Summer weekend in southern Oklahoma

Getting off the interstates takes you along some great secondary roads that lead to new adventures everywhere you go.  My friend and I travelled within Oklahoma, going south where both of our families have roots.

Her grandfather lived in Seminole, so we explored the downtown and found it full of treasures.  The streets are all brick…There are old signs to delight…And the bus station still functions…My friend was raised in Oregon, but has lived in Oklahoma during her adult life.  She acknowledged the beauty of the countryside as we drove, but was especially taken with Turner Falls.  She said she hadn’t believed that there was such a place in Oklahoma.  I grew up going by Turner Falls so it was a return to my childhood for me.The swimming hole wasn’t as crowded when we arrived around dinner time, so we enjoyed the beauty with just a few swimmers in the water.  We stopped at the old overlook, complete with the sign I remembered from my childhood.  Who has Curio Shops anymore? We also discovered the place where everyone seemed to be stopping.  No wonder – they were delicious! Our trip south ended in Ardmore, where my mother was born and I spent much of my childhood visiting my grandmother, aunts and uncles.  We took the old road in rather than the interstate.  The road through the Arbuckles that scared me as a child because it seemed high and had no shoulders and semis came at you around every curve was now a lovely drive into town.  When we saw the old standpipe in the distance, I felt one of those shivers of memory that go through you when you see something so familiar.There was so many memories in Ardmore and so much to learn about my family’s history there.  Downtown looked like it was hanging on..I found the bank where my uncle worked.  Walking through those doors as a child and seeing the brass cages where the tellers sat was most impressive.The high school where my mother graduated was still standing at least…And there were signs and places that I remembered well… Central Park was across from my family’s historic home, long gone, but historic because it was built in the 1880s and was also the site of one of their wagon yards, one of the early ones in town.  I played in the park on this stage many a time since my aunt and uncle lived in the family house across the street until it was sold and replaced with an office, now an art gallery.I found both of the houses I remember my grandmother living in, changed but still recognizable, and the memories continued to flow.  A trip to the delightful museum left me with new insights to the place where my great-grandparents traveled from Texas to take their place in this new city.  My visit to the cemetery was touching as they all are buried neatly together, probably visited by nobody for many years since we all live in other parts of the state and country.  I have mixed feelings about cemeteries these days for that and other reasons.

We left Ardmore, driving to Sulphur and stopped at the Chickasaw National Recreations Area.  When I was a child, this was Platt National Park, the smallest national park in America.  We stopped for the Sulphur Springs, which stunk, and for the lovely creeks and waterfalls.  Today, this has all been encompassed into the larger area which includes the Lake of the Arbuckles and is a huge recreation area.  I chose to revisit the old Platt site, including the Nature Center.  The historic signature Lincoln Bridge is still there…The sites of the old Sulphur Springs are there, although many of them are dried up due to the ongoing drought in this area of the country.Even with springs and creeks dried up, we found beauty and water flowing.  There were wildflowers like the Indian Blanket and others…Birds and animals greeted us without fear in this protected area… And I ended this visit dipping my feet in a cool stream on a summer day…We drove home a different way, seeing small towns like Bowlegs and Wetova……and a peek at Okemah, home of Woody Guthrie, before heading home after a delightfully beautiful road trip.