Days 42-43 - Visiting With Relatives In Enid Oklahoma

 These posts are from the last two weeks of our vacation. We are now home, but I am continuing our day by day vacation posts to catch up --- after I dropped the ball. Sorry!

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This post is from Thursday, March 14th.

Wheeewwwwwwwiiiiiieeeeeee!!! 

We made a past all of those storms by the skin of our teeth. We felt really bad for the people left behind. Those storms slammed all the way through the central part of the United States from as far south as the Gulf all the way up even to Ohio. The RV park near my friend's home was completely obliterated! 

We drove our way further north and west through Oklahoma. 

We fueled up in Henrietta, Oklahoma for the cheapest price so far the entire trip. We only paid $3.25 a gallon for diesel and we were pulling in an average of 14.25 MPG.  They also had DEF at the pumps, for only $3.50 a gallon. So we topped off our DEF tank with an extra 1 and 1/2 gallons.

As I've said before, the interstates really aren't our thing but we did it anyhow. We got some miles underneath our wheels and found some beautiful blue sky. No more smoke. No more storms. No more hail.

There was some wind .... and the windmills were turning. Some faster and some slower. Many miles and miles of the windmills dotted the landscape. Our nephew works for a windmill company and travels all over working with installing, servicing, and other technical stuff I guess. Very fascinating.

We finally got off the interstates, as they had turned into tollways. We prefer to not pay tolls, so we wound our way on State highways up around Perry and worked our way towards Enid, Oklahoma. Now we are getting into the grain belt country. There were a lot of these huge mills and grain elevators. As we came in on the north side of Enid, we saw quite a few of them throughout the industrial parks.  A tad bit bigger than the corn silos we see here in Wisconsin.

So why were we going to Enid? Well, our daughter Erin is married to an Oklahoma guy named Waylen. But she convinced him to live up in Wisconsin by us. 

His parents Gaylen and Linda still live in Enid Oklahoma. We keep trying to convince them to move up to Wisconsin too. 

Since we were in the area, we put them down as a "have to" for a visit. We really enjoy them when they come up to Wisconsin, and we have so much in common. (Besides a pile of grandkids).

They were eagerly awaiting our arrival, and have been tracking us through the storms since the middle of the night. They were relieved to know we had leapfrogged our way through and we're unaffected by any of the horrible things they were seeing on the local TV stations. 

They were literally waiting in their lawn chairs at the edge of their driveway by the garage for us to pull up!!

We got lots of hugs and tears and laughter and joy. 

They are very welcoming and had invited us to "moochdock" in their driveway.  Moochdocking is when you hang out in someone's driveway or yard, instead of going to a campground. Sometimes it includes hookups, sometimes it's just a safe spot to park.  Their driveway had a little bit of slope to it so we used our leveler blocks on the back tires.  And yes, they are Boomer Sooner fans ... 

The only little snafu was there wasn't any room to leave our cargo trailer attached behind the motorhome while parked in their driveway. So we did have to unhook it and leave it on the street. Of course there is a hitch lock and a latch pin lock on it. We also have a security alarm on the back of the trailer that has flashing lights and an alarm if somebody messes with it. But you still worry about things getting rolled away and being stolen. 

Never fear, Gaylen and Linda's neighbor took extra special care to park his squad car all night right across from our cargo trailer!!!

Not too many thieves 

are going to try to mess with that, 

 are they?

We enjoyed their hospitality and beautiful fenced in backyard. We could unhook the dogs and let them roam around a little bit. We had so much to catch up on and it was a lot of fun to sit and visit for the afternoon. Especially after our crazy stressful ride from the wee hours of the morning.

Gaylen and Steve are like two peas in a pod. When they were up visiting one time, Gaylen even helped with doing some of the work on my She Shed. Especially helping with the big heavy beam that needed to get lifted up and pounded hard with big hammers go in.lto place.  I did not have the strength for doing that.  We appreciated Gaylen's help.  

We sat on their patio and shared a lot of laughs, and a few beers too. The weather was great and there were no more storms in sight. 

They insisted on taking us out to dinner, and one of their favorite places is Texas Roadhouse. So off we went...  Of course we had to have the obligatory photos before we went in the door to keep the memory.

Linda snapped this next one of us. I think it really came out nice. 

That happens to be one of my most favorite shirts I am wearing, as well as my most comfy jean capris. After looking at this picture I decided I would see if I could find another shirt like that maybe in another color. Amazingly, I found a silvery gray one on eBay from a seller that it's still new with tags. I had bought this one a long time ago and I know it's no longer available in stores. It's so comfy and soft and comfortable for summer wear but the sleeves are long enough to come down to cover my arms, where I like them. My new gray one arrives in the mail today!

Back to our trip:

We had a really nice evening back at their home, but then turned in early because of our long long driving day. It was nice to be in the care of such good friends, and we could sleep in peace... Free of the storms.

Sadly, the next morning Gaylen had to go to work. He had retired a few years back, but a friend of his has recently hired him as a manager of a large amount of storage units and a very big car wash with both automated and manual bays. It keeps him hopping 5 days a week, but Linda says it also keeps him out of trouble!  We had to drive by and check his facility out.

So this is what retired old farts do in Oklahoma when they don't have anything better to waste their time on. They put on their work overalls and hang out at the carwash?? Lol! 

In the meantime, Linda took us out in the morning to drive us around town and show us the sights of Enid. We also managed to find a couple rummage sales signs! When they were up visiting in our town, they hit the rummage sales by us too! 

Linda found this very interesting old wishing well, that needed a tad bit of work. She offered $5 and Steve helped load it into the car. 

So it became a project for Galen to work on... Perfect for those old retired farts to make their wives happy!!! 

This pic is from afterwards, when Gaylen had done his magic and fixed it all up for her to add to their beautifully landscaped yard.

Quite the bargain, eh?

We drove by the car wash and snatched Gaylen away for a long lunch break. We went out to a Oriental restaurant and ate from their buffet. Linda had shown us these wonderful cinnamon almond caramel coffee cakes that were cut into little slices and put out on the dessert table. She said every time she is there she gets a slice, and it's her favorite.  We teased her about wrapping some up in a napkin and tucking them into her purse. 

So Steve asked the waiter if it was possible to buy them whole and take them home with us? Of course he said we could.... and after a little figuring out he brought them back to us at our table in a big box to bring home. They were only $7 each.

 They are very rich so you only need a small slice at a time. We easily got ten slices out of a single coffee cake. We put one in the freezer of the motorhome, kept one for ourselves, and left the third one with Linda and Gaylen to enjoy after we left.

We dropped Gaylen back off at work, and headed back to their house to get road worthy. Linda sure made us feel welcome, and the dogs as well. Here we were doing our last little bit of visiting out in the driveway before we were ready to hit the road. Notice the unworked on wishing well behind her. We never even told Gaylen that she bought it, Steve just told him he would have a roofing job to do when he got off of work that afternoon. Lol! 

We said our goodbyes and hit the road, and I will write about that in the next blog.

260 MI TRAVELED 

(ONE OF OUR LONGEST DRIVING DAYS)

1,726 MI SO FAR