Texas - Day 2

This is the warmest second day on the Texas tour that I can remember. By our morning coffee break at Chanute, KS, it was 59 degrees and we had seen flocks of robins. We're definitely enjoying the spring conditions. While we were at coffee, we asked a few locals there about the short pump jacks that dotted the fields on either side of the highway. We found that the wells in the area are maybe 800 feet deep, what they consider shallow. We also were told that most of the wells are pumping salt water out of the ground (this area was once an ocean), as they hope then to get to natural gas below the water. We're not experts by any means, but that information
answered a few of our questions. Also by Chanute is a large cement plant, operating 24/7, producing Ash Grove Cement. One of our men said he had used a lot of their brand in his business.

By the time we got to Tulsa, OK for lunch it was 72 degrees, and it stayed that way for the rest of the day. Colorful pansies were blooming, and we enjoyed seeing the bright shiny green leaves of magnolia trees.

A highlight today was crossing the Red River into Texas. We stopped at the information center at the border, took pictures of the giant Lone Star and the shape of Texas done in stone. We also noted that yellow crocuses were blooming. Fields of bright green winter wheat along our route, and even green lawns around our hotel this evening, have really made it obvious today that we have left winter behind!