It's a little colder than we prefer . . .

While we are spending a month visiting friends and family in Oklahoma, we are finding that it's a little colder than we prefer. But even on nippy days, we are having a good time "playing tourist." It's amazing when we find things we have never visited in the state where we lived all our lives. In fact, this interesting site is just a little over an hour from the town where we lived for over 30 years. One cold and cloudy morning, we made our first visit to western Oklahoma's only national historic site--the Washita Battlefield.

We stopped in at the nice visitor's center that hosts a film and museum that explains the battle. Spoiler alert--it's the lesser-known conflict between George Armstrong Custer and the Indians. If the Battle of Little Bighorn is known as "Custer's Last Stand," maybe this should be called, "Custer's First Stand." On a warmer day, we would have taken in all the hiking trails, and more of the outside exhibits. But today we hustled down the half-mile trail close to the visitor's center and called it good.

We made the battlefield stop on our way to visit our good friends, Connie and Steven, in southwest Oklahoma. On a beautiful blue-sky day, we stopped in at Quartz Mountain State Park just a few miles from their home. People from Colorado might scoff at the size of these "mountains." 

Unlike many of the states we visit, entry into Oklahoma state parks is free. So we love popping into one for a little hike or a drive around the park. This little gem includes Lake Altus, surrounded by the quartz mountains that are great for climbing.

While Steven was running his miles in the park, Mark was scrambling to the top of a hill overlooking the lake. From his vantage point, he took the picture below. If you look very closely, you can see Denisa and Connie walking the paved trail beside the water.

The park has a golf course, a resort lodge, a nice campground, and a large herd of friendly deer. The deer at the top of the mountain was surprised to see Mark scrambling towards him on his way to the top.

We enjoy observing agriculture all over the country, and southwest Oklahoma is experiencing a very late cotton harvest. Unlike the traditional big rectangular bales of cotton, most farmers have purchased the new equipment to harvest their crop into these colorful round bales.

It looks like a good crop, with the boles opening up to expose the pillowy white cotton balls.

We are accustomed to driving down rural roads, trying to guess how and why a crop is grown in an area new to us. But today we have Steven, who was raised on a cotton farm and knows this area well. He gave us a peek inside the reason those cotton plants look so healthy and plush. The water coming out of Lake Altus via canals, is filtered and pumped into miles of soaker hoses buried down each row of plants in this field. This system provides the perfect amount of moisture for ideal growing conditions delivered straight to the roots of the plants through underground hoses. It also has the ability to add fertilizer and other additives using this sophisticated system.

Those fields of cotton look like snow from a distance. We got some real snow on one of the mornings we were staying at Connie and Steven's house. It has been our plan to travel so that we can stay warm in winter and cool in the summer. But this December in Oklahoma has kept us a little colder than we prefer.