Red Rock State Park

headed into the park is a great scenic drive!

one of the walls where Rapelling is welcome! we could see ropes hanging over the edges and rapellers on the ground.

the straight up walls of red were amazing!

Red Rock State Park is located near Hinton OK, offers RV and tent camping, nature trails, a fishing pond and swimming pool, a group camp that offers bunkhouse sleeping and a kitchen and some of the most amazing scenery in the state!

Young Guns!

At our April meeting of the Red Carpet Country board of directors we were invited to Shattuck. Our meeting place was the Young Guns Restaurant and Saloon and of course we actually used the saloon for our lunch and meeting. Young Guns has been in business about 18 months and they are sure doing something right! The bar area is non smoking and it had a fresh and clean smell and appearance that you don't often find in bar type settings. The bar itself was an amazing horseshoe shape with inlaid wood that was actually curved to fit instead of cut!

We had a nice visit with Ryan, one of the owners, shown in the photo with Jodell, and he told us they purchased the bar from somewhere in OKC and moved it to Shattuck.

The metal art work on the wall shows the logo of the Young Guns and they have a line of T-Shirts they sell promoting their place of business.

Best of all, were the burgers! This is the burger basket we were served during our visit and honestly I couldn't eat the whole thing!

I have posted more pictures on my facebook page, (find me there Jeanne Maras Cole) and we are planning a return trip this summer, especially since we learned that Shattuck Oklahoma will soon be home to a drive-in theater! Classic Car Road Trip in our future for sure!

Congrats to the Young Guns and to Shattuck for an outstanding business!

I - 70 Diner near Flagler CO

This rotating pink Cadillac gets your attention as you cruise down I-70 going either direction. We first saw it headed west on our way to Denver and decided to stop on the way back to check it out.

The diner was moved to this site in pieces about 30 years ago! The history and photos of construction phases is posted in the entryway. The interior is strictly 50's and fun to spend some time just walking around and looking at the pictures on the wall.

We were between meals when we got there so didn't get to sample the food, but if smell is an indication, I bet it is pretty good!

Monument Rock

South of Oakley Kansas is a natural wonder! Now, I found this by looking in the Kansas State Travel Guide, a great picture of some unique rock formations, said to have formed when the area was ocean floor. This I gotta see, so we took a short (we thought) detour from our planned route home from Denver. We traveled south of Oakley on a nice highway about 20 miles, then there it was, the sign that is! Monument Rock, 8 miles east, on a road best traveled by 4 wheel drive farm trucks. Well I was not to be denied and my trusty PT Cruiser pretended it was a Dodge truck and down the road we went, crossing several cattle guards and navigating washes and sand pits in the road. And find it we did! I personally felt like it was well worth the trip, however, travelers, particularily those in motorhomes would not enjoy the eight miles of bad road, and some would probably just not make it.
To the State of Kansas I say, "You have something unique here, make the way a little easier so that travelers can enjoy it!"

Look for some additional photos on my facebook page!

Jetmore Kansas, a great place to grab a bite to eat!

This last weekend we were headed to Colorado and about lunch time found ourselves in Jetmore Kansas, county seat of Hodgman County. Directly across the street from their stately courthouse was Agustino's Restaurante. Agustino's has a homey atmosphere, tables and booths in polished pine, booths big enough to seat 6 people comfortably with tiny umbrella tea lights and pretty spring flowers on each table. The food was very good; I had Talapia with a wonderful sauce and some fresh steamed veggies. John opted for the burger and fries and they must have been good because he cleaned his plate!





Of course like any good blogger I took my camera with me; why didn't I check the batteries? So a quick Google search yielded this photo, not of Agustino's, but of some local architecture that caught my eye on the drive out of town with my belly full.







The area has a lot of limestone and many buildings like the Haun Museum are constructed with limestone.




Jetmore is on US highway 283 north of Dodge City. if you are headed up that highway in Kansas I would recommend stopping in at Agustino's. Oh, and the staff was very tourist friendly too!

Gate, OK

As we travel through Oklahoma on a business trip, we were able to stop in Gate, OK. We found some very interesting pictures and museum. They have a store that is run by the museum at this time, although they were looking for someone to run it for them. Had a nice big glass of tea at the small cafe. The stories that we were told of a town taking over and running the bad guys out of the terrority were very interesting. The bank vault still stands today, they have made a small park area out of it. It was a fun town to visit.

Fort Sill, Lawton, OK

Our Business Women's group was given a tour of the Fort Sill Base. Our tour guide was wonderful. She was in a medical company and had been to Iran. We started our tour with the educational center. They really want our troops to have their education, they will even help them to plan a small business for when they leave. Leaving there we went to the parade grounds where the Field Artillery Half Section, gave a demonstration. They even fired the cannon for us. They did a wonderful job. We then went to the mess hall for lunch with some of the women officers. They were very good about answering our questions. After lunch we toured the barracks, where we saw the art work that they had on the walls and floors. They have some very talented people there. We then went to visit the dogs. They train the dogs in taking down a fleeing person, bomb detection, and drug detection. These people do a lot for us that we don't know about. Thank you goes out to our troops.