Margret Sloan

This weekend is the start of the county fair, which runs for 10 days at the Agricultural Center. It’s the second largest county fair held in the state and i always well attended and lots of fun for the whole family.

Of course, the kids love the arcade and rides, but they also love to see the animals and the competitions. They will have pig racing, clogging demonstrations, live concerts and all kinds of fun. I’m interested in the arts and crafts, quilting and gardening areas, and hubby wants to see the antique cars, the tractor pull and loudly proclaims that he sure wishes he could be one of the judges for the pies, cakes and cookies baking contests.

We’re thinking about taking a day as soon as hubby’s assistant manager comes back to work to cover for him. It will be nice to go to something like the county fair and experience it as adults without the distractions of having little kids to chase after and dole out money to every time we turn around.

After driving across three states this past week, we got home safe and sound and tried to pick up from where we left off before the funeral. Hubby had a lot of work to catch up and, sadly, his assistant manager had a family emergency and needed to be off for several days, so that means hubby doesn’t get a day off for a couple of weeks.

Ironically, with all the driving we’ve done over the years and especially this past week, it’s here at home that hubby gets pulled over by the police. Ostensibly for not wearing a seatbelt, which is true - he just refuses to wear a seatbelt over any and all protests by me. But it’s the law here and they changed the enforcement provisions of the state law so that you can be stopped just for not wearing a seat belt. Up until they changed it, the seatbelt violation could only be a secondary reason to get a ticket.

So, the cop wants to see his driver’s license (no problem), the registration (no problem although the tags expire the end of this month and we need to get the emissions inspection done this week to renew the tags) and proof of insurance. Oops. Where is the insurance card? The one in the car expired last month and we haven’t received the new one in the mail yet. That’s a problem, since the cop wants to see the current card or hubby gets a ticket. Oh well. At least you can get the insurance squared away and have the ticket dismissed. If he had gotten a ticket for the seat belt violation then he would have no defense and would be paying for that ticket with cash, court costs and points on his license.

Today I have to call the insurance company today and find out where the new proof of insurance cards are. And I get voice mail. Sigh.

So, I’m online and checking for an auto insurance quote from different insurance companies because now I’m getting really annoyed with the lack of service from the current insurance agent. I found the ez-insuranceportal web site which is really convenient and helpful.

Most of the major insurance companies are represented on this portal site, so you can get quotes and compare the rates and coverages all at the same place. They have a “quick quote” tool that lets you put in a few important details and then the site comes back with quotes from these companies that everyone knows:

• Allstate
• MetLife
• Nationwide
• State Farm

And there’s quotes from lesser known companies that offer great rates, too. So now I’m ready to have a serious talk with my insurance agent when he calls me back. Now he’s going to have to defend the business with me and I’ll be ready to change if I have to. The premiums come right out of my checking account every month, so I’ll be real interested in why I didn’t get the new cards a month ago so we wouldn’t be dealing with a traffic ticket on top of everything else I have to worry about.

Here’s one last photo from the trip to Oklahoma that I wanted to share. Most of the gas stations sell more than gas, although it is almost impossible to find one that has an automatic car wash on the property. They just don’t waste money on washing cars out there.

The gas stations have a small convenience store and often a deli or cafe. some have tiny truck stops, which offer a shower, land line telephone, and a place to stretch out for a bit when you are too tired to keep driving. The land line phone is important because there is little or no cell phone service out there. You can drive for hours without any cell signal, even with AT&T “nationwide” service.

Several gas stations also service the farmer, who don’t have to pay some of the road taxes on gas and diesel for farm equipment. Also, farmers need other things, like antifreeze, propane, grease and hydraulic fluids. These are dispensed from pumps off to the side of the gas station at various prices per gallon, as shown in the photo, above.

Something I’d never seen before our trip to western Oklahoma: tire signs. Evidently the farmers take old tires and paint on the tires with big white letters “No Hunting” and then sling them over a fence post every hundred yards or so.

Back home, we buy little rectangular white on black plastic signs from Wal-Mart or the Ace hardware store that say “POSTED” and just tack or nail them to trees along the property lines and roadsides.

But I guess the old tires are something the farmers don’t have to buy and are a fine example of recycling and resourcefulness. Besides, the closest Wal-Mart is an hour and 10 minutes away in Kingfisher, and with the price of gasoline, you can’t just run over to the Wal-Mart every time you need something. This is a small Wal-Mart - they don’t even sell gas at this one, but it is the birthplace of Sam Walton, so they had to have one, even if it’s just a small one.

Out in the country you make shopping lists and save up for one big shopping trip, maybe once a month or so. The whole family goes and makes a day trip of it.

On the way home we stopped at one of the clusters of new wind turbines so I could snap a couple pictures. There are miles of them running alongside a back road, and you can get right up next to them - close enough to hear the low whoosh whoosh sound of the blades as they turn. The farmers are still planting crops around the base and some ranches have their livestock sharing the fields with the turbines.

There is no whine or anything like a motor noise. It’s very quiet and peaceful with just the whoosh whoosh and an occasional bird chirping from a bush or fence post.