Go West!

 Thursday morning we hit the road around 6:15 on a trip out west.

 Our first stop was the Sod House Museum in Aline.  This soddy was built in 1894 and is the only remaining sod house in Oklahoma that was built by an original homesteader.  The museum was actually built around the sod house.

 The kids at the back door of the sod house.

 After the family built a frame house, the sod house was still used for other things.  This picture shows the sod house and a pile of buffalo chips, which was what they used for fuel.

 The cellar that was built later.

 This picture shows a man cutting sod for a house.  Much of what was on the ground was broken sod that couldn't be used, and then when he unloaded it, more pieces would break, so this was a lot of work!

 Our next stop was Little Sahara State Park, near Waynoka.  There are sand dunes there and people bring their ATVs out to ride.

 They just built a new observation deck, so we went up to check that out.

 After that, we went to Alabaster Caverns State Park, near Freedom.

 There are tours every hour at the top of the hour, and we arrived at 1:05, so we had some time to kill!

 At the entrance of the cave--it was so nice and cool down there!

 This is not a limestone cave, so you can touch the rocks.

 It's about 3/4 of a mile through the cave.

 We spotted one little bat!

 At the end of the cave tour we got a ride back to the top.

 The ride was nice, because it was a little warm out there!

 We reached Woodward in the late afternoon and the kids cooled off in the pool.

 We went to dinner and then to the park to play.  I think the park (Crystal Beach Park) was the kids' favorite thing!

On our way back to the hotel, we spotted this sign!

More on our trip is coming soon!