February trip first days

Each winter we take a trip to visit our daughter's family in Texas.  It is a 2 day drive from our home in North Dakota.

We had a prior appointment for Feb 8th, so didn't get started until after 2 in the afternoon.  We like to take a highway that is not in interstate, you see so much more scenery and US HWY 81 is the original route from Canada to Texas from before the interstate system was put in.  Parts of it are 2 lane and a good share of it is 4 lane.

The first day we made it into Kansas before stopping for the night. The next day we got on the road early and I took the first picture of this years trip in Oklahoma. To me the color of the dirt is just weird.

Another feature of Oklahome that we enjoy traveling through are the Arbuckle mountains.

Every time I see the name on the map or a sign, it gives me a bit of a tickle.  I read a lot of westerns, and one of the brand names for coffee back in the very old days was Arbuckle.  And another interesting thing about this area is Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies.  They are very good.


This year, the weather was really good, no fog, no rain, and the farmguy was willing to take the time to do some sight seeing. We stopped at one of the overlook pullouts and I took a few pictures, here is one.

As we got closer to our daughter's house, we have to go through Fort Worth.  The road systems truely look like piles of spaghetti

there were some very interesting striated clouds

This year we took a fun present for our grandchildren, snow. 
I put our Yeti cooler out in the garage for several days to be sure it is chilled, then on the morning of the trip, I fill it with snow. close and latch the lid and it does pretty well for the 2 days og the trip. The kids had a great time with the snow and then they kept part of it for the next day for our granddaughter's 4th birthday party.

grampa throwing snowballs 

Along with the snowball fight, we enjoyed the fire pot.

Well, this is long enough for tonight.

There is more to come, because farmguy decided we were not going to go straight back home after our visit, we are going to do more sightseeing.
So stay tuned for some more interesting pictures.