A Windy Drive and a Soft Landing

I expected to see the buffalo, but the wind turbines behind him came as a surprise, until I remembered that Oklahoma is “where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.” Apparently, it ranks 8th among all states in terms of its potential to generate wind energy, and we passed dozens of wind farms as we crossed Oklahoma yesterday. You can hardly see them, but there are a dozen windmills in the background behind this buffalo.

Just last week, Judy Woodruff posted an NPR story about oil workers retraining themselves for wind.

Besides the hot winds, there was little to note except big sky and big spiders, like this one Leo captured in his room.We zipped across Texas and Oklahoma.

We finally reached Perryville on Friday afternoon. Checked into this cabin at Coffee Creek, and reconnected with Honey (and her parents).

Today, we got to visit with Katie while she worked the farmers’ market.



The dogs have settled down and seem to be tolerating the weather pretty well. People made much of them at the farmers’ market today, and really wherever we take them. This is definitely dog country, and people like to compare Arkansas to California, as soon as we tell them our story. One family happily described how their visitor from San Francisco kept bringing a sweater everywhere “For when it gets cold later” even though they explained to her that it NEVER gets cold in Arkansas in July, even at night. “We told her to just pack that sweater away until she gets back to San Francisco, but she kept on hoping it would cool down in the evenings,” they said.

Another lady told me that she’s still waiting to acclimate, even though she moved here from Fresno 15 years ago. “I didn’t know how much I could sweat until I moved to Arkansas,” she said. I wonder.

Mick saw our new office today for the first time. I think he likes it, even though it’s just a big room full of boxes right now. Please, raise a toast to the fine work we will accomplish in that room!