mile 1295 - 1665

Let me start by saying I am using Ponca City wifi. Free wifi for the entire city. Genius.

Fast forward to now, which is the day after the previous line was written. There were clouds in the sky causing technical difficulties. Still pretty genius though.

As promised, here is the rest of my team.

First to join was Justin, my Australian road guide.

I don't think I need to do an advertisement for Garmin, but it's pretty special. Today I was an eagle flying down a pink road toward a sinking sailboat. And I'm just talking about the icons I have chosen to represent me and Nancy and Clayton's house (he's a sailboat captain and she's his first mate).

Then came Leeny, the Saturn (that's pronounced suh-TURN. Ask me next time I see you for the pronunciation lesson.), who was previously owned by Grandma Frost, aka Eileen. When asked what I was going to name the car, I suggested I call her Eileen. She said no because Eileen is a weird name (thank you, Grandma, it's my middle name), but that her sister used to call her Leeny. Ta-da!

Clearly I enjoy naming things after who I got them from. Thank you Justin and Grandma. It also makes it easier to talk to them, which I might or might not do frequently. I also found myself saying, "Hey, Hay!" anytime I passed afield of haystacks...

So my team and I drove to Ponca City behind Aunt Nancy. I know this is not seeming like a typical road trip so far, with my family members so closely involved, but there's a road and I'm on vacation. So boo yah!

It was my first time spending any real time with Leeny so I got a chance to get to know her a little better. She works great, windshield wipers and all. We got lucky with rain for about a third of the drive.

rain time clearing up

exit to Ponca City

Now, since she is the official vehicle of the trip, I think it is important to note a few things about my driving style. It goes without saying that the number one must-have on a long drive, 30 miles or 3,000,000,000, is appropriate music. I've got that covered. It is also important to have an assortment of sunglasses. You never know what the situation may call for and it's always better to be prepared. And finally, the most often forgotten, is a quick disguise. My choice, the versatile bandit bandana. I can be a lion one minute and a tiger the next. Again, you just never know.

today I choose lion.

We stopped at the U.S.S. Batfish to get a hat for my uncle. It's in Muskogee and I'd go back. Mostly because it was closed and I did kind of want to see the old submarine. All we managed to see were a few things over the barbed-wire fence. Not a total loss.

The evening was spent eating dinner, seeing what was new around the place, and relaxing. I was telling Nancy how I planned to do as much as possible by bike once I got back to Richmond, and was hoping to find a junker to ride. She presented me with this old piece that she's had in the garage for years:

Could my heart have leapt for joy any higher!

So the next morning I filled her tires with air and went exploring. I took her for a stroll around Lake Ponca. Not all the way around, but over by the spillway, East Dam, and the recreation area. It was pretty swell. As I was riding, I had a little laugh to myself because I thought, I should call her Nan. Go figure.

Lake Ponca the spillway Recreation Area

In the afternoon, Nancy and I went into town for some sightseeing. This place is small, but there is something new every time I come to visit. It's like its own little roadside attraction.

We started with the Standing Bear Museum.

Then went to the Conoco Museum.

Both pretty interesting and free!

I also can't neglect mentioning the nature I have seen while in dear old Ponca.

There are now four of these spiders living around their house. They are called zipper spiders because of the web, they aren't dangerous, but the can have 14,000 babies! Holy majoly. And they are quite large, about 2 inches.

We went down to the gate on Tuesday night to go look at one of the spiders and saw this little frog just resting on the bars. He was cute.

While riding around Lake Ponca Recreation Area, I came across all these ducks and geese. I was hanging out with the white ones when Mister Ugly came waddling over, too close for my comfort, so I left.

And the last bit was the prairie dogs in the prairie dog field. I requested to go there because they are so funny. Did you know that when they make their little squeak, their tale goes up simultaneously?

That concluded the Ponca sight seeing, but here is the complete set of photos if you must. And I suggest you might.

A note: In previous posts, I have planted links to the photo albums without so directly calling them out. They will show up as orangey-colored type and change when you run the cursor over them.