I’ve done some serious soul-searching… in it all I’ve begun overhauling everything in my world to create a happy, healthy stress-free existence. I’d love to be able to share it all with you but I respect you, reader, enough not to leave you floating at the balloon museum…so I’m not giving up. I’ll take you home with us. Then, when I’ve worked all the “other stuff” out, you can try it with me and see if you, too can get happy, healthy and stress-free. If you want.
Wednesday September 24 Day 44
On our way out of the park we went for a walk for a geocache. We met fellow northeasterners and chit-chatted about RV’ing. The heat of the day hit us fast, so we were back on the road in no time.
Another long day of driving and we entered TX and strived for Amarillo. Darryl was craving steak dinner and without Costco or healthy edible options in the grocery store we had dwindled our supplies of snacks and easy meals so we were all craving something other than carrots, macaroni or cheese sandwiches.
We spent the night in Amarillo and made a point to get grocery shopping as soon as possible.
Thursday, September 25 Day 45
These days of straight driving are long but go by quick. They’re also running together in my mind making it difficult to recount for journalling’s sake.
Into Oklahoma and it’s a “drag-our-feet” kind of day the girls alternated playing with their dolls, singing songs, coloring-workbooks and snacks…lots of snacks. Days like today i pump ’em full of snacks hoping they won’t notice we’ve been riding more than not, lately.
A visitor’s center packed with pamphlets, maps and books proved our suspicions 100’s of miles of nothing; well that’s not entirely true and if you are a Oklahoman, I’m deeply sorry to offend.
Even the friendly volunteer had little to offer besides obvious water parks in Oklahoma City. (not our cup of tea)
We like to go off the beaten path so we picked up the outdoor guide and found a state park close to the interstate with our must-haves, water and electric hook ups, a playground and a minimal camping fee. This park also offered a lake for fishing (something Lemon has asked to do).
It was perfect! Only it was on the other side of the state.
Friday September 26 Day 46
Our mission was to find a grocery store, of which we found…one.
We bought orange juice.
Everything in the store was sprayed with, made with or just chemicals in a box.
Not in line with how we eat and we were sad.
We thought maybe there is no demand for organic non-GMO gluten-free food in a small town grocery so we swallowed hard and ventured the nearby Walmart.
As we’re walking in we see about a dozen locals meandering either in or out and we had an observation: all but one of them was severely overweight.
Darryl and I discuss the cause for this and its a topic for another post, another day but i feel like shaking these sheep and yelling “Wake up! You’re dying a slow miserable death.”
Is it the water? Culture? T.V.? Technology? Education? Lack of options? Just plain stupidity?
EGH!
We picked up what little of “our” food we could find and chugged along across the state landing in Eufala Lake State Park just about lunch time. The girls played while Darryl and I got our fishing gear ready- Off he went with our little cherubs and I blogged while the 3 youngest of our brood slept. We cleaned up , they played, we ate dinner and after a game of bingo we all went to bed.
Awesome side note about Lake Eufala Park: The nature center was educational, fun and just really cool! With an amphibian house we entered a sweltering jungle-like atmosphere to see frogs all over. on the floor the ceiling the windows, we could literally reach out and touch them. The turtles were cute too swimming in the water feature. The main building had its moments as well, the touch table was the highlight but the girls wandered exploring and learning like crazy.
Some fun from today:
Saturday September 27 Day 47
More fishing, cleaning house and bodies then into Arkansas we go. Rest time ended at a welcome center at the state line and another geocache found.
We walked around and stretched our legs before eating dinner at our favorite pastime, Panera Bread in Fort Smith.
Miles and miles and hours and hours to make it into Forest City, AR where we crashed. Not literally, figuratively we were exhausted!
This part of the trip is just as boring and miserable as I had agonized over it in Las Vegas.
We have the best kids in the world though, occupying themselves with card games, pretend play, Nintendo DS, watching movies quizzing each other in Math problems, reading stories, telling jokes and simply being sweet and silly.
I know riding down the road may sound miserable but we all had fun while looking forward to getting home.
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