Day Five – Tuesday, May 31st, Happy
Anniversary!!, Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, OK
I’ll confess, I’m a bit behind on my posts, so it would feel
even more like cheating then normal to say good morning from Carthage, MO since
it’s already Thursday. Shh, don’t tell
anybody :) So anyways, “today” we awoke
in Carthage, MO. Since I had not been
able to take Abby up to the rooftop pool, we snuck out of the room a few
minutes early to go on a Mommy and Abby walk.
There wasn’t much to see other than parking lots, but we enjoyed our
time anyways. We still had a three hour
or so drive ahead of us, so we took turns grabbing our continental breakfasts
and taking showers.
We drove southwest into Oklahoma in search of buffalo! Oh, and the turtles, I can’t forget the
turtles. I had felt bad about not
stopping to help the first one I saw.
But then I lost count of how many more I saw. And they actually moved quite quickly for
turtles, so I guess they’re okay! There were
dozens of them on and along the big highway.
We drove through the small town of Bartlesville, OK, which was a pretty
cool looking small town. We stopped at a
Food Pyramid to stock up on lunch supplies – fresh bananas, cheese &
crackers & pepperonis, cookies, drinks & candies, applesauce squirties,
a gallon of water to refill our bottles. The drive into Tallgrass Prairie Reserve was
beautiful, and the last thirty miles or so was on small gravel roads. It was awesome! We had thoughts of Jurassic Park as we went
through various fences and saw different warning signs. We stopped at one overlook and turned off the
car. The silence was heavy and wonderful
and amazing. Nothing but birds and
crickets. And our kids. We did see a group of three buffalo sitting
in the grass pretty far back from the road.
But that was all we passed before we made it to the visitor’s
center. The docent had only seen those
same three as well, and he said there’s usually herds of them on his way
in. I was still optimistic though. We looked at a few displays, checked out the
bathrooms, toured the old ranch house with a sweet docent who didn’t actually
know anything about the house ;), and then purchased a few souvenirs.
Stopping for lunch supplies was a very good move, we were in
the middle of nowhere! We picnicked at a
table near the visitor’s center, alongside a creek and pretty trees. After an enjoyable lunch, we headed to the
trailhead. I had been really excited
about this trail and the open prairie views.
However, before we even started, we found a tick on Chloe’s leg, just
above her sock. Coleson quickly got it
off, and we didn’t think too much about it.
The docent at the gift shop had warned us about ticks, and we bought and
applied his bug spray. We had no idea
how right he was! The trail started
along the wooded area by the river. Ryan
liked being in the shade. It wasn’t long
before we started noticing more ticks.
And more. The views were amazing,
however we were becoming more and more distracted by the ticks crawling up our
legs. At the turnoff for the buffalo
viewing trail, we had to turn back to the car.
We had picked probably five ticks off each of us by then, with the most
being on poor Chloe. She was crying, err
screaming, by then and I was holding her.
We pretty much ran to our car where we began to strip off socks and
shoes. We dumped things into baggies and
sealed our socks up. We pulled ticks off
them as we put them away, and even so we still saw two more working their way
up the inside of the bag. So gross. Unfortunately, a huge group of hikers
appeared [we had been the only car in the lot].
They were prepared and well dressed.
And prevented us from properly checking each other for ticks if you know
what I mean ;) But we did the best we
could. I still have the creepy crawlies
and I’m still humming Brad Paisley’s hit – “I just want to check you for ticks.”
After our tick experience, we drove around the park some
more in search of the buffalo. Remember
my desire on last summer’s road trip to see the seals? This year it was buffalo. We drove and drove. According to the info page I printed from
their website : “it is a rare visitor who does not see hundreds of bison near –
and often blocking – the roads.” I was
beginning to fear being the rare visitor!
We did see some amazing herds of free ranging cattle and lots of birds
and even two deer. But the bison were
elusive. And then finally, we could see
a herd of bison in the distance. [we had
learned that the cattle are more colorful.
This distant herd was all dark dark brown]. We went faster trying to get closer. And sure enough, there was a huge herd! And they were in the road! I was sooo happy. There was already another car there, blocked
from passing. We opened the windows and
the sunroof and hung out of the car like the tourists we are. It was the coolest thing ever. I could have watched them all day. Beautiful beasts with the bright blue sky and
green grass spreading out forever behind them.
I’d say it was exactly what I’d been hoping for, but it was far
better! So exciting. Feeling content and happy, we attempted to beeline
it out of the park in hopes of making it to Oklahoma City in time for dinner,
and possibly even a shower at the hotel first.
But exiting the park took forever [remember all those gravel
roads?!]. The gps didn’t understand that
almost all the roads in the park are private or closed or grown over. Eventually our goal became simply to exit the
park :) I’m sure we lost some time, but
we made it out, and found real roads to take us to our next adventure.
As we closed in on OKC, we stopped for gas, bathrooms, and to
change clothes. It started raining as we got closer to the city. Not too bad at first, and we saw a beautiful rainbow. It was really cool - it started bright on the right side and we couldn't see the end on the left. And then as the rains or light or whatever shifted, the right side faded and the left got brighter. I felt like I could see it coming and going before my eyes, amazing. By the time we got into the city, it was pretty stormy and rainy. Even without checking
into the hotel, it was still close to 7:00pm before we arrived at dinner. My mom has connections in Oklahoma – a co-worker/friend
from the area who knows someone that works for one of the tourist groups, and
we were fortunate to have a list of fun things to do from some locals! Cattlemen’s Steakhouse was tops on the list
of places to go. And seeing as it was
our anniversary and all, a nice dinner seemed like a good idea. It was a cool, old place in a district of OKC
called Stockyards City. Most of the
stores on the Main Street area were closed by then, and the Stockyards
themselves are only open on Mondays.
There’s a huge public cattle auction that would have been neat to
explore. But Cattlemen’s was still
hopping, and we sat in a nice circular booth in the corner. I think I had thought it’d be touristy and
neon and tacky and whatnot, but it was more simple and plain with maroon
leather booths and red carpet – I don’t think it had changed in thirty years,
which of course, is the appeal. We
celebrated by ordering a glass of wine and trying to pretend we weren’t in a
booth with three restless kids. Okay, we
didn’t really try to pretend, there’s no chance of tuning them out! But they’re awesome kids, and it was still a
nice dinner. I even ordered a
steak. That’s what you do at a
steakhouse in Oklahoma after all. The
house salad/dressing was really yummy, as were the “crunchies” – an appetizer
bread. There was a foursome in a table
nearby, a couple our age-ish, and a much older couple, I’m guessing one of their
grandparents. If I overheard correctly,
they were celebrating their 55th anniversary! So sweet.
And they got free desserts with candles.
So of course, the kids wanted us to tell them it was our anniversary,
but we told Ryan it was up to him. He
wouldn’t do it of course, but he did eventually tell the waiter that we had
something to tell him, which started the conversation that brought it up. And thus, we too received free anniversary
desserts! Their specialty is a coconut crème
pie, but I guess you could say we lucked out – when he asked us if we liked coconut,
and I said yes and Coleson said no, he brought us two pies. One coconut crème and one chocolate crème. We were stuffed though and took them to-go. I was feeling overly-full by them, and we
stopped by the bathrooms before heading out to walk off dinner along Main
Street. I started feeling worse and
worse. I didn’t really eat an overly
crazy amount, but I was not doing well.
And just like that, I threw up in a trash can. Ahh, yes, what a story. Remember that year I threw up in a trash can
in Oklahoma City on our anniversary?! So
weird. And if you know me, you know I
rarely throw up. Unfortunately, throwing
up did not make me feel better like it usually does. In fact, I ended up on the ground sitting up
against a building. Ryan kept me company
while Coleson got the car. We drove
maybe ten minutes, checked into our hotel, and I collapsed on the bed. Thanks to my awesome hubby for getting all
our stuff in, bathing the girls [and yes, he did pull a tick out of Abby’s
back. Yuck.], and taking care of
everything while I slept it off. I think
I dozed for about half an hour. I felt a
bit better afterwards and took a shower to wash away any lingering ticks before
calling it a night. I have the creepy
crawlies again just writing this.
So, welcome to OKC!
We are having a blast and making memories! Well, the ticks are more like nightmares, I
could do without those memories. But you
just gotta roll with it! Loving our trip. Looking forward to exploring Oklahoma City tomorrow.
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