Heading South - Oklahoma

Thursday and Friday, August 4th and 5th

I left the conference a few hours early - realizing that I would not manage the 20 hours of driving left for my trip in 2.5 days without doing so. I pushed and went about 10 hours on Thursday and made it to a lovely campsite by a lake just outside Oklahoma City.

Getting there was no easy task, the main highway between Omaha and Kansas City is still

closed from flooding and I had to backtrack and take back roads to get south. I hadn't fully realized the extent of the flooding - despite all that I had already seen - until this. It is heart breaking. The people of Oklahoma have also dealt with recent bad tornadoes, and over 45

days of over 100 degree weather. It was about 110-115 when I was there.

I was a bit worried about this campsite, because I saw about 5 people being stopped by cops in the near by town - and mostly people on foot, in handcuffs, not the typical speeding ticket stops. When i got to the campsite around 10:30pm, there were teens playing and people being obnoxious. I thought maybe I wouldn't be able to stay there. But the ranger pulled up almost immediately, assured me it was safe and told the kids they had to leave - it was for overnight camping only. After she left, a couple came to camp near me - and they had a bad fight. It unnerved me and I slept horribly. At least in the morning I woke up to a lovely view of the lake, went lake swimming and decided that a bath in the lake was far preferable to the tornado damaged camp showers. It was sublime! And quiet. Only one fisherman in site, he waved politely and moved on. My swim shorts and shirt were great fold holding my shampoo, too :)

Then I went to the Oklahoma city bombing memorial and museum. An incredible place - and another must-see. I am very thankful for this recommendation from friends. The memorial is beautiful and very touching, and the museum does a great job and making the people very tangible - the idea of innocent civilian deaths has never been more poignant, yet at the same time, the museum leaves you with a sense of healing. It is a town renewed, not a town broken. One special spot is a tree that amazingly survived the bombing (which ruined several surrounding buildings), and now has a place of honor on the memorial grounds.

Then it was off to Arkansas...