I remember the first time I saw wind turbines, it was in 2010 going over a mountain in Pennsylvania, and there were three of them spinning at the top. It was cool. It offered up hope that there may be a future where renewable energy reigns supreme.

We pulled up the jacks again on Friday and headed down the road into Oklahoma. We set a goal to see if we could make it to Checotah before we stopped for the night, but some storms showed up on the radar about the same time as text messages from family concerned about tornado alley started to roll in. Kristin carefully checked the radar and accurately predicted that it would be raining like hell about the time we pulled into Checotah – and it was! The last five miles we could barely see, and I had a nice shower while setting up the camper! On the bright side, it just rained – there was no tornado watch/warning for our area.

We woke up Saturday morning to beautiful Oklahoma skies, and made coffee. Some light chorin’ to do: shore up some wires that came loose, and get two propane tanks filled. After that we did a his+hers breakfast in the truck and hit the road.

We stopped in Oklahoma City to get second breakfast from a vegetarian cafe called The Red Cup, which was 100% worth the few minutes it added to our trip. Kristin got nachos, and I got a wrap (okay, it was really more of a brunch). We also ordered a couple of things to go for later.

Before you know it, we were passing into the Texas Panhandle, and we started to see a few wind turbines. And then some more. And then a lot more. And much like Star Trek‘s ever multiplying tribbles, the turbines were suddenly covering the plains as far as we could see in every direction.

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I think wind power is awesome, and I was unprepared for the scale at which this has been implemented in the Midwest. Our camper is solar powered, and we use about 1.5 kilowatt hours per day to provide all the home conveniences you’d expect. I don’t know how much power all those turbines were making, but I bet they’re powering hundreds of thousands of homes. I didn’t expect to see wind power implemented at this scale, and the future suddenly seems a little brighter.

We stopped for a late lunch in Amarillo Texas, but before we could eat, we had to make repairs…twice. I dragged our weight distribution system through a low dip getting into a fuel station right as we got off the highway, and couldn’t drive another inch until I’d repaired it.

We pulled into an open lot to eat leftovers from our earlier stop at The Red Cup. When we opened the camper, we found that one of the burners on our range had fallen off, and also our internet router was coming loose from it’s mount. After a little more tool time, we finally got to open our to-go boxes and enjoy our Chorizo-Mac and Green Chile-Mac (and Kristin’s left over nachos)!

We got back on the road, and in the last fifteen miles of Texas, the turbines started to disappear. We crossed into New Mexico and thought we’d seen the last of the turbines…until there in the setting sun was one lonely turbine, spinning all alone.

We stopped in Santa Rosa for the night, and pulled into the Ramblin’ Rose. We all badly needed a good night’s rest, and the Ramblin’ Rose delivered.

In the morning we got up and broke camp. No real chorin’, just pack up and fill our tanks with water before we hit the road. We went west about another hour, and then for the first time since Tennessee, we turned onto a road that wasn’t Highway 40. We went about another hour, and set up camp in Santa Fe.

–Adam