Hooker to Oklahoma City, Part I

Since we didn't want to hit Oklahoma City at rush hour, we decided to take our time leaving Hooker spend the night somewhere along the way and roll into the big city early the following morning. The GPS has us routed out of Oklahoma, into Texas then back into Oklahoma, but we decided to let the wind (of which there was a LOT!) propel us and cranked 'er up.

First intended stop was Beaver, OK. Just outside of town was an unexpected sight – the Beaver Sand Dunes Park. Huge sand dunes were the last thing I expected to see in the panhandle of Oklahoma, but they were indeed there (sorry, I was so surprised by them that I didn't get a picture).

The welcome sign proclaims “No Man's Land – Everyone's Town.” Now, Beaver is the self-titled “Cow Chip Capital of the World” and is supposed to have a giant statue of a beaver holding an equally giant cow chip. We looked all through town and didn't find it. Bummer, but we drove on, chanting “Where's the beaver?!”

Canadian, TX was the next major (and I'm using major very, very loosely!) destination. The Canadian River runs through Canadian, TX and I was curious about the name. Turns out Canadian is actually derived from the Spanish word for “boxed in”, not the country of Canada, as I assumed. Since the landscape is primarily flat, I still don't completely understand the logic of the name, but there you have it. 

We stopped for lunch at a little park that advertised the Canadian River Wagon Bridge. Imagine my surprise after walking a half a mile only to see an iron and wood bridge. I was expecting something that had to do with wagons crossing the river, but not the largest steel structure west of the Mississippi when it was completed in 1916!

Canadian River Wagon Bridge

The little roadside park did have a historical marker that told about the Canadian River Trails which were used as far back as 1541 by Coronado when he and his party were looking for the golden cities I spoke of in an earlier post. Leave it to Texas, though, to have to mark the presence of a historical marker with a giant arrow in the ground. Nothing like a small roadside sign would do, no way!

"Arrow" marks the spot?

I hope you're enjoying reading about our trip thus far. If you'd like to comment and are unable to, I'd appreciate it if you'd email me at CSL1953@gmail.com and let me know. Some people have had trouble posting comments and I need to know if it's specific to iPads or a problem with the blog in general. Thanks and until next time....