Yup, I know I've been spotty over the last few weeks, but it's been Spring Break time around here, and we took advantage of it - Road Tripping! Zach and I took a week and went up through eastern OK, through the Ozarks in northern AR and southern MO, and across to Mammoth Cave, KY. And then, of course, back to TX.
With all those stops, now my Map of States Visited looks like:
With all those stops, now my Map of States Visited looks like:
And my Map of States Visited With Zach looks like:
Yes, there are a few gaps on the "With Zach" map, but some of those states we've merely passed through (and not taking the scenic route), and not actually visited. I stand by my maps :)
And then once we got back, I started a new job! Woohoo! Still working for the same place, but in a different department. I really enjoyed my other job, but this one is still interesting, so that's good. And then there is the plus of having a better schedule and other practical benefits like that. With all the new schedule changes after getting back from meandering across the middle of the country for a week... well, it took some time to get the pictures organized and labeled and ready to post. But we're ready to go now! First up on the tour....
Ok-la-HOOOO-ma, OK!
We went northeast up through Texas into Oklahoma to start the trip. Neither of us had ever been before, so we picked out a few state parks and a couple museums to check out as we worked our way east.
Impressions?
The first stop was in Broken Bow, OK to visit Beaver's Bend State Park. Besides being a pretty state park, Beaver's Bend houses the Forestry Heritage Museum. I know it seems like a random museum to stop at, but it turned out to be pretty interesting. My curiosity had been piqued after having worked a little with US Forestry folk when I was in SC, so I figured it was worth a stop. It covered forest history and conservation and so forth, and had a lot of history information about logging in the area, too and how folk expanded into that section of OK. Totally new history for us. And being a wood-focused museum, it hosted classes on wood carving and displays from local artists. Some beautiful pieces! And as a random-trivia bonus, the mascot was designed and the dioramas painted by Harry Rossoll, the creator of Smokey the Bear.
Robber's Cave State Park was the second state park on the tour, a little further north in Wilburton, OK. From a caver's perspective, it's not really much of a cave. And from a history nut's view, I'd have loved to hear more about the robbers they think used the cave. But it was still a nice state park. Plenty of hiking a riding trails, and some easy rock climbing points too. For us, a nice little stop to stretch our legs and enjoy the lovely weather as we worked our way through OK.
The highlight of OK was kinda a surprise, at the Cherokee Heritage Museum in Tahlequah, OK. Not that it should be a surprise that it was a good stop (why would we stop someplace bad if we can help it?), but it was a more involved museum than I had expected. I had picked it out as a museum to break up the driving, it was close to where we need to turn to start heading east, and I didn't know much about Cherokee history to start with. All good reasons to stop and visit. But it turned out to be a very well done museum. Restored buildings, artwork, history, demonstrations, a pretty thorough tour, and changes in progress as more is learned or exhibits grow or evolve... we were both pretty impressed.
I really like all the incorporation of the Cherokee language. Most of the labels in the museum were bilingual, and the displays on the reconstructed town outside included words in the Cherokee alphabet, as well as their pronunciations. 85 symbols in the Cherokee syllabary!
The demonstrators were very cool people. The guys showed how to play Stickball, as well as use several traditional types of weapons: blow dart, atlatl, and bow and arrow.
We hung around a little to ask questions and Zach and a few others got to try out the atlatl (pronouced AT-lattle, by the way, not attle-attle like I said when I was younger).
I liked this one. Yes, I know it's named after a person named Swimmer, but education and aquatics in one building. Made me smile.
And a truly random surprise. Our tour group included a bunch of student nurses from south FL also traveling over spring break. One was wearing a sweatshirt from Lost World Caverns in WV!! Zach and I met there, at that cave specifically, and we have known the owners for a buncha years through assorted caving activities. And here was someone from FL on a tour in OK wearing a sweatshirt from that particular cave in WV! Craziness!
And then once we got back, I started a new job! Woohoo! Still working for the same place, but in a different department. I really enjoyed my other job, but this one is still interesting, so that's good. And then there is the plus of having a better schedule and other practical benefits like that. With all the new schedule changes after getting back from meandering across the middle of the country for a week... well, it took some time to get the pictures organized and labeled and ready to post. But we're ready to go now! First up on the tour....
Ok-la-HOOOO-ma, OK!
We went northeast up through Texas into Oklahoma to start the trip. Neither of us had ever been before, so we picked out a few state parks and a couple museums to check out as we worked our way east.
Impressions?
- The Red River really is red. The river runs through what's called "red-bed country", meaning it runs through a lot of reddish sedimentary rocks. As the river carrying a lot of sediment, it appears reddish itself. Think deep south red clay color to the streams. Interesting. (Yes, the geo classes are coming out).
- Neither of us had ever considered OK to be a forested area. Too influenced by what we know of Army bases in OK and by song lyrics sweepin' down the plain, but the eastern side of the state is logging country, very pretty forests. Learn something new every day!
- You can tell states that have an active or outdoorsy population. They take care of their state parks and support the park system in general. OK has some pretty nice state parks, at least in the eastern side where we were. Very pleased.
- The Texas vs Oklahoma 'thing' is weird. Overheard at Beaver's Bend: "Oklahoma is Texas' wasteland." Who said it? A college kid to his friends, a group that had driven up from Texas to spend money and camp in an OK state park. How sarcastic he was being, I don't know, but we were in a park that has more and taller trees than anything in several hours' radius from where we live in TX. Yeah, a real wasteland...
The first stop was in Broken Bow, OK to visit Beaver's Bend State Park. Besides being a pretty state park, Beaver's Bend houses the Forestry Heritage Museum. I know it seems like a random museum to stop at, but it turned out to be pretty interesting. My curiosity had been piqued after having worked a little with US Forestry folk when I was in SC, so I figured it was worth a stop. It covered forest history and conservation and so forth, and had a lot of history information about logging in the area, too and how folk expanded into that section of OK. Totally new history for us. And being a wood-focused museum, it hosted classes on wood carving and displays from local artists. Some beautiful pieces! And as a random-trivia bonus, the mascot was designed and the dioramas painted by Harry Rossoll, the creator of Smokey the Bear.
Robber's Cave State Park was the second state park on the tour, a little further north in Wilburton, OK. From a caver's perspective, it's not really much of a cave. And from a history nut's view, I'd have loved to hear more about the robbers they think used the cave. But it was still a nice state park. Plenty of hiking a riding trails, and some easy rock climbing points too. For us, a nice little stop to stretch our legs and enjoy the lovely weather as we worked our way through OK.
The highlight of OK was kinda a surprise, at the Cherokee Heritage Museum in Tahlequah, OK. Not that it should be a surprise that it was a good stop (why would we stop someplace bad if we can help it?), but it was a more involved museum than I had expected. I had picked it out as a museum to break up the driving, it was close to where we need to turn to start heading east, and I didn't know much about Cherokee history to start with. All good reasons to stop and visit. But it turned out to be a very well done museum. Restored buildings, artwork, history, demonstrations, a pretty thorough tour, and changes in progress as more is learned or exhibits grow or evolve... we were both pretty impressed.
I really like all the incorporation of the Cherokee language. Most of the labels in the museum were bilingual, and the displays on the reconstructed town outside included words in the Cherokee alphabet, as well as their pronunciations. 85 symbols in the Cherokee syllabary!
The demonstrators were very cool people. The guys showed how to play Stickball, as well as use several traditional types of weapons: blow dart, atlatl, and bow and arrow.
We hung around a little to ask questions and Zach and a few others got to try out the atlatl (pronouced AT-lattle, by the way, not attle-attle like I said when I was younger).
I liked this one. Yes, I know it's named after a person named Swimmer, but education and aquatics in one building. Made me smile.
And a truly random surprise. Our tour group included a bunch of student nurses from south FL also traveling over spring break. One was wearing a sweatshirt from Lost World Caverns in WV!! Zach and I met there, at that cave specifically, and we have known the owners for a buncha years through assorted caving activities. And here was someone from FL on a tour in OK wearing a sweatshirt from that particular cave in WV! Craziness!
