When we came back from Louisiana, we only had a few days to get everything done before we left. Somehow, even though we had been there for nearly a month, there were a couple of people we hadn't seen yet and several errands to do so the next part of the trip would be easier. We spent Sept. 29-Oct. 4 doing mundane things like making sure that the car was clean, the new battery was installed correctly (our car died in the driveway right before going to Louisiana), and all of our camping/cooking gear was organized. On the creative side, I made sure I had all the photos I wanted, and, nostalgically, I went through about 8 boxes of toys and Breyer horses that had been residing in the attic for 25 years or so.
Seeing old friends was wonderful, and I will always be amazed that there are people that I can still have thoughtful, inspiring, and hilarious conversations with even though I haven't seen them for months or years. William and I and my friend Deb had lunch on Friday of that week; we started out with a serious conversation about insurance and then lamented that in high school we would have scoffed at anyone having serious conversations about insurance. Then we went on to once again solve the problems of humanity and decide how best to save the world. That evening, we went out to dinner with my oldest friend Leeanna and her family and then went back to her parents' house to catch up – I played Bach on their vintage 1924 Steinway player piano and William played Rodrigo on a lovely-sounding classical guitar that, surprisingly, came from a pawn shop many years ago. Then, we got out the flute and fiddle, and Leeanna's dad got out his video camera, and we recorded some videos of us playing tunes. That is one of the things I envisioned before we began this trip: that we would not only see new places together, but that we would introduce each other to people and places that we already knew and wanted to share with each other. Sharing our music and stories and ideas with people that I've known for years was the best possible way to bring all of this together.
And then, there was the weekend whirlwind. On Saturday, we went to Oklahoma City with my parents for the day. We started at Centennial Park with the Land Run sculptures, took a short detour to Bass Pro to get a tent repair kit, and got to the Oklahoma City Art Museum for lunch just as the EXCRUCIATINGLY loud tornado siren went off over our heads. From there, we went to the bombing memorial which is extremely well done and quite sobering. On Sunday, family friends came over for an hour to say goodbye and I talked to another family friend who was not going to be able to see us but wanted to wish us well. That afternoon, we went up to the library to return a few books and, on a whim, I decided we should stop by Gilcrease Museum to see if they had any Alexander Hogue prints. Unbelievably, they did, and I now have a print of Crucified Land that is hopefully the first in my collection. On the way home we stopped at Barnes and Noble and I picked up a wonderful photography book by David duChemin. That took care of all the artistic requirements...all we had to do then was pack and play a few more tunes for my parents.
Monday, we went from Tulsa to Wichita, KS, stopping once again at Johnny Walker's so that William could look at wood for the guitar-in-progress. Then we went to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and had some close(ish) encounters with buffalo. I have several more photos from Oklahoma to post before we get on with our travels, so those will be next and then we'll move on to Colorado!
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