♭♪ ♫ Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain... ♯ ♩ ♬
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain... ♯ ♩ ♬
Harvest time in the Sooner State has a beauty uniquely its own. The wheat was truly wavin', just as the song suggests; however, I'm not completely sure about the sweet smelling part, as no rainfall fell prior to our visit. Timing is key, I suppose, in order to be treated to the olfactory sensation of sweetness. ;-)
...And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma, O.K.
These two cousins were doin' fine, too, as they got back to their Okie roots. Cousin Linda flew into DFW from California, and we then made the five-hour drive to northwestern OK.
The main purpose of our visit to Oklahoma was to decorate graves for Memorial Day. We also visited one aunt, miscellaneous cousins, and a few friends.
This annual pilgrimage is something that we promised my mother-in-law we'd do after she was no longer able to do so. For decades, she faithfully decorated the graves of all the military men in the family with flags and flowers, but also made sure every other deceased family member was remembered, too. Florence passed the "torch" to us in 2010, and we are doing our best to carry on, even though she's no longer here to assist.
After all of the tombstones were decorated, we visited the family farm in Lahoma. The girls had to pose in front of the grain storage bin. This photo shoot location is an annual tradition, too.
We had made reservations two months in advance of this trip; however, the nice folks at the Hampton Inn somehow managed to give away our requested non-smoking room.
The NJCAA Division II World Series was taking place in Enid on Memorial Day weekend, so every single room in and around the city was booked. We HAD to accept the stale smelling room, so we simply donned gas masks and entered the room armed with Febreze. Okay, so the gas masks are a bit of an exaggeration, but the Febreze part is true. The room may have smelled horrible, but it beat the alternative of sleeping in the car, or in a stable, or under an overpass...
In all fairness, the hotel management treated us very well. They outfitted the hotel room with an ozone machine, which dramatically cut down on the smokey smell. Best of all, we were given a reduced room rate (fire sale?) AND a gift card to IHOP. Perhaps they thought we were in town for the baseball tournament and would appreciate having a "Grand Slam" for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It was a nice thought.
We arrived back in Texas late Sunday evening. Mercifully, we not only had a non-smoking room at the Smith Haus B&B, but a completely non-smoking environment! No Febreze was required. :-) Ahhh! There's no place like home.
On Monday afternoon, we showed Cousin Linda around the DFW Metroplex.
The new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in the Big D proved to be photo-worthy.
From downtown Dallas (Sixth Floor Museum, the Galleria, and a driving tour) to Fort Worth (Sundance Square, Smitty's office, and the Stockyards), and literally all points in between the two big cities, we gave Mr. Smith's cousin a pretty good idea of what the metroplex is like -- endless road construction, traffic, terrific shopping, lots of buildings, and too much to see and do in one day!
