We made it to Oklahoma!

We got to Oklahoma in the night. The next day Erica took us to the Wichita Mountains Wild life Refuge which was just outside of Lawton. She had heard that walking was good for baby's. I don't recommend walking on a mountain when your nine months pregnant. But Oldest daughter did. It was so amazing there the views and the wind was blowing and there were no other people any where. It was like a religious experience and it was the first day of Lent. What we didn't know was that in the middle of the wild life refuge is a holy city that way back in the 1920's and 1930's had over 40,000 worshipers coming to see their passion play.And in 1939 they had 225,000 people show up in the middle of the desert to see this play.  And that is where our exploration of the wild life refuge ended up. But just before we reached the Holy City our batteries for the camera died and my phone was still dead. So there are only a few pictures taken on Oldest daughters camera. But sadly, I don't have them. So these are the photo's from the refuge that we do have. Enjoy.

Grampa with his Grand dog. On the way to the mountains.

Beautiful pile of rocks! That are really big!

The buffalo are right next to the road. No fences.

More and more buffalo!

Some of the beautiful scenery.

We found a strange dam in the middle of no where. In this dry and desolate looking place.

Grandpa noticed a rock marker on the other side. And Oldest daughter thought she could make it across.

About this time I started worrying. What about flash floods, what if first daughter falls, what if a buffalo shows up, what about mountain lions? Oh, My we are going down into this river bed.

Even Youngest daughter was a little concerned. As she said "Really, down a cliff with a pregnant woman and two dogs."

At the bottom. You can see how windy it was by my hair.

And even though no one else was concerned about wild animals. I found several buffalo poops to prove I was right. They were mostly old petrified ones.

This was a really beautiful old tree at the bottom of the ravine. Youngest daughter just had to get a picture.

Marker stone was in site.

About this time I was complaining about my ham string which I pulled about a month ago.

But the view from the other side was amazing!

Here is the view of the car from the other side.

And having made it to the other side to find the marker rock and read what it had to say. We had a good laugh cause the plaque was missing.

Me with the rock. You can see Grandpa chasing after Older daughter who wanted to continue on hiking.

And Younger daughter with the wind in her hair. Maybe a Native American spirit had grabbed it.

I couldn't go on with my ham string as they decided to go look and see what was over the ridge. More openness.

Finally decided to turn back.

I found the perfect rock to bring back to Florida. Shortly after this I had to go barefoot. It helped my ham string.

We stopped at the bottom and took a break. This was a perfect little seating area.

We drove past the visitor center.

And past another fishing hole.

We entered a forested area. Well, what people in Oklahoma call trees anyway.

And in those trees......deer!

Soon we came upon an old homestead. Relax it was part of the park.

There was a well and we decided to pump some water for the dogs.

The trees in this area seemed enchanted. All gnarled oaks. It felt like eyes were on you.

And there were eyes on us, deer eyes.

We traveled on....

...and on.

We passed a cow who turned and stuck it's tongue out at us.

We saw buffalo....

after buffalo...

after buffalo!

We had to stop while one slowly crossed the road. Oldest daughter mentioned something about buffalo's charging at cars I think.

But this one mossied along.

We passed more cows.

The road went on like this for  a while.

Soon we came to a strange looking tower.

This was right out front of the Holy City

Image I stole from the Internet of the Holy City.

Just before arriving at the Holy City we saw parrie dogs everywhere but the camera batteries were dead. Youngest daughter and I stayed out side of the gates to the city as pets were not allowed. How ever the Jesus statue was out side the gates and the dogs seemed to want to hike up to it. So we did. And when I got there the dog was urging me to clime up onto the statue where I saw a sign that said this rock is from Mount Olive. So I reached up and touched the rock. I thought it was kind of neet I was collecting a rock to bring back to Florida from Oklahoma and some one way back when had collected a rock from Mt. Olive and brought it there.