This past week, I ventured west to Watonga, America. To a place I’d initially heard about from my choir director back at Pryor High School (tiger pride). He would always tell of this insane trip he once took the choir on back in the mid 90’s. He’d go on and on about this fabled water balloon fight that, in his mind was the most epic, endless water balloon fight in the history of all water balloon fights. He had a tendency to speak rather quickly, so when he would talk about the park itself I always thought he was saying romonose. Like all one word. I thought that was kinda of a weird name for a park until I realized it was actually called Roman Nose. Which is even weirder…!
So since I’ve had some time on my hands here recently I decided to take a trip by myself in hopes of spending some QT with God and doing some work on my soul. It was truly an amazing experience.
First off this park is incredibly beautiful. I can’t say that I have been to every square inch of OK, but I feel like I’ve seen enough to say that this place has the most character and natural beauty just about any area in OK. For all of those outdoorsy types this is the place for you. Tons of camping spots, great lakes and rivers to fish, trails to hike and bike, an awesome golf course and even a cute little general store and diner.
The people there are really kind including all of the rangers, especially Ethan, who gave me rides to and from the course every day. Thanks man!
Like I said, I’d never been there before so I felt like I hit the jackpot.
Over the next few weeks I will share some of my greatest memories from this trip and what I felt from God as we journeyed into the wild together. Until then here are some of the good and not so good highlights.
Good:
1. learned how to operate my new motor home, yes…including how to drain the “black water”
2. played 72 holes of Golf.
3. started a new book – Bio on Keith Richards
4. sweated so much that I lost some needed lb’s.
5. caught on some of my favorite TV series. By way of dvd, no I did not have cable TV.
6. absolutly no internet service on my PC or phone for a full 5 days. That was really a nice break.
7. wrote 6 blogs, 2 poems, 1 song
Not so good.
1. flipped my golf cart flying down one of many very steep hills….its ok, no one was hurt. other than my pride….
2. draining the “black water” from the RV.
3. getting lost on hiking trails about 10:00 one night. Coyotes scare me!
4. the so-called “springs” were not very impressive
5. one word – grasshoppers.
Overall, this was one of my favorite trips ever. There is nothing like waking up, opening your front door and being 20 feet from a gorgeous lake surrounded by evergreen trees, cliffs, geese and other campers. It was such a relaxing time.
So if you and your family need some time away from the busy lives we all lead, then I would highly recommend heading out west to the “nose” and doing some camping. If you really feel like findng your inner “hunter and gatherer” you can even rent a teepee for a night or two.
Fight the good Fight
-Lance
