Day 8 - Oklahoma

Day 8
October 24
Oklahoma

Looking our our Tepee window

        Dear Miss Smith,
    Ah, the delights of traveling in new places, of seeing new sights, hearing new sounds and smelling new smells. Really, if the trip continues to be as enjoyable as it has begun, it will truly be a remarkable experience.
    As Amy and Natalie have mentioned, we spent the night at Tiger Mountain Ranch in a tepee. Our tepee was fully furnished with beds and even had a fire ring in the center. We all enjoyed it and stayed up rather late telling each other old Indian legends around that fire such as why the Possum has no fur on its tail. If I have time and room later in this letter, perhaps I will tell you that story. But allow me to return to the ranch. Tiger Mountain was formerly a bed and breakfast, but they have now changed it, or are in the process of changing it, to a recovery center for women. Since we already had our reservations and were all women or girls, they invited us to come visit anyway. It was an enjoyable time, and after a delightful breakfast, we drove on our way.

    We listened to my Cherokee CDs as we drove. I am still determined to learn Cherokee. I wish I could send you a clip of the CD in this letter, Miss Smith, but unfortunately I cannot. We are starting to catch on to a few words, though their exact meaning is still puzzling.

    We arrived in Oklahoma City around mid morning and headed straight for the Cowboy Museum. Now I will admit that Amy at least had some reservations about a museum, especially one dedicated to cowboys and western life, but we had not been in there long before she was as interested as the rest of us. Miss Smith, you really must come and visit this museum, since your great, great uncle’s third cousin was a cowboy!
    So busy and intrigued were we by all the displays that it was nearly one o’clock before we made our way to the restaurant which has the quaint name of “Dining on Persimmon Hill” to eat. The food was fabulous. We all decided to go with the buffet, so we had our choice of two soups, eight garden salads, three entrees, three sides and four desserts. Oh, Miss Smith, I haven’t eaten so much since I was dining in Paris after I unmasked the marshmallow thief. I must mention the desserts. We each chose a different kind so as to be able to try them all. My personal favorite was the chocolate Italian cream cake. Lydia enjoyed the bread pudding, while Natalie was overjoyed to discover the carrot cake and Amy the strawberry torte. Just telling you about this is beginning to make me hungry.
    Once we had eaten more than our fill, we slowly made our way back to examine the rest of the museum.

    There were displays of just about everything western you can think of. Displays of clothes, firearms, paintings, tools, actors, and the list goes on. Did you know, Miss Smith, that the first long movie John Wayne acted in was Stagecoach? I’m not a huge fan of that actor as you know, but I found that piece of knowledge interesting.
  

The Bank

The Church

Town's Windmill

Looking Down Main Street

Of all the places in the museum our all time favorite place was Prosperity Junction. It is a town. A real western town set in the middle of the museum! The ceiling there is 40 feet so they even had room for two story buildings. We walked into the bank, the news office, the church and every other of the nineteen buildings along Main Street that we were allowed to. We saw the windmill that supplied the town with water and even visited J. C. Osborn’s Photography Studio. The only thing that would have made Prosperity Junction complete was if there were people “living” there. I must just mention the jail. The places for the bad guys was made of metal wagon wheel welded together by the blacksmith! Quite ingenious. It is, or rather it used to be, a real jail.
    Really Miss Smith, you must bring your nieces and nephews here some day. When I get back home and you take a vacation (or perhaps you could board the dogs or have a neighbor care for them and you can take leave sooner), you will just have to bring them here. There is a place for the children called, "Children's Cowboy Corral" to dress up and then they can get their picture taken, or “cook,” or many other things. If anyone was learning about cowboys or western life, this is the place they should visit.
    If it had not been for the fact that they closed, we might still be there, exploring new places and enjoying it all. Unfortunately, however, all things must come to an end, and so we departed with many promises to return at a later date.
    Since it was not yet dark, we decided to go ahead and drive to Norman. We picked up Braum’s for supper quite late (we were still rather full, or at least I was) and ate as we drove. I didn’t trust Amy to eat and drive the RV at the same time so I did. We talked cowboy all the way. Well, Natalie and Lydia did. Had they lived a hundred years ago, they would have made wonderful cowgirls.
    We are now parked in Norman. This is the first time we have all slept in the RV together. Lydia is sleeping in the bunk over my bed while Natalie is over Amy. And of course, the dogs are banned to the living room. Neither of them seems to mind. And really, Miss Smith, there is no room for them here. I left the three girls to get ready for bed while I wrote this letter. Now I believe I shall turn in, for it has been a long day.
    Good night. I am thankful that things are going well at home. Keep me posted if anything of interest should occur.

Love as always,
~ Priscilla