Day 3: Oklahoma! (1/8/22)


We woke to the fragrance of breakfast casserole wafting up from the kitchen, where Barb was performing her usual magic. What a sister! It’s great to be able to spend more time together as we reach a “certain age.”  (Barb is much, much younger, of course.) Sisters are great. I’m glad I have four.


Phil and I packed up the trailer and the Dodge Durango, loaded up the dogs, and said our good-byes. It was hard to leave this family. Joel and Derek (the two youngest boys of eight children) are already launching their careers—Derek at Dordt as an engineering student, and Joel preparing for training as a physical therapist. Wonderful kids of great parents.


Our drive to Oklahoma City was uneventful. I was struck by the long stretches of undeveloped land—empty fields, miles and miles of scrub forest, almost no farming or ranching. When I see that, I can’t help but think of the WWII victory gardens that people dug in their back yards and along every available inch of free soil. Is there some way to use all that empty land? Think of all the kale we could grow! Brussels sprouts! Spinach! At any rate, the scenery was the identical for most of the five-hour drive: silvery brown scrub trees and the gold of last year’s field grass. Mile after mile after mile…


We arrived at Twin Fountains RV Resort around 4:00 p.m. and got a nice pull-through site.

At this point, I will digress to say that perhaps our journey may seem like a romantic and fun adventure to some of you: leaving the frozen denizens of Minnesota to camp our way across the Southwest and up the California coast, retired and free of responsibility. Yes, there is that. But here are some more realistic details:

  • Every time we stop the car, for whatever reason, one of our dogs goes insane. He worms and wiggles and flounders his way into the front seat, deaf to our shouts and avoiding blows, unstoppable until he catapults to the ground through an open door or window. So irritating.
  • This RV resort is the first place that’s been warm enough to let the antifreeze out of our water system and replace it with fresh water. Great news—but it took us two hours to figure out how to do it (checking multiple sites on Google and videos on YouTube), and we still can’t get our sink faucet running. The good news is that we do have hot water for the shower, and the toilet will flush.
  • Before we can enjoy the inner sanctum of our trailer, we have to move out a heavy keyboard that one of us insisted on bringing, clear the table of boxes of food that won’t fit in the cupboards, try to find room on our 2” of counter space for a coffee maker, hot water pot, toaster, paper towels, water containers (see note above about non functioning kitchen faucet) and assorted dishes, and constantly sweep/wipe up dirt and moisture tracked in from outside because we forgot to pack the outdoor mat.
Well, actually those are small gripes, but just the details of some of the inevitable inconveniences of life, no matter what adventure you happen to be on. One of the  most important rules is to be nice to each other.  That counts for a lot. Like Mother Teresa once advised people, “Just smile at each other.”


A bowl of hot soup also helps.





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