Have we only been on the road for four days? Holy cow. Doris and I are friends again and she has been indispensable since I rolled back the update that I did in Memphis. I think she's happier too, we have significantly fewer exit ramp excursions. She did get a little squirrelly when we drove through Poteau (pronounced Poe-dough) because they were doing crazy road work, but once we got past the herd of goats! running down the shoulder of the highway everything was okay.
Because we got in to Queen Wilhelmina State Park so late, we stayed in the lodge. The Lodge! at Queen Wilhelmina is beautiful on the outside. Then you go inside and it looks like your Great Aunt Nancy's house did in 1983. Floral, floral, floral. Not exactly what I expected, but I guess Queen Wilhelmina was an old lady and decorated like one. There are bears! in the lobby.
I was a little disappointed that we didn't have a view of the valley when we got up in the morning. It was cloudy...or foggy...I don't know. It was like being IN a cloud. No view but we also didn't have to wake up in a tent in all that moisture either. So maybe Doris is looking out for us after all. And there was a windmill!
Hiking unfamiliar trails in the fog is not recommended. Hiking unfamiliar trails in the fog with three children should be illegal. I told them that it was illegal to hike in the fog so that I could weasel my way out of doing just that. Annabelle + Hiking + Fog + Mountain = Helicopter Ride to Emergency Room.
No children, sit on this super fun old swing! Super fun! Damp and cold and cloudy and windy. We drove through Hot Springs on the way and bought gas and saw that they have a roller coaster. It was decided that if Hot Springs, Arkansas can have a roller coaster, then every other town in America is also perfectly capable of having a roller coaster. Other towns are just lazy.
That's Annabelle in front of the revolving door! at the rear entrance to the lodge. She must have gone around two dozen times before she figured out what was going on. I stood in the lobby going, "Okay, just jump out....NOW!... NOW!... NOW!... Jump out...NOW! Okay...NOW! Okay, stop. Wait, go. Okay, when I say stop, you just stop. STOP!... STOP! ...STOP! ...STOP!" I'm thinking about having one installed when I get home.
The picture above is the back side of the mountain! that we stayed on. I wasn't driving off the road trying to take a picture. I stopped and parked because I am careful. Well that, but also the children were screaming and I'm trying out Shannon's new method of stopping and getting out of the car when the kids are screaming. I figured I'd just take a picture while I was at it.
We drove along the Talimena Scenic Drive for a while, then we went to Heavener, OK. For a long time we were the only ones on the road. The kids were good but they have a little mini panic attack! anytime Doris would give us directions. "Don't listen to her mama! We'll get lost!" They calmed down when we made it to Heavener.
We went to see the Ancient Viking Runestone! in Heavener. Runestones are all over the place in this part of the country. They want you to believe that Vikings were writing their names on the rocks in Oklahoma 1000 years ago. Clever marketing ploy? If you look very, very closely at the picture below you can see the rune markings that say something to the effect of, “Copyright 1012” I wasn't really paying attention, I was trying to keep Annabelle from falling off of a cliff.
This has been a regular festival! of erosion. Everywhere you go in, there it is, erosion. The children saw this sign detailing the wonders of erosion and told me I had to get a picture. When they are famous geologists they will look back on this trip fondly. You never know, I might have the next Flaxman Charles John Spurrell on my hands. (A famous geologist. Now you name one!)
EROSION!
Now you might think that you're looking at erosion in this picture, but not so. Wilhelmina was telling me that her shoes make her feet "less grippy" and in order for her to climb the stairs, she needs just her feet. Her feet are "more grippy!" I made her wear shoes. I am mean.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get some Tulsa pictures up as we go on our quest to eat all the food there is in Tulsa in four days.
No comments:
Post a Comment