Day #1 — Stillwater, OK to Clayton, NM--May 23, 2011

Left Stillwater Monday, May 23, about 8 o’clock and spent my first night at Clayton Lake State Park in Clayton, New Mexico. (Sue, you and I and Marsha came through Clayton on our way back from Taos last year. It’s the place where the two Mexican guys opened their shop and fixed our flat on a Sunday.) 

Nothing much to look at across the panhandle but yucca, windmills, and wind farms, some roadside flowers, and many fields of wheat and canola. Some of the wheat is already a ripe golden brown, and some of the hay fields have already been mowed and baled. 

Much roadwork as they are resurfacing large sections of OK-51 west. I tooled along thinking of Katie Mussett giving birth to a daughter, Sara Kay, May 22, the day after my birthday. Thought about my birth and my mother and about the births of Jessica and Lucy. How lucky we are to have been born in a wealthy country to kind parents who could feed, clothe, and educate us. 

Stopped briefly in Guymon for lunch. Made myself a sandwich in the little park behind the visitor’s center there. Arrived at Clayton Lake SP about 3 o’clock. It is about 12 miles northwest of Clayton and one has to drop off a plateau (quite literally, I was wishing for a parachute) and travel across a valley to get to it. There were many pronghorn antelope in the valley. 

The CLSP has “one of the best dinosaur track sites in the world,” so after setting up camp, I walked to and across the dam to view them. The SP is also an IBA, Important Bird Area. I saw only barn swallows, turkey vultures, lark sparrows, and many western kingbirds chattering in the trees and brush. A pair of barn swallows had a nest in the canopy over my picnic table. They were very upset with me. The literature says that Golden Eagles are common, also, but I saw none. 

When I arrived, temps were in the mid 80s and the wind was fierce. CLSP had a ban on all outdoor fires, so that, combined with the wind, nixed a hot supper. I had sardines, crackers, cheese, and an apple instead. I thought the wind might blow my staked tent into the lake at one point. Made putting up and taking down the tent interesting. too.

The kingbirds woke me at 6 AM. It was cold and windy, so after dressing in jeans, long-sleeved tee, and a sweatshirt, I was off. I picked up a loaf of bread, Windex, and paper towels at a supermarket—and coffee and a doughnut at a CS—and was on the road by 8 AM again—now on Route NM-87N to US-25N to CO-160W through Colorado.

The dragon pic below is of a restaurant in town, a nondescript place with a great decoration. I think the welder is local as there were other metal sculptures about town.The road below and the views beside it are through the valley I traveled to the Park, and the last two pix are of Clayton Lake. There were campsites and boat ramps nearly all of the way around it.