RV Fun Trips --- On the Road to Albuquerque ---

On the Road to Albuquerque
October 2002
Page 3

Guymon

From Liberal we had a routine drive to Guymon, Oklahoma. About half way between the Kansas border and Guymon, we drove through the town of Hooker at the intersection of highways US-54 and US-64. When I saw the name, I figured it would be a great subject for one of the late night TV show hosts to build a monologue around. As I would find out, the people of Hooker have a great sense of humor about the name of their town. When I visited the Hooker Chamber of Commerce website, I was surprised to find out there is a baseball team called the "Hooker Horny Toads" and T-shirts are available with that label. Also available are several other souvenirs with funny phases using the name of the town.

Guymon is the town where I ran afoul of the law on our trip through here last year. On this trip through town, I was on the lookout for police cars all along the route through town. I really didn't want to see Officer Mike again under the same circumstances as our last trip. I should say that Officer Mike was very courteous and cut me some slack.

As we were about to exit Guymon, our campground destination for the night appeared on the left side of the highway. The campground was not one of the finer places we've stayed. The place had obviously seen better days. The one thing it had going for it was price. When I asked the price I was told it was $16 per night. Then I asked if they gave a discount for Good Sam the answer was, "No." How about a KOA discount, "No." I was about to give up when I asked if there was a senior citizen discount, "Yes, we take $2 off." So, we had the cheapest campsite fee of our trip.

After getting settled into our campsites, the women took off to find a Laundromat in town. Tom fired up his barbecue as he commonly does for the evening meal. It must have been the scent of food in the air that attracted a lot of flies. Now these weren't the small flies we saw buzzing around the cafe in Pratt, these were big flies.

When I was growing up in the plains, flies were something we learned to live with. However, geographic locations near large numbers of livestock usually would have a lot bigger flies in larger quantities. I was guessing that the campground might be near livestock as we were in cattle country.

Kay hosted a card game

As the evening wore on, the flies around Tom's campsite became unbearable. There was no way to enjoy a meal outdoors. Tom could hardly wait to get finished with the cooking and get indoors. The women returned from washing clothes just in time for dinner.

After dinner, Tom had to go back out into the cloud of flies to put his barbecue away. As he worked, he tried fruitlessly to keep the flies away. When it came time to put the grill away, Tom opened the storage bay with a swarm of flies following the barbecue grill. It was a lost cause; Tom quickly put the grill away along with a small cloud of the buzzing flies.

Kay had made plans to host a card game in our rig, so it didn't surprise me when it seemed as if a card game suddenly broke out in our motorhome. Kevin was the big winner and Tina won a side bet with Tom. Tina made a small ceremony to collect a special tribute from Tom. He was a good sport and paid up with very little resistance. It was a fun way to end the day.

Tom settles up with Tina