Day 35, Dinosaurs!

Gallery



We woke up in Hays Kansas, home of the Sternberg Natural History Museum. Saw their collection of Cretaceous fossils including the famous fish-in-a-fish fossil. The top floor of the domed building housed a diorama which included a life-sized T-Rex and other dinosaurs. A sign warned us not to feed them -- unfortunately, they were not animated as the AAA book indicated, just sound effects. It was still a very interesting and worthwhile museum.



The museum also had Native American artifacts, historical items, and a wide collection of taxidermied animals.



From Hays we hit the long flat road to Wichita. It was disappointing. We walked around an area that was supposed to have 100 shops located in converted warehouses. There were lots of restaurants and a movie theater but not much for us to see or do.

So we headed to Oklahoma. Oklahoma is barely OK. The most interesting sights were an oil rig in the middle of a grocery store parking lot and a dead armadillo on the side of the road. I guess I should say something nice about Oklahoma here... they have cheap gas -- $2.61 for a gallon of 87 at one place.

The people we ran into at a Ski shop, a B&N, and in a parking lot were very nice and helpful. Unfortunately, the 3 outdoor stores and the B&N we checked didn't have the "Oklahoma's Climbers' Guidebook" that we were looking for, and we didn't feel like driving a few hours out of our way to Lawton looking for 100' cliffs without knowing what to expect when we got there.

So we drove through Oklahoma City (OKC), passing by the capitol building and the outskirts of the OU campus. We set up camp at Lake Thunderbird State Park near Norman. The site was very picturesque on the water, so things were looking up. However, the other campers, fishermen (late night and early morning of course), and boaters were obnoxiously loud all night and left an even worse impression of the state.