If you’ve followed along the last couple of days, you know we’re on the Youtube Tour. We visited the Cross Timbers Bison Ranch yesterday and drove back there this morning. If you get a chance, check out the Youtube channel “Cross Timbers Bison”. The videos show a hard working family and their band of critters trying to make sure that the American bison makes a comeback on the great plains of the western U.S.

We decided to leave something at the ranch. Several trips over the years, we’ve been accompanied by our own mascot bison. He never really had a name but traveled with us everywhere – from Maine to California. He was getting tired of the travel so we let him “retire” to Cross Timbers Bison Ranch. We wrapped him up in a plastic bag and inserted the note you see below as a way to say “thank you” to Dusty Baker and his family for what they are doing.

Before leaving Oklahoma, we stopped for some ice cream at Joey’s Ice Cream in Altus, OK. All of their ice cream is handmade from scratch. It was some of the best I’ve ever had and I’ve had a lot. They also had some nice artwork hanging on the walls.

Crossing into Texas, brough us to a Texas rest stop. It was one of the nicest rest stops I’ve ever seen. A couple of things did catch my attention inside the building. Is it really necessary to have security in rest stops in Texas? Then there was the “watch for rattlesnakes” sign. OK – I hopped back in the truck.

About 300 miles northeast of Ada, Oklahoma is Amarillo, Texas. Between Ada and Amarillo is a whole lot of empty space. Some of that empty space was hard to see because of the ferocious winds and rain that we drove through.

Storms don’t typically bother me very much (unless I’m on the motorcycle). This one had strong enough winds that I was hesitant to drive close to the big trucks. I felt like the wind could blow a trailer over at any minute and I didn’t want to be close.

Just before the storm caught up with us, a roadrunner scampered across the highway ahead of the truck. I was cautious to make sure that Wile E. Coyote wasn’t trailing behind him. (If you don’t know who that is, you didn’t grow up watching Saturday morning cartoons.)

Thankfully, we drove through the storm without striking any cartoon characters or anything else. The truck was blown around quite a bit but I just closed my eyes and held on to the wheel.

We made is safely to our hotel in Amarillo. We were ready for a steak dinner and where better than the Big Texan Steak Ranch.

No – I didn’t try the 72 ounce challenge. By the time I almost finished my 8 ounce sirloin, I was full. I was full enough that I came back to the hotel and crashed into bed. That’s why the blog is late today.