Day Trip

I have ONE picture, just one. I guess I was so enamored with all our sightseeing I forgot to snap others...makes me a little sad!

We decided to drive down to Falls Creek and see the new tabernacle and take in all the changes that have been made and are still going on. While it was not the same camp we remember in many ways it is still a great place and will be amazing when they are finished with all the construction going on.

We called ahead and had a tour arranged. We were able to go into the new tabernacle, all of it, including backstage, the green room, chapel and breakout rooms. WOW! Such an incredible space, massive, high tech and very beautiful indeed. We also got a look at the new missions building. Another great space. While in some areas the grounds still remain unchanged, other spots have greatly changed. Once finished I think it will all mesh together nicely.

A big hit on this little adventure was lunch. We almost had to go with plan B when we arrived and the joint was closed up but thanks to another potential customer who had the phone number of the restaurant he called them and found out their new locale. Sadly, the signs had been removed from the building so there was no other way to know they had relocated. Anyway, if you happen to be in the Davis, OK area, Smokin Joe's Rib Ranch was some good stuff! Trust the staff when they say the dinner is "more than enough for two" unless you want to have a take home box! The servings are VERY generous! (NOTE: the website is very outdated and should you go maybe call cause they have moved)

After our lunch and tour we of course had to stop at the fried pie place...yes, I am going to need to be employing a weight reduction plan once we leave here, we have really, really indulged and my jeans are poppin' at the seams; it's not pretty... So, I can attest to the peach being very tasty and others vouched for the coconut, blackberry and pineapple. Some in our party had take home treats for later, I did not!

Another little stop on our trip and the only picture from the day comes from the chocolate place! Yes, I know, if you know me at all you know I am NOT a chocolate person, but those I was with are so we stopped. Who turns down free samples? I tried the dark covered chocolate Pringle, yeah, no, not for me. There were also milk chocolate covered Pringles as well as white chocolate covered bugles, uh, no, again for me. Some got treats for later, I did not!



Lastly, we made one last stop to see one of our friends at the assisted living center. What a treat, she was just as bubbly as ever and it was good to see her at a nice place. She seemed to be settling in nicely to her new surroundings and again, her little place was really nice. We had dinner with her daughter last week so had much to talk about on our visit!

Another great day in the great state of Oklahoma!
#FallsCreek #ArbuckleFriedPies #BBQ

Wednesday Words - Lubbock

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.

Sir John Lubbock

 

 

So, uh, yeah, I think I see this...

Lunch on Route 66

We are in OKC area for a few days and one of our very good friends ALWAYS knows good places to go! And she shares her knowledge with us; it's not always about food places, either! She takes us to visually cool places too, like down Route 66. Since we are hoping to get some miles on Route 66 this little day trip provided us a little taste of what we might experience in the future.

This was our lunch stop, POPS.

 

Pops is definitely not your typical gas stop. I mean there are over 600 soda pop selections available. So yeah, not just a gas station. It's a little diner; in fact in a small way it reminded me of the gas stops in Europe cause there was food. Not convenience food, not a fast food chain but a real little diner/grill type place. The food was good, not great but good. So how does one choose a soda pop from so many selections? I was overwhelmed but I finally zeroed in on root beer and then worked forward with a choice from there. I succeeded and came back to the table with a "DANG, it's good" brand of butterscotch root beer. It was delightful. Think of dropping a butterscotch disc into a root beer, letting it dissolve and then drinking it. That was my drink, I was totally pleased! 

 

As far as all that soda there were choices that would have never ever been a contender for me. Seriously, bloody nose, ranch dressing, bacon with maple syrup, buffalo chicken, chocolate chip cookie dough, bug barf and on and on with the OMG "no" flavors. However, there were others I would have tried. There were also the ones that we remembered from days gone by! You know, like NEHI, Frostie and Crush in all the flavors we remembered like strawberry, orange and grape!

 

Just up the road we stopped again to check out the round barn.



The interior was something to look at. No beams. It was FREE too!

 

Thanks for another great day out! We sure do love and enjoy our OK friends! I can't wait for our next adventure...stay tuned!

#POPS
#Route66
#RoundBarn

OUCH

Steam burns, I mean literally, it burns and therefore I had/have a steam burn. All I can say is ouch and it was painful, V E R Y painful. As soon as it happened I ran it under cool water and then I put on an ice pack. I thought it was doing pretty good, even though it looked pretty angry, until day three and a huge blister appears. It didn't really hurt at this point but I was afraid I was going to accidentally pop the blister. 

 

It is still a bit pink but no longer painful. I think I have just added another scar to my repertoire. Oh, for those inquiring minds out there I burned it when I was removing baked sweet potatoes from the microwave and the bag I was cooking them it opened before I wanted it too.

It's looking better every day!

 

#OUCH

#SteamBurn

Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier

We had a bit of a change in our plans and ended up in the Davy Crockett National Forest. It was not so picturesque as our original planned locale but the lake did make it a nice view. It was also pretty quiet with few others in the area; so all in all not too bad/ And they had paved pretty smooth roads to ride our bikes on.

 

We snagged a nice spot, near enough to the bathhouse which is nice and a table. It was also one of the drier spots in the campground since there had been pretty substantial rains prior to our arrival. Many sites were still flooded and very muddy so we were thankful we found a somewhat dry and not so much mud in ours.

The mornings were usually foggy, but sunshine peeked through for a bit on most afternoons. It wasn't too hot and the bugs were not yet out, hallelujah. BUGS, specifically, those "no see ums" are evil and they were out in force in Grand Isle; hence our change of plans to go there. We will have to plan better and get there before it warms up and the bugs come out if we decide to make it back to that area in the future.

After a nice couple days though it was time to move on...seeya TEXAS, hello OKLAHOMA!

Wednesday Words - Harris

I'd rather look back at my life and say "I can't believe I did that" instead of saying, "I wish I did that."

The above is the modern day/Pinterest version of the below.

"Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

~Sydney J Harris, a newspaper columnist

Mississippi Lights

Spotted two more lights just driving down the road...Both were drive by sightings since parking was non existent at both lights.

 

Round House Light in Pascagoula

Biloxi Light



 

#Lighthouses

Enjoyable Niceville!

We always enjoy meeting up with folks we know. That is one of the super fun things about our nomadic traveling, we get to meet up with those we know along the way! So Niceville was a great stop as it was a "twofer"! And Niceville, I mean it has Nice folks, right?! Anytime we are near the panhandle we always try to meet up with the Doors. This time was all about timing. Lots going on always in their world and add in a community theatre production and a complete kitchen remodel and yeah you have even busier schedules. But we made it work if only for a few precious hours.

Love her!

 

And Greek food is always a hit. I tried the pastisto. A new dish for me and I would not hesitate to have it again. YUM. Order a side of marinara for dipping. And it was a huge portion; hence a takeout container and dinner on another night!



Those are our take home containers! 

 

Another fun evening was had meeting up with R&K. Fun to re-connect. This is a childhood legend from MiRVs younger days and the first time we were able to meet his family.

#Friendship

Lighthouses

The drive along Florida's so called forgotten coast netted us four lighthouse stops. We loved it! Two were right along the road with just a turn off which make them so easy to get to.

St Marks the first one was a bit of a drive but well worth it down a picturesque road. We even stopped and had our lunch here. The no see ums weren't too terribly bad but they were out and about so we had to be mindful with out getting in and out!

 A very kind man offered to snap our pic :) Nice to not have to do a selfie!

St Mark's Lighthouse

St George's was also off the beaten path as it is out on island but still for us worth the drive. You can actually go up into this light, however, not on Thursdays, they are closed! Maybe next time1

 Right along the road we easily saw Crooked River and Cape San Blas.

 

 

#Lighthouses

Wednesday Words - Garfield

Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter.

James A. Garfield

 

 

 

I enjoy peanut butter and crackers!

Quilt Museum and a Veteran's Memorial

I have several friends who are quilters, I love quilts so when I saw that there was a quilt museum near where we were I thought we should go. Upon further investigation it is the ONLY quilt museum in the state of Florida. I did not know there hours so we set out to go one afternoon. We arrived and they were closed. Since it was a bit rural and there was plenty of parking we just spent the night and waited for them to open the next morning.

It was a pretty nice quiet night!

We were greeted by the volunteer staff and invited in...

 

 

 This was a quilt sofa...quite unique!

 

One of my favorites was  that star, MiRV liked this star one best.

So many beautiful pieces and really such works of art. While I do think this star one was one of my favs; it was hard to have only one favorite. I mean seriously these things were just beautiful. Some were so very different and extremely unique that there really was just no way to choose only one favorite! Can't do it!

Lots of eye candy and much history and a little bit of heritage mixed with some pride of their institution as it should be. And it all started with one lady's dream for a place that quilter's could come together, learn from each other and work together. What an enjoyable morning we had!

After a nice lunch with a wonderful water view we made our way to Perry, FL.

We stopped at the Forest Museum which was pretty neat and then drove through town and stumbled into the town Veteran Memorial. Well done, Perry, Florida, well done!

 Love the permanent yellow ribbon round the tree

Truly one of the nicest tributes to Veteran's we have ever seen.

#QuiltsNOTjustblankets
#Veterans

Horseshoe Beach, FL

We didn't make an official stop in this town as most things looked closed up. But we did enjoy seeing the nostalgic things as we drove through.

 

Someone has taken the time to make some "neat oh" items that brought smiles to our faces as we passed through!

Trees and Springs

Today we went exploring...after making the very long, somewhat bumpy 3.2 mile drive at 25 MPH we took a five minute walk to see the VERY old giant cypress tree in Goethe State Forest. It is known as the Goethe Giant. Honestly, I think it's dying, but maybe they don't know. I'm not gonna tell them since they don't even know I went to see it and I found out as we were leaving I was supposed to tell them first...oops!

 Nice trail!

 The factoids on this tree are this-

• Circumference 342 inches
• Diameter 109 inches
• Height 105 feet
• Age, estimated, of course 907 years

The walk to the tree was cool, very foresty like. The canopy was awesome and keep the sun off, there were lots of fern everywhere, fiddlebacks like we used to have in the Azores, not to mention the many other green stuff! The boardwalk was cool and we saw the tree and left. We did enjoy lunch before our short walk.

On to Rainbow Springs State Park. I am loving this little pass that my Veteran qualified for that gives us waived entry into these places! While $2 isn't a lot for this particular park we have definitely benefited from having this little gem at some of the pricier parks for sure!

We walked the grounds and saw several waterfalls as well as some beautiful flora and fauna not to mention the beautiful blooming flowers all around.

Impressed, he was!

 The falls were really pretty...

It was very nice and the right kind of day for such a visit. MiRV even swan in the spring!

Wednesday Words - Steven D.

"You've got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular bases, try another choice."

~Steven D.

I don't know who Steven D. is but I think he's onto something!

Eagle Sighting

Wow! It was incredible to see this bird.

We have actually seen eagles nest before and actually saw an eagle in its nest, but I don't really recall seeing one in flight this close. It was incredible. 

 

After we saw it fly a couple times it took to the tree and we just sat and watched it. It's a sight to see for sure!

#CedarKeyFL