Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

Well, I have some catchin' up to do! I was out of commission last night but am happy to report that all's well with me again.

Yesterday we took a little ride up north of Stillwater almost to the Kansas border, where we hung a right and headed east for the Osage Indian Reservation and the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve. Wow. What an incredibly beautiful place. The land on the preserve has NEVER been tilled and the nature conservacy has done a lot of work to ensure that all native plants and grasses remain intact. There's a herd of about 3,000 bison (which somehow escaped our view) and flora and fauna galore (i.e. red cheeked turtles). Lotsa birds...I wish we had a bird book. We saw a hawk sitting on a post that was at least as tall as my forearm if not larger. I will post a few photos of some of the flora.

Earlier in the day we stopped in Pawhuska, OK (just outside of the preserve) where we visited the Chamber of Commerce. While Rosemary and I talked with the informative guy inside, Peggy went outside to stretch her legs. And then she disappeared. So there we were, searching the woods behind the Chamber, the Osage Gift Shop, and any other place we could think of. No Peggy. I said to Rosemary, "Do you see a clothing store anywhere near by?" We looked and looked, but neither of us could see anything that resembled a clothing store (the only likely place she'd be, of course). About the time we decided she'd probably been abducted and we were headed across the street to the police station to file a missing person's report, we spotted her off in the distance waving her arms and motioning us to join her. She'd found a clothing store (I swear she can spot them a mile away) and needed her wallet to purchase the jeans she had just tried on (not crops, of course).

Today was a different day. We woke up in beautiful Tulsa (truly beautiful) and decided to look around the city. Tulsa is apparently known as the Buckle of the Bible Belt, so our first stop was Oral Roberts University where Peggy stood under the 60 foot bronze statue of praying hands as Rosemary and I snapped a few pictures. It's the largest bronze statue in the world. The high point of the Oral Roberts tour was the sighting of a Scissor Tailed Flycatcher, the Oklahoma state bird!

I was ready to leave town, but Rosemary insisted that we find Cain's Ballroom. I figured it'd be closed since it was mid-day, but the kind young men who own it, let us in to take a look around. What history! For those of you who don't know, Cain's Ballroom is considered the birthplace of Western Swing and a pioneering force in the history of Rock and Roll. In the early years, Cain's was headquarters for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Country greats like Roy Rogers, Eddy Arnold, Johny Cash and Loretta Lynn are but a few of the talented artists to play the venue, and more recently, Willie Nelson, Melissa Ethridge, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Dolly Parton, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bonnie Raitt, Dixie Chicks, Brooks and Dunn, Vanilla Ice, Eric Clapton, Great Divide, No Justice, Cross Canadian Ragweed...well, you get the picture.

For me though, it was a bittersweet experience to walk through the ballroom where Marc and Josh and put together the Red Dirt Music Awards and concert. I could imagine him there, in his jeans and boots, running around and getting things organized. Chad, one of the two brothers who run Cain's remembered Marc right away. He told me it was the longest show they'd ever had. It started at around 3 in the afternoon and ran until 2:00 a.m. Thirty bands played. It was quite an undertaking--and even moreso because both Marc and Josh lived out of state (Josh in Kansas, and Marc in Seattle) and had never met in person! To top it off, neither had ever done anything like this...and it turned out to be quite a success. Thank you, Rosemary! I'm so glad we stopped.

When we finally left Tulsa, we drove down Highway 75, then hooked onto the Choctaw-Chickasaw Trail of Tears Memorial Highway (formerly Highway 70) through some of the most magnificient scenery I've ever seen. I thought about my dad when we crossed the Red River (he was always singing "Red River Valley"). Tonight we are about 300 miles north east of Austin in the charming little town of Mt. Vernon, Tx.

Well, that's about it for me tonight. My laptop battery is nearly drained so it must be time for me to go to bed. Thanks for reading our blog. We love your comments!

--Kathy

p.s. Our "high speed" internet connection isn't so speedy so I'll have eto wait until tomorrow to post pics. Until then....