Day Seven - Oklahoma

Day Seven – Thursday, June 2^nd 2016, driving Oklahoma

Today [and I really mean today!  I’m caught up on blogging!], we had planned to venture west of OKC into the Black Kettle grasslands area.  But between the rain, our fear of ticks, and having already seen my buffalo, we were open to new ideas.  We spent last night researching, but still hadn’t really come up with anything.  This morning, Coleson and the girls got a head start on the breakfast, while I called up a local barn that I had finally found that advertised horseback riding.  Believe it or not, those seem to be hard to come by around here.   I suppose that’s because so many people have their own horses!  Even the places that do offer horse trails, are just that- trails, you bring your own horse.  The lady that answered was super sweet and apologetic, with all the rain, it’s just too wet and muddy and it wouldn’t be safe for riding.  That made complete sense to me, and also made me realize that most any outdoor activity would have the same limitations.  So we enjoyed our breakfast of waffles and bananas and hot coffee and checked out of our room, still without a clear plan for the day.     

We headed west and jumped on the old historic route 66 for a while.  It was pretty and fun and all, but it can get a little boring, especially if you are 8, 6, or 3.  We saw some nice countryside and a cool old bridge.  We stopped at a fun old picnic area, complete with little metal overhangs at each table.  We sat and finished our Ranger in Time book and read a couple of the Blessings book devotionals.   Love that the kids brought that along too and ask to read from it!  Abby scaled the metal posts of the overhang and Ryan played his little football kicking game [think those paper footballs that you flick with your fingers].  He’s got a tournament type championship thing going on that he’s been keeping track of on hotel stationery.  After a bathroom break, we drove just a little farther to Weatherford where we ate lunch at Lucille’s diner.  The food was quite good, classic American.  I had a Route 66 burger complete with lettuce, tomato, pickle, etc, it was thick and huge and delicious!  Coleson had a patty melt.  They had the same jump the pegs game that Cracker Barrel has, so the kids enjoyed that.  It was a fun stop. 

We then began meandering our way up towards Woodward, OK, where tonight’s hotel is located.  We pulled over at a city park area that caught our eye and went on a walk.  We sampled some blackberry looking and tasting fruits, except they were growing off a huge tree instead of a bush.  But they were still yummy, whatever they were.  The kids enjoyed playing on a section of exercise equipment.  And then it rained on us.  And since it’s Oklahoma and you can see for miles, you can also see the rain.  So neat.  We took the opportunity to use the bathrooms with the added bonus of getting out of the rain for a few mins.  The rain halted temporarily, and we walked some more, although we did get rained on a second time.  It wasn’t too heavy or anything, just extra annoying in flipflops.  Our sneakers are still tied up in plastic grocery bags with ticks crawling all around in them.  I’m kinda scared of that bag, and I don’t really know what to do about it.  I wish I could spray them and wash them and air them out, somewhere far far away from us.  But I can’t.  So we walk in flipflops.  Anyways, back to walking in the rain.  It was a nice stretch of the legs before sitting again.  The drive to Woodward was not quite two hours.  It was a great drive.  Lots of backroads without any painted lines, some parts barely paved, middle of nowhere, nothing in sight.  My eyes just love seeing nothing and everything all at the same time.  It’s so hard to take it all in.  You can see forever here.  We saw hundreds and hundreds of windmills.  They’re huge and white and only have three blades.  They put them in rows in the windy areas, and you’ll pass through dozens of them.  It’s almost freaky.  As Coleson said, it makes you think of that movie Contact.  We saw bunches of them the other day too, driving from the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.  I really love the classic older windmills though, and I even pulled over so Coleson could take some pictures for me.  There’s also wheat everywhere.  So pretty and golden.  And really cool to me were the bales of it all rolled up spread out across the fields.  Dots and dots of wheat bales ready and waiting.  It’s just so totally different out here.  Having the day to drive and explore and really see the countryside was fun. 

We made it to our hotel about 4:30 probably.  We checked in [they gave us chocolate chip cookies upon arrival!  best hotel ever!], and much to the delight of our three little people discovered another indoor pool, hooray!  I tell ya, we could just spend a week in a hotel with an indoor pool and continental breakfasts, and they’d be happy as clams :)  Awesome Daddy took the kiddos swimming while I typed blogs.  Typing these can be a bit annoying and very time-consuming, but I do enjoy looking back on them, and hopefully someday the kids will appreciate them too.   And maybe I’ll even print them into a book of some sort.  Great plans and aspirations.  So, I typed Tuesday and Wednesday while they swam.  And since it was after six when they returned, and they were pretty much done for, I drove over to Subway and picked up dinner while the family took warm showers.  It was raining while I was out, but it was so different than any rain back home.  It was still relatively bright and sunny out, and the rain barely even got you wet.  It was a light rain that just sort of rolled off.  I didn’t mind it one bit.  And oh boy was it fresh.  It smelled so clean and good and fresh.  It really made me want to find a grassy field and stretch my arms and dance in a circle like you see in movies.  When I returned to the hotel, the fire alarm was going off.  It was crazy loud.  I wasn’t overly concerned since I hadn’t noticed anything from the parking lot.  Everyone was still in the room – the girls had just gotten in the tub when it went off.  It didn’t last long, and by the time the time we made it to the lobby to investigate, it had stopped.  There was a fire truck in the parking lot by then, and when I said something to the front desk lady, she offered that she had been making some cookies.  Oops ;)

We had a very nice evening in.  Sandwiches, apples that we had bought along the way and not eaten yet, Cheetos from our snack bag, and more cookies.  We watched Spy Kids #892 on Disney, and despite not having seen Spy Kids #1 or 2 or 3, it was still about as good as a made for TV Disney channel movie can be.  It was cute and relaxing and fun to be together.  After goodnights and snuggles [“why you all laying on my foots??” –Chloe], the kids quickly fell asleep.  They haven’t given us a single peep or bit of grief about bedtime.  But I guess that’s what long, action-packed days will do!  And they’ve been staying up a lot later then at home.  Even the girls are getting better at sleeping in too.  I think it was close to 8:00 before we rolled out of bed this morning.   

Everyone’s fast asleep, and I’m happy to report that I’m caught up and current on my blog posts!  I’ve been typing them in word and posting whenever I can get internet, so some of the lag-time has been because I can’t post what I’ve written.  But some of it has just been because I’ve been behind.  Hopefully, I can maintain now.  Good night from Woodward, OK!  Sweet dreams to all!