Day 36: Porc effiloché et poitrine: Tulsa, OK to Robertsville, MO

Not a bad night in Tulsa at the old Cracker Barrel. A bit of extra noise as we parked too close to the 24 hour McDonalds and iHOP.

Morning walk was around the residential neighbourhood near the Cracker Barrel. I passed a huge Harley Davidson dealer and an even bigger? Boot Barn. Too bad both were closed. I’ve always never wanted a Harley and Mrs Milddogs has suggested a few times that maybe I need a straw Cowboy hat. No pictures of the walk.

Aside: she may have also seen the light. I was trying to grow a horseshoe hairline ponytail to fit in, but she did not see the need. This trip may have opened her eyes to the beauty of the horseshoe ponytail.

I picked up a coffee for Mrs Milddogs from McDonalds (dining room open again) and we got ready to head out. We hit the road by 0945, grabbed some gas and merged onto the highway.

Many hours of crosswind. A few rest stops. A last shot at Sonic lunch. Chilli Cheese Tater Tots! Good news, while we waited in fear for the Sonic “boom”, it never hit. Wildlife report: A groundhog. Oh, yesterday as we entered Tulsa there was a Bald Eagle gliding above the highway.

We crossed into Missouri for our (have not counted) state. We also crossed 10,000 km at a specific point I forgot to mark but can figure out later.

Mrs Milddogs had scoped out where we were picking up dinner. So we stopped at Missouri Hick in Cuba, MO for some takeout to eat when we got to the campground.

We arrived at the campground a bit confused. They had not yet removed the reservation names and dates from the weekend so our site did not have our name on it. We drove around, stopping to knock at the park host trailer (no response) then to the park office (closed) so, we took our rightful spot and got level. Lester across the way was burning a damp tree trunk in the 50 kmph wind and 15% of the smoke was coming into our site so we decided to move. Back to the camp host. No answer. So we decided to just take the next site over and moved. Vacancy rate here is about 70%. We will just deal with it if someone claims the site we are squatting in. There were a number of sites vacant with fires still smouldering. That’s not great. Our new site was one of them so we put the fire out. It’s been a long time since we have been somewhere where fires were permitted. The park is very much like Murphy’s Point in eastern Ontario. It has trees.

It is supposed to rain tonight. We have not been van bound due to rain since Alabama on day 4 (I think). Otherwise, rain has only hit as we were driving.

Eastern Oklahoma and Missouri look like Ontario. There is even water. We have not seen much water on this trip.

As we drove down the highway and passed the sign for Branson, MO we almost felt 0.003% of a temptation unit to go. Poor Mrs Milddogs did not even know what Branson is all about. Then we realized we must be near Dollywood. Mrs Milddogs proposed a route through the US of A doing all of the B and C level attractions. Must plan that next time.

Forget to mention, we passed the Cadillac Ranch as we entered Amarillo, TX the other day. We did not stop. But we saw it.

Back to the BBQ. It was pretty good. They do need to be a bit more careful pulling their pork (not a euphemism) as it was a bit too fatty. We like to pull our pork (still not a euphemism) to a low fat content. Sauce was really good and it was well worth the stop.

There is a nice trail right near here I hope to do in the morning before we head off to near Indianapolis, IN. We will hopefully pass by the Golden Arches gateway to the west in St Louis. We divided this push home into relatively even chunks. Just drive she said! We expect to be in Sarnia, ON for a few days by Tuesday. Looking forward to seeing family, including our second born child.

Let’s hope the storms aren’t too bad tonight. It has been unseasonably warm along our trail the last few days. Unusually windy too! We are hoping for some rain to give the van a bit of a rinse.

Things I forgot to mention: Mrs Milddogs recently passed her 800th straight day of learning / practicing French on Duolingo. Duolingo is not the same as Dua Lipa.

That’s all folks!

Look, an updated map.