O-o-o-o-o-klahoma!

     The road trip is part of the fun for me. I love the hours of relative quiet. In my world, it is a rare and precious thing to have so much uninterrupted time to think. The little ones are buckled in and (mostly) happy to color, play with their road toys, or listen to a book on CD. That was one of the pluses of leaving The Magic School Bus behind. Driving the RV while towing a vehicle behind is pretty stressful. It was nice to be able to just enjoy the ride this time. The Dirty South is both our former and future home, so there was no shortage of friends and family that were kind enough to say yes when we invited ourselves offer us a shower and a place to sleep for a few nights. Ohio still had snow on the ground just a few weeks from our planned departure date, not to mention all we would save in gas. It just made sense to travel light for this leg of the trip.
     After a quick overnight stay in St. Louis, MO, we arrived at my brother's home in Tulsa, OK. I hadn't been back to Oklahoma since I buried my Dad five years ago. The sight of red dirt was enough for me to start tearing up. My big brother is one of my favorite peoples, as are his family, and the littlest cousins had a time getting to know each other. We didn't do anything terribly exciting--well, unless you count John Thomas's Ninja Turtle pool party, where Eden almost drowned--but other than that, we just sat on the front porch, drinking tea, talking, and watching the kids play. Doesn't get much better than that, if you ask me.

Uncle Shannon praying with the littles

     Our next stop was Lawton, The L, The Shady 580 (That's Lawton's area code for those that have the pleasure of not knowing.) I grew up in Lawton, went to school there. My dear high school bestie put us up for a couple of nights. This is not the first time she let me crash at her place with all my kids, which is quite generous of her because she doesn't have kids, and I have, well, a lot of them. Plus our friend Chaka came down and stayed with her two girls, too. Poor Starr. Poor Sir William the dog. They were such good sports. We only had two days in The L. The first of which, we spent perusing the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center. We started studying Plains Indians before we left Ohio. 

We learned about daily life and about Native American culture past and present. I have a personal interest in Native American culture, and I'm always glad for the opportunity to share it with my kids. My own grandmother was half Cherokee. Her story is pretty amazing. She was a concubine/slave of sorts in the hills of Missouri. She had been bought and sold twice, once for goats, and was on her second "husband" when she and my grandfather met picking cotton and fell in love. My grandpa spent the entire summer working alongside her and saved enough to buy her freedom. They were married for over half a century.
     The museum is small, but packed with information and organized in a logical and aesthetically pleasing way. We loved the art.

Virtual buffalo hunt. You shoot arrows with your finger!

Jesse thought the Comanche Code Talkers from WWII were pretty much the coolest thing ever.

The next day we visited the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge and Mount Scott.

   That night, the big kids babysat (bless them) and the grown folks hung out at The Twisted Taco, a local restaurant owned by my childhood friend and next-door-neighbor, Kyle. Several friends happened to be in town that weekend, and we had a little mini-reunion. We closed the place down, then locked the door and hung out even longer. It was good for the soul. Reminds me of an old Brownie song. "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold." Truth. Scouts honor.

1987 and 2015