Saturday July 11th 6:36 PM central

I didn’t sleep much last night. I didn’t go to bed until after midnight. I was just a little paranoid about the weather. Don left the air on the bedroom and we were washing clothes so amidst all that I was awake at every sound and movement. The air never did cut off last night. I finally got to sleep somewhere around 4:00 or so. I got up about 8:00 and woke Don up. I ate some cereal and he ate oatmeal. He unplugged the power and sewer and helped me put things away inside and we were on the road by 9:15. We had to stop and get gas so we didn’t leave Lyndon until 9:40. We headed down US Rt. 75 south towards OK. We began to see dead armadillos on the side of the road just a bit out of Lyndon. I think I would like to see a live one. Close to noon we stopped just outside of Independence, KS. This was the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This town was the setting for her book “Little House on the Prairie” – not the TV show. The show was a time frame a few years later. This was the actual property that they lived on. None of the dwellings were there then but they have reconstructed a one room cabin that would be very similar to the cabin she lived in and her sister Carrie was born in. The school that is there is an actual school that was used from the 1800’s to sometime in the 1900’s. They moved it there in the 70’s. They have also moved the Post Office that was in Wayside, KS to the property. You can tour all of the buildings and take pictures of everything. They only ask for a $3.00 donation per person. The gift shop was really neat. Most everything there was fairly priced compared to other tourism gift shops. I was actually surprised. The house that serves as the gift shop is irrelevant to the Ingall’s to my knowledge, but it is neat in its self. It is just an old farm house. Behind the gift shop is the old hand dug well that Charles Ingall dug himself. It is capped with boards and nailed shut but it is still there. From there we continued down US 75 and within a few miles we were in OK. We crossed the Arkansas River and I snapped a few pictures of that. Not much of anything from there until we hit Tulsa. It was not as big as I expected yet it was big enough. I think I was expecting Kansas City. I snapped a few shots there. Next we got on I-40 east and we found our exit for Checotah, OK. We crossed Lake Eufaula (don’t know how to say it but we crossed it). Within minutes we were making our turns to the campground. I think we got here shortly before 4:00 today which was really good time with our stop and it is 275 miles from Lyndon to here. Now for the best of news of all – it was 110 degrees when we got here. I am about to die! I haven’t gotten cooled off yet. The air is going full blast oh and I haven’t mentioned there are no trees! I don’t do well in the heat and I am just a bit cranky. I am hoping when it cools down (sometime shortly before sunrise in the morning I am sure) I will feel much better. It is even too hot to consider making supper here. We are going out to try and find something to eat. I will make the mad dash from the camper to the car and from the car to the restaurant and vice versa on the way back home. At 9:00 tonight it is adults only in the pool. We may just have to give it a shot to see if that will cool us down. I have asked about the heat out here because Don has a friend that lives here. He says well it’s hot but not like here (NC – he was raised in Kannapolis). It is a dry heat so it doesn’t feel as hot. HE LIED!!!! Hot is hot!! When it gets over 75 degrees it is hot!!
So we headed out to find someplace to eat. Not much luck. I saw a sign that advertised a Wal-Mart but didn’t say where it was. So after asking direction twice we decided anywhere there is a Wal-Mart there has to be food. WRONG again! We took the eight mile trip to the town of Checotah to find the Super Wal-Mart and a McDonald’s & Subway. Not exactly what we had in mind. So after riding all around town (by the way the temperature at 7:55 pm was 100 degrees), Don spotted a local restaurant called “Charlie’s Chicken”. I should have known better but I said ok. They advertised BBQ and Don loves it. So we pull in and there is hardly any one there. A few folks are coming out so we go on in. I expected it be a sit down take your order type of establishment. Wrong again. It was a Mom & Pop version of KFC. I spotted what Don would have right away – Chicken liver dinner. I spend the next few minutes trying to figure out what I would have. I’m not a big chicken eater but I do like chicken sandwiches from time to time. Didn’t see one on the menu so I asked. Nope, no chicken sandwich. She stated that the only sandwich they had was a beef sandwich. Me the girl that could get foundered on McDonald’s cheese burgers doesn’t have a clue what this sandwich would be like so I ask. She says it is a brisket. Well now I have even less of an idea what this sandwich is gonna be like. So I told Don if I don’t like you are taking me to Mickey D’s. We order and she tells us to have a seat and she will bring us our food. Within a few minutes we have our food – piping hot. Don’s chicken liver dinner is huge. So many he actually had to get a to go box. My sandwich is great and she brought me BBQ sauce so I tried it – not Don’s but very good! I took one bite and told the lady, I won’t be going to McDonald’s. We all laughed. All joking aside the food was great! Half an hour later we are back in the car and the temperature is now 97 degrees at 8:30 at night! We see a beautiful sunset so we pull over and I take about 10 shots of the sky and sun just sinking into the clouds. We head on back to the campground and decide to ride around the camping area. This campground sits on the Lake Eufaula! It is beautiful. I can’t wait to see about getting some pictures down there. We finally make it to the camp site and as we are walking up to the door, a rabbit hopes out from under our chairs we have sitting out. We keep walking he just keeps sitting right there, not moving. We finally just sit down in our chairs and the rabbit sits with in 15 feet of us just looking at us and eating. He finally comes back over to Don and just sits down within 2 feet of Don’s feet. He just sat there watching us and nibbling on grass. He finally hopes away and in the dark we loose sit of him. With in about 15 minutes the rabbit is back sitting about 5 feet in front of Don just looking at him. Don is talking to him and telling him he will put some food out for him tonight so come back to eat. There is a breeze blowing but is not cool air like it was in Kansas. Don and I talked about the cool breeze in Kansas all week and how it was coming out of the south. Well something happens to the wind after it leaves here. It is very warm just like at home except it is more like a beach wind. Tomorrow after church we plan to head to Muskogee, the home of my favorite male country singer, Merle Haggard.

Tonight's picture is the one room cabin in Independence of the Ingall's family.