Long road thru Texas

We crossed the Mississippi River at Sunrise and headed across Louisiana. I saw one armadillo lying on it's back with a black raven contemplating dinner. The road was rolling hills and traffic was light. We drove all the way from Natchez MS to Wichita Falls Texas! Straight thru Mississippi! 575 miles for the days driving! We stopped for a picture in Paris Texas.

We found the Eiffel Tower complete with a large red cowboy hat on top! There was a very large veterans' memorial just beside it which included veterens from the whole state, and several conflicts which Bob checked out. The School Civic Center was on the opposite side. With a long ride ahead we headed off to Wichita Falls and called ahead to the CrackerBarrel which does allow campers to overnight there, but upon arrival saw that the Walmart was better situated behind it and further from the highway/road noise. We had our 3rd consecutive night dry camping there. There were several other overnighters but is was nice and quiet. The temperature when we left Florida on Monday the 28th, was 93 for the high. on the highway, this day (On Tues, April 29th) it was high in the low 60's. When we awoke we put the heat on to take the chill off! It had dropped to 40, with a windchill of 37. Frost was warned just north of us, but none seen. The day warmed to upper 50's and briefly hit 61 when we decended in elevation. We had a very easy time heading off this morning onto 44 for 1/4 mile and exiting on 287 which we drove all the way thru the rest of Texas, Oklahoma and into Colorado. Our best gas price was $3.39/gal and just missed the $3.31/gal in Walmart, Wichita Falls. $3.49 in Springfield, CO. Roads are lightly traveled again, but lots of trucks and wind gusts. Bob is keeping both hands on the wheel! A lot of the road is just 2 lanes with oncoming traffic traveling at 70 to 75 mph. (that's the legal limit anyway!) We are only doing 60 to 65 for the most part due to the strong head and side winds. Oklahoma was only about 30 miles wide in the panhandle where we crossed. No Welcome Center there or in Colorado on 287.

These trees were nearly the only ones saw, and they were in the dry river-bed of the Cimarron River in OK. The area is desperately in need of water/rain. We saw the occasional red dust devil. You can see 360 degrees around for miles and miles. There were small cacti along the side of the road and seen in among the dry grasses. I saw two areas of the field fencing completely covered in Dust Dunes. But there were several rich green fields of grasses that had been recently irrigated with large sprinkler systems too. The landscape was quite flat then slowly changed from a mesa with canyons and dry creeks to the piedmont of Pikes Peak and a range just west of Colorado Springs

We are heading north tomorrow towards Denver. Can hardly wait to see Paul and Stephanie. Again dry camping at a Walmart. Hoping to check out the Garden of the Gods just west of Colorado Springs and perhaps a climb of Pikes peak tomorrow morning. Expecting the high temp to reach 30 at Pikes Peak and 70's at it's base areas. We shall see what we have time for. There are a lot of interesting sights here. It was a long day driving 12 hours and 600 miles then had a bit of computer issues so calling it a night. Tomorrow is another day!