It appears that my last trip summary was back on the 23rd. Yikes! Well, let’s get you up-to-date.

On Day 9 - 4/23/09 - We went from Eureka, Missouri on a wonderful drive of Southern Missouri’s hilly country (as I refer to it). We also saw tons of cows (cow country- as Brett refers to the area). We explored the Hercules Glades National Wilderness Area. It was a fabulous weather day and probably my favorite driving day of the trip thus far.

Day 10 was a hoot of a day. We explored Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Then we headed back North into Missouri to catch back up with Route 66. We didn’t make it very far along 66 however because in Carthage we found a Drive-In movie theater and decided to stay for the night’s show, which proved to be a wonderful time.

Day 11 took us from Missouri through Kansas and into Oklahoma. We stayed the night at Oologah Lake’s Spencer Creek camping area and used the tent for the first time. They aren’t kidding when they say that Oklahoma is where the wind blows. It was a great day though.

Day 12 was a marathon! We started the day in Northwestern Oklahoma and drove through Tulsa (after a quick stop at the visitor’s center), then along Route 66 through Supulpa, Chandler and Arcadia before reaching Oklahoma City. We visited the Statehouse, OKC Memorial, Myriad Gardens and Bricktown before hopping on the interstate to continue West. We saw clouds that were pretty dark and the winds were pretty severe, so we turned on the AM country music station that was giving a local weather update and learned that there was a Severe thunderstorm warning and tornado watch with a very strong cell headed directly to us with quarter to baseball sized hail and wind gusts up to 60 mph. Well, we were pretty certain we weren’t going to camp with weather like that - so we opted to listen to the Yankees game on the XM satellite radio and drive West until the skies looked friendlier. We made it to Texas! We slept at the McClellan Creek National Grassland.

And yesterday - Day 13 - was exceptional. We continued West through Texas with a stop in Amarillo before heading South to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. We drove the entire auto road through the park before deciding upon which trail to hike, forded a water crossing, and showered (I know y’all were curious). Then we headed W through Canyon, N back up to Amarillo to see the artwork at Cadillac Ranch and continued on 40 West into … N-E-W M-E-X-I-C-O!! We stayed at Ute Lake State Park last night and I saw (no joke) more stars than I ever imaged possible. There were more stars in the sky last night than in the planetarium. It was absolutely amazing and we can’t wait to see what all New Mexico has to offer.

Side note: We have hit our first milestone! We surpassed 2,500 trip miles yesterday night before dinner. It was great! Just wanted to keep everyone informed of our western progress.