July 14, 2016
Bill Westmorland called Roger first thing this morning. But he can’t get away until 2 pm tomorrow. He
will call us then to give us directions.
So we spent the day in the parking lot of the Moose Lodge, updating our
blog and adding pictures. Then I
balanced our checking account and paid bills.
At 5:30 pm we drove back into Oklahoma City so Roger could transmit from
the Memorial again. He was able to make
more contacts because the noise level was much less than before. Then we returned to Moose Lodge and went
inside for a little while, visiting with a couple of people who were friendly
and courteous.
July 15, 2016
We received a text from our classmate, Bill
Westmoreland. He said he could meet us
about 3:20 at the Panera’s restaurant, just a few miles from the Moose
Lodge. While we waited, Roger found a
local barber shop, where he got a very nice haircut.
Bill was very glad to see us. We bought sandwiches and visited for a couple
of hours,sharing some old and new stories about a few of our life
experiences. He plans on retiring from
the FAA in about 3 years. Then he hopes
to convince his wife to tour summers in the states, and return to Hawaii in the
winters.
While Bill was reminiscing, he talked about surfing with Mike
Engle, Jimmy Morgan, Mike Maney (who was a year behind us) and Matt Bell. They were such really good memories, full of
fun times. We were all grateful to have
had the opportunity to share them.
It was 5:30pm when we left Oklahoma City and headed east again. The landscape in eastern Oklahoma is so nice. There are lots of green
trees and grasses, with tiny yellow and white wild flowers interspersed. After
the dry dusty southwest, I’m loving it here. They obviously have more regular
rainfall in this part of the state.
There are occasional small herds of cattle grazing in fields
and small shallow rivers and creeks, which we pass over on interstate 40. It seems to be a peaceful and clean
state. There is no litter along the
highway, which makes a very pleasurable journey.
July 16, 2016
We spent the day bird watching and found a new bird, the
Bullocks Oriole. Roger is the one who
figured it out. We had been looking at another bird that was yellow. He realized after awhile that it was the
female Bullock’s oriole.
Later in the day we went swimming in the lake. But it was a challenge, because the shoreline
was covered with large rocks, which we had to negotiate before getting to the
water. Then we found out there were
rocks all over the bottom, as well. It
was quite different from our sand covered beaches at home. But the water felt great once we got deep
enough that the rocks were smaller.
Fortunately, we had remembered to bring our swimming booties with rubber
soles. Otherwise, we might have had some
cuts and bruises to contend with.
July 17, 2016
There was a lovely stiff breeze this morning. I was very excited to notice a scissortail
flycatcher before we left the park. It
was so obvious, due to its very long divided tail. We were enjoying ourselves so much on the
lakeview camp site that we didn’t leave until 1:30pm.
We passed a lot of farm land. Most of the crops are corn, but there are
others that we can’t tell what they are.
But it’s great to see so much green.
I sure appreciate it much more after being in the southwest, where trees
are almost non-existent.
We arrived in Ft.
Smith, Arkansas, our
next national park site. It is located
just across the Oklahoma/Arkansas state line, next to the Arkansas
River. Unlike most of the
forts built in the early years of our countries history, the first Fort Smith, built in 1817,
was established to keep peace between two Indian tribes. The native Osage Indians were in conflict with
the arriving Cherokee Indians, who were forcibly relocated from their homeland.
The forts history covers a period of 80 years. It served as the warehouse for multiple
products needed by the Army and the new settlers. In the later years, Ft. Smith
became the location of the Federal Court.
It took over 20 years for U.S. Marshals and Judge Isaac C.
Parker to bring law and order to the Western District of Arkansas.
July 18, 2016
We heard from Tricia. She and our granddaughter, Kaitlynn
are part of a mission group who left for Haiti early this morning. There are 16 people on the team. They are in
the Atlanta Airport right now. Anyone who is reading this, I ask for your
prayers that all will go well with their group.
They have worked so hard to earn the money to pay for their
expenses. May our God bless their
efforts and give them a rewarding experience of helping those who are so much
less fortunate than we are in America.
A large part of Arkansas
is rural countryside. But it is a pretty
state, green even in the height of summer.
(By now you know I love green.)
That gives it a mellow atmosphere, pleasant and “easy on the eyes”. Most of the land we are driving through now,
in the western part of the state, is undeveloped but peaceful; some might say,
pastoral.
Oh! We just turned
east and there were several blooming mimosa trees with fluffy pink
flowers. I hadn’t seen them in so
long. What a pleasant surprise. I forgot that they grow wild in some
places.
As we pass over small creeks, many with out water, we
realize that Arkansas
is a very rocky state. That would
explain why we have not seen any farms.
It seems so fertile, but there are apparently many rocks under the
pretty green grasses we see on the surface.
We have seen a few cattle, but not nearly enough to support a family.
We found another Corp campground on a lake just west of Hot Springs. On Lake Ouachita, It is situated on a peninsula, so we got an
even better site than yesterday. We have
almost 360 degree view of the lake.
Roger was so happy, he paid for three days.
We went swimming again. This lake has clearer water and the
rocks on the shore are smaller. But the
rocks are like shale. They are thin
layers of muti-colored rocks. The colors
range from white, brown, red, orange and dark gray. But they are soft and easily breakable.
We came here a few years ago and rented a houseboat for a week with Roger's brother and had a great time then also.
We came here a few years ago and rented a houseboat for a week with Roger's brother and had a great time then also.
In the evening, Roger built us a fire, even though it was
warm, it was still delightful to watch the flickering colors in the flames.
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