Are We Having Fun Yet?

After much packing and a remarkably limited amount of pulling of hair and rending of clothes, we hit the road! The first leg of our trip was an easy drive.  Five hours on I 35 brought us to a truly idyllic location; The Chickasaw National Rereationl Area.  We are camped on the shore of Lake of the Arbuckles, seranaded by cicadas, birds and the rustling of leaves of the tall oaks. Why is it called the Lake of the Arbuckles? No, it's not because the Arbuckle family is kind and welcomed us with open arms...the mountains are named The Arbuckles, named (indirectly) after General Matthew Arbuckle (1778-1851). Hence, the lake is The Lake of the Arbuckles.

We left on  Labor Day and of course, by the time we arrived most campers had pulled up stakes and returned home. I say ¨most¨ because we did see one RV still encamped, but we were all alone in front of the lake, watching boaters and skiers fly across the water.

Our pitching of the tent marked only the third time we had ever put the tent up...first as a trial run, second as a treat to the grand kids and now...for real.  It was 99 degrees Fahrenheit and getting the tent and the inflatable bed up and habitable produced an awful lot of perspiration but surprisingly no curse words. I prepared a quick meal and we prepared to settle down for a nice sleep, lulled by the peaceful sounds of mother nature.  However, we soon discovered that INSIDE the tent the temperature had not cooled off as sweetly as it seemed it had outside.  We had four fans and none of them seemed up to the task of cooling us down.

We tossed, we turned and we gradually peeled of layers of clothing that had seemed only appropriate because we were basically OUTSIDE.  But, like I said...we were all alone!  So off came the clothes.

Another small inconvenience was that the new inflatable had never been slept on and we had failed to read that the material that the bed is made up stretches once it is inflated and receives the pressure of bodies.  So we tended to sink toward each other and ended up in a sweaty mass of uncomfortable limbs attempting to get into the path of the fans, still attempting to cool the ambient air!  I finally got to sleep about 1:30 am but judging from my husband's snoring he did reconcile sleep a lot sooner.

The morning brought cooler temperatures, beautiful scenes of stark white herons wafting in the air and landing on the shore of the lake.  The kitchen set-up was the abbreviated version since we were there for only one night but worked well and we feasted on bacon, eggs, toast, coffee and plenty of "Why haven't we done this before?" sighs of contentment.

Before heading of to Enid, Oklahoma to spend one night with my husband's sister we went to see the 12 bison (purported to be pure bred, procured from the Wichita National Reserve) and a water fall with the moniker of "Little Niagra Falls"...emphasis on "little". But the water was clear and cool, denoting that it was spring water, and very inviting. I did not have a bathing suit with me or I would have been very tempted...

 The trip from Sulphur, Oklahoma where the National Park is to Enid was through many small towns with typical main streets and "downtowns"...all very tranquil; disturbingly so.  Small frame houses with porch swings and overturned tricycles punctuated the landscape.

We both treated ourselves to Braums Ice Cream...famously delicious but not something that Texans (so proud of their Blue Bell Ice Cream) can get!  This is a sinful but wonderful deviation from the norm. So much dieting hasn't seemed to work anyway so we decided to GO FOR IT!

Next stop is Kansas...