Sapulpa

The GPS routed me through a decidedly depressing and dreary industrial area of Sapulpa which made me wonder if I was going the right way.  But then I was rolling through the downtown.  It was late and there was almost no other traffic.  It was a classic old downtown district with the usual neat old buildings and small town America feel.  I bumped over railroad tracks and went on into rural, open space that in the darkness seemed to go on forever.  It didn't look promising for finding a Walmart, and I was getting ready to give up and try to turn back to the Interstate when a final left turn revealed the Walmart.  It seemed like an odd, out of the way place to put it, as though the town had decided to stash it in an unused corner.

 

I pulled in along a far edge of the lot beside an open pasture, under some trees.  This is a supercenter, and there were people out in front talking, but the place had an odd feel, like a warehouse with a nightshift and not much going on.  Crickets were singing steadily in the fragrant darkness.  I felt a bit lonely and uncertain.  It was a near-perfect parking spot, with a peaceful country view into the grassy field with trees and crickets and night birds singing.  I had the whole side of the lot to myself.  But perversely I now missed my fellow travelers, and felt uneasy being by myself.

 

I haven't shared the unpleasant incident that happened at the Fast Stop Travel Center in Vandalia, Illinois, when some practical jokers thought it would be hilarious to bounce on the trailer tongue just as I was falling asleep.  I figured it was just kids goofing and had decided to ignore it.  But when it happened a second time I came boiling out of the trailer ready to open up a can of whup-ass with my bare hands.  The perpetrators had sped off, so there was nobody to vent my rage on.  It was my first night in KD, and it took a long time before I could relax and get back to sleep.  I thought of leaving, but it was so late that I decided to write it off as a minor incident and leave early in the morning.  Suddenly I understood the concept of "stealth" which my full-time RV friend is always talking about.  There's something to be said for not advertising that you are spending the night in a vehicle.  In Goose it is not immediately obvious that I'm in there at night, but KD is such a cute, attractive little target.  Mostly I blame the Fast Stop, which was decidedly more rowdy than any other travel center I've been to.  I had picked it months ago because it looked like it had lots of parking space, but the space I got was not far from the pumps and there were a lot of loud, mouthy, unpleasant folk gunning it in and out of there.  I definitely wouldn't stay there again (although I have no plans to be doing much traveling in that area in the future).

 

Since that disquieting experience, I had been a little more nervous than I usually am, and the deep quiet and country peace of this place, so different from the humming, buzzing, sodium vapor lighted locations I'd stayed at elsewhere, left me feeling a little nervous.  But then I laughed and repeated one of my Dad's old saws:  You couldn't please her if you hung her with a new rope.

 

I climbed out of the truck to start getting settled for the night and saw a creature gliding along among the cars, nosing around.  I watched it for awhile and decided it was a skunk.  It had been messing around a truck shortly before the truck's owners came back to it.  But there were no loud expressions of dismay, so I assumed it had moved on before encountering the humans.

 

The night passed peacefully, and in the morning I got up to take pictures.  Here is the view looking out KD's door.

 

 

And looking toward the road I came in on.  You could hardly ask for a prettier surrounding for a Walmart store.

 

 

Then I went inside to do a little shopping.  After the bright, shiny newness and determined cheer of the Joplin Walmart, the one in Sapulpa seemed slightly down at heel.  It wasn't, really.  It was perfectly serviceable.  But it was quieter, less energetic.  Large parts of it looked like a regular grocery store instead of the warehouse grocery outlet feel of the usual Super Center.  I bought a Swiffer for KD, a little folding table to use instead of the jacked up dinette table (which will have to be completely rebuilt before it can be considered reasonably useable).  I spent more time than I should have swiffering and then talking on the phone to a friend who called.  The day was heating up, and I had miles to go.  I finally pulled away from this interesting, green, quiet little corner of America.