Off to Oklahoma

We were up at 5 am yesterday morning and loaded up the last of our belongings. We said goodbye to James and Renee. There were hugs all around.  We had such a wonderful time with them. They were such gracious hosts.
We were on the road by 6 am and even though it was dark we managed well. We had to switch highways  a few  times  but James and Renee had given us good advice and directions and we  got on the road taking us through parts of Dallas and Fort Worth without a hitch.  It was an interesting time. We were on a divided highway with 4 lanes going each way and many times there were four layers of traffic.

Anna did very well. You would think she had been doing this all her life.  However, when we got through it all to the other side we both gave a huge sigh of relief. I guess nothing can intimidate us now. If it ever could.
Luck was on our side and we made it through all the highway changes without a hitch throughout the day. It was foggy so not a good day for pictures.

Off to the right is Dallas.

Later in the morning the fog cleared up and I was able to get a few  shots of some beautiful old buildings as we were passing through the various towns. I wish they still made buildings like this.

We  passed over the Red River which divides Texas from Oklahoma much as the Rio Grande divides Mexico from Texas. 

Red River

 One thing I had been noticing was that the soil  was very orange/red, at times vividly so. This is due to its high iron content. 

We arrived at the small town of Hobart just before 3 pm and since the plan was that this would be our destination for the day we found the one and only RV campground and parked. It was small but had full hook ups and as there were no other campers we had the place to ourselves.

As Hobart looked like a very interesting place, with lots of charming old buildings we decided to go exploring. We found the Tommy Franks Institute and  Museum and the fellow who worked there was nice enough to take us through. Tommy R Franks is a retired 4 star general who has had a remarkable 36 year  career in the military. Although born in Texas he presently lives at Roosevelt, Oklahoma which is not far from here. The museum contains several rooms, each of which covers a phase of his career. Although he has served all over the world he is best known for  leading American and Coalition troops in two strategically unprecedented campaigns in two years – Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq.

The General’s awards include five Distinguished Service Medals, four Legions of Merit, four Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts in addition to numerous foreign awards. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by order of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on May 25, 2004. And President George W. Bush awarded him the Nation’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, on December 14, 2004.

Several of the rooms contained gifts that he has been given by various world leaders over the years.

The picture below is of a woman in Afghanistan who has just been able to vote. Her finger is purple as that is how they mark their vote. Sorry the picture came out so blurry.

There were also many gifts from various country music artists who he had met when they had entertained the troops in the various   countries where he had served.

It was a very interesting afternoon. 

We finished the day off with a Chinese buffet. Upon talking with the girl who worked there we found out that she was from New York. We are all a long ways from home.

Keep warm.