an hour the owner of the company stopped by to assure us that he or his insurance would replace the damage. 

The operator of the "devil" mower that hates our coach.
Poor guy was heartsick.  Turned out he had already gotten another window today. 

Thursday afternoon a glass company representative came by to take measurements for the replacement window.  Shatterproof glass cannot be cut like standard glass. It must be manufactured in the exact dimensions.  This will take 7-10 days. Oh boy.