Road Trip in December - Oklahoma

The vast majority of my previous visits to Oklahoma have been in the summer so going in December was different. The route was new to me as well. It felt like the Oklahoma I remember best as soon as I pulled into the welcome center after crossing the red river from Texas: natural stone building, Indian (tepee) motif for the picnic table covers, a buffalo and dinosaur skull in the visitor center lobby. The casinos along the highway always surprise me because they have sprung up since my childhood. They seem foreign to me even though they play a significant role in the economy these days.

People are friendly in Oklahoma too. A person at the welcome center offered to take a picture with my camera so I could be in the picture and a person getting gas at the next stop I made commented about how far I'd come after doing a double take on the Maryland license plate on my car.

Oklahoma has 'mountains' that seem more like hills but they are mostly rock and there is a 'pass' in the Davis Mountains (middle bottom of the picture block above).