This morning I stepped out of the hammock to get a photo of the night sky. Before I could grab the hammock, it puffed like a sail. The forty-mile-per-hour wind blew my pillow up into the air. It sailed away. I spent the next thirty minutes looking in the dark for a black pillow. I found it resting on the ground four campsites away.
We stopped in Alva at the Aspen Laundromat. We had two bags of clothes and sheets to wash. It might be another week before we get the chance again.
An hour later, the clothes are washed and dried. While in town, we stop at Sonic for burgers and fries with milkshakes. We are now back on the road, rolling over hills through grazing land. Cattle are grazing or resting under scattered shade trees.
The land is flat and open, and the horizon surrounds us.
We make it to Alabaster Caverns and set up camp. It is hot, and the wind is relentless.
We ate a late lunch in Alva before continuing to the campground, and it’s now too hot to want food. After sitting in the shade waiting for the sun to settle, we take a short walk around the campground.
We are about seventy-five miles from the Oklahoma Panhandle, and the climate and scenery are beginning to look more arid.
Tomorrow we begin exploring this park.