The Oklahoma Adventure Trail-West Half Day Two

OAT Trip Part 2

Let me first start with this, the night before Justin went to take a shower and came back telling us the shower was not working.  He put in 50 cents and nothing.  No big deal, we can be dirty. 
So this is the second full day of the trip.   We stayed at Alabaster Caverns in NW Oklahoma.  The park is nice although the entire park was no open so we were limited on the camping spaces.  That was fine because the reason this State Park was on our list was so we could do the tour of the caverns and maybe see some bats!

The night was cool and windy.  The wind was just strong enough to push my hammock so that it swayed and so I slept like a baby in a rocking crib.  We woke up to a beautiful clear sky.  We got breakfast ready eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee.  After we ate we tore down camp, packed it all away and headed to the office to see about the tour.  The staff was awesome and we got the tickets for the tour.  I also got Molly her bat wings, she loves them!  Before we left I told them about the showers.  They told me the work fine, I had said Justin put in 50 cents and it wouldn't work.  They laughed and told me it was 75 cents, and that it was clearly marked.  If you are wondering I did make fun of him pretty hard and I still make fun of him to this day, that is just what we do.

We all got out tickets and waited in line for the tour.  We were not allowed to bring in cameras so no pictures from inside the cavern, but let me say IT WAS SO COOL!  Did you know that if you are in complete darkness for 2 weeks you will become blind, forever!  We did see bats, way to may to count.  The guide had some awesome information about the history of the caves and what they have been used for over the years.  I highly recommend you bring your family and take the tour. 
For the second day in a row my battery was dead, a jump later and we were back on the road, dirt roads!  The roads that morning where fairly smooth but the view more than made up for that.  We drove for awhile and I decided that the battery had to be changed.  So off to the closest Wal-Mart for a quick fix.  It wouldn't be a real overland trip with out some type of repair, right?  We got the new battery and head off back on the dirt roads of the OAT. 

This area had been under wild fires for a few weeks.  We almost had to postpone the trip, but the firefighters were doing a great job so we felt it was safe to go.  As we traveled south we did come across a small fire.  We came up on a firetruck making a u-turn and asked a few guys if it was safe.  They said stay straight and you are clear.  It made me think of the loss of land, homes, livestock, and a couple of people had even lost their lives for all the fires in the area.  The firetruck turned to the East and we stayed heading south and told the men at the corner to be safe.  With the fire behind us we found an incredible view and decided to stop take some pics and stretch our our legs.  We needed to get out and get some fresh air after all of the excitement from the fire. 

The next section of trip was some of my favorite so far.  We had to remind ourselves that we were still in Oklahoma.  The trail unlike anything I have seen before in Oklahoma.  We were able to get more great pics and videos.  We turn we made was even better that the last.  Each path was deep with walls on each side craved from years of use.  I was happy to be in a group of 4x4 vehicles with aggressive tires.  It was sandy and slippery, I can't image what these roads are like after a rain.  At one point I kicked DJ out with the video camera to record all of us going down a part of the trail, a long part of the trail.  The last vehcile radioed if he needed to pick him up, I told him no but he did anyway.  We stopped and DJ got back in my Jeep, I glad he thought it was as funny as I did.
We did get our first pucker experience of the trail.  It was on a steep narrow section and the sand did not make me feel any better.  We picked a line stayed on it and made it out just fine, no issues at all.  Again I'm glad it was dry because add just a little bit of rain and we would have a different story from this part of the trail. 

I got us lost.  I blame the girls they were just having too much fun laughing and being funny.  We all stopped regrouped and found out where I went the wrong way.  It wasn't long before we were back on the road and headed to camp.  We would stay at Black Kettle Recreational camp area.  It was a small campsite with only a couple of other people.  So we had a big area to ourselves.  We had mac and cheese with hot dogs for dinner. 

We were able to make a camp fire since we were far away from the wild fire area.  We talked for hours until we finally settled in for the night.  The next day would be one of my favorite days ever out exploring in the Jeep.  Keep an eye out for Part 3 and see what we find, I got so scared I almost peed my pants.  GO ALL OVER, in a clean pair of pants of course.