Notes From Teh Road

• We have taken a road trip and are in Ardmore at Motel 6. It was recently remodelled but already looks beaten. It gets rode hard and put up wet I am sure. We got here before 6 PM and were lucky to get a smoking room. They gave me a discount on it though. I am rarely asked if I want smoking verses non- it is most often presumed I will be cancer and gingivitis free.
• We saw a lot of cows in stock tanks just soaking in the water and not moving a muscle. That sight and the sound of cicadas always mean hot to me.
• We saw the aftermath of a horrible wreck driving through Decatur. Rex Hoskins was on the scene and it made me think everything was under control.
• Nope- no sarcasm there.
• Jorges in Paradise is always good. Zac ate enchiladas from the grown up menu.
• We are eating caramel Bugels, drinking Gatorade and watching animal docs on Discovery Channel.
• Life is good.
• My neighbor back in Texas has been out of pocket for days. When I knocked on her door her dog did not bark and her plants are dying so I presume she is not there (or not there and dead, unless her canine companion died at the same time).
• The Motel 6  pool is full of people. We followed the old motto of, Just say no to hepatitis and came back inside. Zac can swim tomorrow- in a lake where all he has to contend with are flesh eating bacteria, poisonous snakes and that one odd, out of place alligator you always read about.
• Hepatitis up there came out as hepatits first.
• Ha!
• It doesn't matter the time of day; it is usually bumper to bumper on 35 heading north during weekends these days.
• Zac is listening to his own type of music on over ear headphones on the bed across from me. He grew up. How did that happen?!
• It is 07/23/2016 at 1855 hours.
• We had breakfast 07/24/2016 at Prairie Kitchen in Ardmore as is typically our wont. They could make their coffee a little stronger but otherwise- the food and service are always in equal measure very good. There are almost always people we have seen there on previous visits. It has been open since 1984.
• There was a gentleman there with a big scar and deficit to his left cheek. He would use his left hand to osetensibly absentmindedly twirl his mustache on that side but he was just trying to conceal the scar. This was so true when had to turn away from one person he was speaking to look at another exposing the side with the scar even more- he would just open his left hand and place it over his cheek covering the whole left side of his face.
• Chickasaw Recreation area was our next stop. The spring fed swimming holes were so cold we could not hardly stand it. As a matter of fact, with ground temps away from the water at 96 degrees and rising, when we got under the shade and near a falls area where the water was contacting a lot of air; it must have dropped the temp. 15 degrees. It was positively refreshing.
• We saw no crayfish and aside from a couple of minnows we saw no vertebrate life forms in the water.
• I saw a guy covered in Mexican prison tattoos.
• It would have interesting to have been a fly on the wall and see how Native Americans used the land that comprises Chickasaw Recreation Area and interacted with each other back in the day.
• There were a lot of mixed race people there.
• The thought occurred to me of bringing a sample back from the spring source and one from further downstream and having the lab at our county health department test them.
• Zac wants to go back with his diving mask to be able to determine how deep the water is at the swimming hole we mainly used.
• Good idea.
• For some reason this song and video kept coming into my mind when I was lost in my thoughts.
• Goodnight world wherever you are. 
• I love you in spite of yourself.

Friday's Dispatch

• I am in Ardmore OK after a road trip across a little of North Texas. It wasn't exactly epic or even all that fun. It was intended to be a longer journey Westward but my back started bothering me, I got lonely and simultaneously I saw an exit I recognized. After lingering a bit in El Norte de Tejas I ended up taking a back road to Ardmore as we all will someday I suppose. In a minute I'll walk to Prairie Kitchen and add to my arteries cumulative destruction.
• They have a big giant omelet there that comes with two sides. My omelet of choice is hamburger and cheddar cheese. For the sides I get hash browns and pancakes. It easily could feed two people. I don't know what it is called. I call it the Big Nasty.
• On the road yesterday I saw a guy walking down the service road parallel to the Interstate. He was wearing a motorcycle helmet that appeared to be painted silver although I couldn't be too sure as I declared judgment to be the better part of valor and steered well clear of him.
• Daisy Gardner is very attractive to me.
• To be more conversational and promote a comfortable environment when speaking to a patient in my office I sometimes recline my chair back a little and adopt a relaxed pose with my hands on the arms of the chair and my legs slightly spread. Recently two different people- one male and one female have checked out my package as I did so.
• The movie What Women Want is way better than I thought it would be which made me like it better than I probably should. It also has some great music.
• When I leave a hotel I always bag trash up in a shopping bag and drop it near the pile of towels I have also made to make the cleaners life easier.
• The cleaner in the motel I am at now is a guy, His name is Bob. He is Indian (the Patel kind).

Lake Murray State Park After Action Report

Cabins are nice for being nearly 100 years old.

• When I asked about an exhibit of not visible ornate box turtles the otherwise very competent interpreter said, They're in a tupor so they're kind of hiding out under the leaves.. Animals may be go into torpor or may be in a torpid state but tupor?
  
  
  

  

  Honk!

  
  

  

  See, its an egg made of birds...

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Not as out of place as he seems- grizzlies did live in Oklahoma in olden times.

  
  

  

  The nature center was built in 2013

• The wind atop Tucker Tower was awe inspiring. It was literally breathtaking, as in when you faced the wind just right it could be hard to breathe. Really- I may be over exaggerating but I kind of think if it were a little more powerful it would have been dangerous.

  

  View from Tucker Tower. Here is where I'll ride out the impending apocalypse.

  
  

  

  The cool thing about the 30s was everybody got to look like gangsters

  
  

  

  A nice detail to a doorway was this stone awning

  
  
  
• There is a campground in the park called Ski Jump. I couldn't get an answer for why it is so named.
• Lake Murray Meteorite was found during the construction of the lake. Although it has been sawed in half it weighed 600 pounds when first found. It is composed of iron and nickel.
• Sometime in the long ago past I recall reading that the CCC planted millions of trees and thought that figure heart warming. An exhibit at the park put the number at 3 billion. Whoa.
• You cannot believe how clear the water is in the lake.
  
• They rent boats and personal watercraft there. If you don't know this already, here is your unsolicited life lesson for the day: Be very careful about renting a watercraft of any type- anywhere. Some very shady people are attracted to that business (or become shady at some point).
• The cabins have everything you could possibly need- yep including cable. Groupon has a half off deal until I think March.
• Prairie Kitchen is really phoning it in these days.
  
• I  saw a bald eagle in the the wild there for the first time in my life.  As we approached Tucker Tower some random guy asked us, What are you looking for? Of course my mind went for the metaphysical and I was preparing smart Alec responses like, world peace, my inner center, true love, nirvana... when he said, The bald eagle is over here, I can show you. 
• All kidding aside, I knew it would be cool to see a wild bald eagle. I had no idea it would basically be in my top 10 list of amazing things I've experienced.
• America We Stand As One. Murica!