The Birth of the Cactus High Five

My, oh my, how interesting this week has been. It started (last Saturday is the arbitrary beginning of this week) with me going to meet a Hurricaine Ike evacuee/friend at North Park and watching her enjoy America's second largest mall. I then moved on to our Progressive dinner, which you can read about in the previous entry.

On Sunday morning, I drove my sleepy husband and dog to Abilene, where we hopped in my parents van and shipped off to Oklahoma to go camping. (We left Gracie in the backyard with Samson and paid my sister to come over. Needless to say, I was quite the nervous pet owner. Gracie seems to be an escape artist. While Alex and I were at Six Flags tonight, we left her in Alex's parent's backyard. When I went to pick her up, she was sitting on the front porch. At least she sits on the porch when she gets out?) The original plan was to go to Arkansas but Ike was supposed to follow us from Dallas to Arkansas and then circle there until we decided it was time to leave, so the plan to changed to OK.

Dad took us to the Witchita National Wildlife Preserve. Although my father wanted to regale me with history lessons about grass and Indians, I refused to enter the Great Plains History Museum. After a 3 hour drive through the riveting landscape of Northwest Texas and the flatlands of Oklahoma, we finally arrived at (gasp) mountains. Granted, they're no Rockies or Smokies, but there was definitely some elevation gain, which completely surprised me because I assumed all of Okalahoma was the same elevation.

Our first interaction with the rangers was my mom getting chased out of the gift store at the Visitor Center to which she replied, "I didn't want a wolf mug, anyway."

We then proceeded to "Doris Campground" and selected a campsite between the lake and the shady bathrooms. My parents treated us to a steak dinner and then we hit the sleeping bags. Being that this is a nature preserve, there are bison, elk, and deer walking around and elk tend to bellow all night long. Fortunately for me, I brought my earplugs.

Monday, we got lost for the first of thousandth time trying to get back to the Visitor Center where we could ask them what hike was good. At their suggestion, we decided on a short hike to an abandoned mine but the directions were more like this:

1) The trailhead is off the road behind the gate, behind a cabin, behind the bathrooms.
2) Don't take the first right.
3) Look for a big rock.
4) Look up.

Great, thanks. Let's just say we found the trailhead but that was about the most successful part of this hike. My most useful, newfound knowledge about Oklahoma is that they don't label much. They give you instructions to turn left at the tumbleweed and then throw you out to fend for yourself.

For instance, when someone gives you the instruction to not take the first right on the trail, one would assume that there is, in fact, a 2nd right and only a 2nd right. Not in Oklahoma! The trail split about 91 times and more than once, we had to turn around because it just ended. (Oh, great! I've always wanted to hike to a rock). Alex and I did get to go swimming in some natural water but it only lasted about 2 minutes because I was sure a water moccassin would affix itself to my neck the minute I started to have any fun.

After that riveting hike, we did another and had roughly the same results- trails that lead to nowhere, despite the fact that a map on the trail told us we were standing near something called the "Forty Foot Hole". Don't you think that would be hard to miss? Clearly, we were all blind because all I saw was elk poop. We did get to climb around on some rocks and Alex collected some snails to eat (please, don't ask). That night we had steak and potatoes (ala Beth and Kelli Sweat) and Alex ate his snail. Then we drove up "Mount Scott" to watch for vultures and the sunset. I found it interesting (and stupid) that everything in the Refuge was plainly named (things like Mount Patricia, Lake Roger, Fanny Ravine). We froze our butts off that night cause the temperature dropped so low.

Tuesday we decided to do one moderate hike and then head on home. Well, we forgot this is Oklahoma, Land of the Anti-Signage. We were supposed to hike through this wilderness area and end up at two lakes. Halfway through, we were picking our way through a dry creek bed and I was anxiously looking for one or more of the 20 varieties of snakes in the area to make an appearance; that's when the trail stopped....again. Alex and Dad tried to find a way through, but to no avail. So, we turned around and promptly got lost again. We finally stumbled upon an actual trail (as opposed to the grassy overgrown weedy trail we were on). This might sound like a good thing, but we were so disoriented at this point, that we didn't know which way the car was, even with the GPS. So we chose to go to the right. About 20 minutes later, we get to this giant rock by a stream. Unfortunately, we had never seen this before which means that we might be going the wrong way.

So, I volunteered Alex and I to climb up and see if we could get our bearings better. We couldn't. The rock got too vertical near the top. On the way down, I slapped a cactus that was lurking (okay, not lurking; I knew it was there) in a handhold. While I started picking out the pricklies (what is the technical term?) with my fingers, Alex the handyman dug in his backpack for his pliers. It took us about 5 minutes to remove the offending needles and my hand felt numb afterwards. Later, Alex got one of the stickies in his tongue because it had stuck on his finger. (hahahaha.....shhhh)

I was tired of Oklahoma.

So, I finally came up with the idea of checking shoe prints on the trail to see if we had been there before. We backtracked our 20 minutes and kept going towards the other end. We did find my dad's footprint going the other way, so we knew we were almost back to the car.

The drive home was uneventful.

Alex and I came home on Wednesday.

Today (Friday) I had more training for Girl Scouts. It was fun and I got to know my coworkers a little better. We went out to one of the schools we'll be at and I was reminded how small junior high students were, so I relaxed a bit. I start on Monday. I think I'm going to say "Whoop" alot. Maybe the girls will think it's fun. Maybe they will think I'm a loser. I don't care.

Frito Lay rented out Six Flags tonight, so as soon as I got home, Alex and I hopped in the car to go ride some rides. I rode a few new ones (Runaway Mountain) but I refuse to do anything involving big drops, much to Alex's chagrin.

Coming up this weekend- breakfast with neigbors, an antique show with the same neighbors, Alex's sister's birthday, and another outreach. Goodness, it's nice to have something to do....