Flooding at Palo Duro, to Oklahoma City OK

Lots of rain and wind overnight. Cath & I took an early drive on the park road, to see if there was any flooding. There sure was, lots of water over the road at the river crossings. 

We stopped at the second crossing, were going to turn around and go back. Then a ranger came through and drove across easily, so we did too. 

We did turn around at the 3rd crossing though. The ranger caught up to us then and asked us to go back past the first river crossing, as they were closing the road. So it was a short adventure for us, and we got a number of pictures of the water, deer and wild turkeys.

There was an 80% chance of more heavy rain today, the park roads were closed, the hiking trails unusable. So we decided to leave today too, and travel with C&J for another day. We filled in a form for a refund at the office, they’re supposed to mail us a check again, as a different Texas park did last year (and they did it again - great service).

We just went out to I27 and north to I40 eastbound. Nobody had had breakfast, so we stopped at a very busy Cracker Barrel. This was a mistake, as we had quite a wait, then breakfast was slow too. We’re all being too nice, as it turned out later that nobody really wanted to spend the time for breakfast there. Quite expensive too. We should have gone to McDonalds like we all actually wanted to.

Then we just trundled across I40. Strong crosswinds from the south made driving interesting at times. Otherwise it was just overcast, a pretty good day for driving. We really enjoyed a stop at a Cherokee Village (exit 71). There’s another different-looking Cherokee stop at exit 108 (east of exit 71) that we didn’t stop at, but would another time.

Cath found a cg off the highway, right on Rte 66 east of Oklahoma City (OKC). Oak Glen RV Park. Passport America again, so just $9 for a w/e site. Nice quiet spot. Washrooms not great again, but only a few transient sites, so it worked ok. It’s nice to have the cheap US phone, as we called ahead to check availability before leaving I40.

We all said our goodbyes tonight, and will set off separately tomorrow, with us likely leaving earlier than C&J. Still 22C at 9:30.

Not our finest travel day today, but days like this do happen.