Meandering Through Small Towns

It was pretty overcast today, but we decided to go out anyway in search of another adventure.  This time giving my "hinder parts" a rest.  We took the Infinity i30 and started up the highway.  First stop.......

Now, since I have committed myself to vanquishing the "monkey butt" sydrome that I have been contending with, we finally had a chance to stop at a motocycle shop that carried all manner of stuff for bikers...Since the name of the store might be slightly offensive to some of my readers, I slanted the camera to keep you from falling out of your seat! haha.....However, I figured with a name like this, they ought to have something for my particular "issue"......:-) 

We purchased another item that is supposed to make the ride more comfortable and enable me to ride longer than I have been.  And it was not cheap either!....:-(.  I figured since we have another month before leaving for Canada, I needed something else in case my lambs wool started to fall apart!

Medicine Park is more like a village than a town, but it does have it's own police department, fire department and post office....and you will see from the photos that most of the houses are made from cobble stone (some would call it adobe brick) and have been here for many, many years.

This particular one is not in good repair, but I'll bet it was nice at one time....:-)

There is a dam nearby and a water treatment plant.  I remember riding through this area many times through the years.  I would come here to think and pray.....:-)

This is the opposite entry way to the village.  Some of the houses are quite interesting.  There seems to be no rhyme or reason to most of them.  Definitely not a "strata" or "home owner's association" situation going on here.

I have no idea what kind of truck this is, but I do know that it is old.....

There was an artist that used to live here with his wife several years ago.  He had several metal works around the village that were very distinctive of his style.  This is the only one that I saw remaining.  He passed away several years ago. And I am sorry that I don't even remember his name.  But I met he and his wife one evening and they were a very lovely couple....:-).

We continued downt the road a bit a came upon this water fall.  People from the village often come here to fish and swim.  I put my feet in the water a few yards down the hill several years ago.  All of a sudden all of this little fish came and one by one started darting at my feet!  I never did that again....hahaha...The idea of becoming "fish bait" did not appeal to me!

 
There was a road that I considered taking Ms Vickey on, but wanted to drive it first to see the condition since it had been a year since I had been here.  It was curvy with some twists that made my hair stand on end.... and that was in a car! ha....  But once we got on the straight again there was this......

We continued on down the road and noticed that some of the trees in the area were really setting themselves up for a nice long "sleep"...

the sky was beautiful and had some how become clearer on what started as a day with the possibility of rain.....

For some reason when I saw this cloud formation, it reminded me of a Stingray fish....

This wind farm went up several years ago and I assume will be here for a long time to come......

 If you look closely, you can see them way off in the distance....lined up like aliens about to invade the earth.....hahaha.....Now, for you science fiction buffs...don't take that seriously....ha.

Next stop.....the tiny town of....

We stopped in the store to get a snack and took a couple of pics while there before heading back to our own town.....

I greeted one of the locals before getting back in the car......:-).  She didn't say much, but she did smile.....ha.  I was secretly glad she DIDN'T say anything!

We got back on the road and snapped a few more pics.....I thought this was interesting...

We got back to town and the sun was going down.....I stopped in a hobby store called "Hobby Lobby" and tried to find some glow in the dark numbers for Ms Vickey and was unsuccessful.  But Chris found the Christmas tree section and got home sick for British Columbia....

The sky was still beautiful and I am looking forward to trying out my new air cushion tomorrow......this is  a sky shot from outside of the store...



I miss sitting out on my front porch and watching the sunrise or the sunset from my backyard.....We live in a condo in BC so we don't have a front porch.......



When we made it home, my faithful birds of 7 years were waiting for me.  "Bubbles" was guarding his family below......:-).  He's gotten quite aggressive since the mrs. "Pickles" laid an egg two days ago....:-).  oh excuse the "poo".  She didn't know company was coming.....haha......I mean what good house keeper wouldn't move the poo if they knew company was coming over- right?

Pickles had a nesting box that they both decided to tear through.  I guess she needed a bigger "view"...ha.  Oh well.  I will be crawling into my own nest soon.....:-). 

It's been a long day and I want to be able to ride refreshed tomorrow if I'm not too tired and the weather permits .....:-).

Stay tuned! 



Riding On Lamb's Wool

As hot as it's been over the past few days, there are signs of the season's change in the trees.  They are starting to turn various shades of yellow and brown.....

 We decided to try some Lamb's wool on my seat to make my riding experience more tolerable....We hunted and searched all over and could not find any anywhere....except in the form of a mit that is used for washing expensive cars.....So, we bought one and used a seam ripper to flay it open and remove the cuff.  Since I still had the elastic bands from the last "monkey butt fail"....I used those to secure it.

I still had that excersize foam under the lamb's wool to give me some extra lift....

and then I remembered that the whole monkey butt thing got worse as there was no air flow!  So.......Walla!  Air conditioning .......:-)..

And now, to put the masterpiece together on "Ms Vickey"............:-).  I'm starting to feel relief and I ain't even sittin on her yet........:-).  ha

PRESTO!!  And here is the finised product......:-).  But of course, we have to try it out....

Scootard had to replace the front tire on "Maj" and the tire came by UPS today, the first thing to do is to get that tire on. Scooters and motorcycles are not that abundant here in this town for some reason.  So, the only place that would even touch it was the Yamaha dealer...who (by the way) charged us 75.00 to change the tire.....:-(.  We headed out with the tire strapped to "Maj" and me in the car behind Scootard.

I won't even tell you what they wanted to charge for the tire and an oil change.  Which is why Scootard ordered the tire online for $40.00 bucks cheaper and changed his own oil ahead of time.  We got the bike to the shop and decided to go for lunch instead of hanging around.....

By, "Maj"!  See ya soon....:-).

Since the Chinese resturant was right across the street....we drove over there for lunch.  It was a buffet and I had sushi with a few other things with some wasabi.  The wasabi seemed watery, but when I actually put it in your mouth...........you experienced an alternate universe!  hahaha

Then we went back to the house after lunch and got Ms Vickey so that we could try out my new seat cushion.....:-)

We headed toward the tiny town of Cache, Oklahoma.  It is amazing what you will see from a scooter or motorcycle.....or not....haha......

We continued our travel to the wild life refuge and decided to stop at this trading post for a cold drink.  I was sweating in my gear and knew I needed to drink....something!

There wasn't a whole lot to see, but we did have some interesting conversation with the owner who had been "gifted" the old building when his family members passed away.

Scootard was discovering that his new and improved "air conditioned" seat was not keeping things cool at all....so, we were both glad to be out of the saddle for a bit....

I discovered that while I was not dealing with "chafing", the bump between the rider and passenger seat which still needs to be shaved down, is hitting me in the tail bone....:-(.  UGH!!   We searched and searched and there is no machine shop or auto place that does that kind of work.......tragic!

We were in and out of the trading post with our root beer soda and sat outside to cool off....in the shade before heading off again.

and we started our trek through the refuge......Scootard is always amazed at things he has seen before.......:-).  So, I just waited until he was done being amazed......:-).

 We saw a turn off and decided to take it.  Scootard has been to this particular place before on a previous fishing trip.  I love the way the road we had just traveled dissappeared into the distance.......

And I love being by the water....the wind was blowing pretty strong though and I thought we would get pushed off the hill!  I was concerned that Ms Vickey was going to get blown off of her side stand, so we put her on the center stand.....

 We stayed a while and enjoyed the quiet and the vastness of the area.  There is a reason they call this "The Great Plains".....:-).  I used to come here years ago and often tought about walking over to the sentry point in the distance.  But I always found it either too hot or too cold to make the walk......So, a picture will have to do.

Since we were both sweating in our gear, we stripped it off and decided to rest a bit. 

I love Brachycome flowers......but I never noticed that they grew wild in Oklahoma until today.....:-).

Scootard decided to walk below to get some pics.....  I was too tired to think about climbing the stairs back up....so I didn't...haha

I was starting to cool down some, but realized that my feet seemed to be on fire and I needed to get out of my boots for a bit as well.....:-). 

and then the inevitable happened.  I started getting really sleepy from all of the fresh air and the sudden cool down and knew we had better head back.  We were taking the highway back to Lawton.....the wind was vicious, but we had to get home....I took my hair out of my helmet to help keep my neck cooler this time.

and wouldn't you know.........but after entering the facility and finding it occupied by a hugh alien grasshopper....I decided to "hold it"! ....I DO NOT do grasshoppers.....haha.

We made it back in one piece and the "monkey butt" didn't seem to be as severe as in times past although not completely conquered.  If I can get rid of that divider between the seats, the battle will be over.....

But until then, I'll just keep riding it like I stole it!

See ya next time!