Just a few miles out of Ft. Towson, Raymond Gary State Park is on Raymond Gary Lake.
Travel OK- Raymond Gary State Park
Looks like a good place for fishing. This is a drive through posting. We spent about 10 minutes here, and then continued on to find our next destination.
Not a busy day at Raymond Gary State Park.
The birds were having a nice peaceful day..
One more shot...
Last Sunday I skipped church and headed to the Red River to help my big brother celebrate his birthday. He's ten years older than I am, but we won't discuss numbers for now.
We started the day with pizza and cupcakes, just like any birthday party should...
They arrived before I did, I overslept and was not exactly in the best mood when I arrived. But it's always fun to go four wheeling. I don't drive. I'm a passenger.
Dune buggy under the Red River bridge, near Waurika.
We're throwing up mud, while my sister follows from behind. She wrecked. Had I not been worried I could have had some great pictures of someone flying off a four wheeler.
My brother in law was covered in mud. He was worse when we left the river.
Yeah..that's me... with the mud on my face. I don't mind getting dirty but I don't really like getting my face dirty.
My brother is in the middle and my sister is in white, and yours truly apparently was not muddy enough for this photo. Thanks Sis.
They look lost don't they?
My sister crossing the Red River, did you know there are two Red Rivers in the USA? Yes there is a Red River that runs between the North Dakota and Minnesota border, it is the Red River of the North.
My big brother from another Mother... It's his birthday now! Happy Birthday, and I owe you some family photos.
My little sister is a gun toting, country music listening, four wheeling "Redneck Woman"
Why would driving around in circles in the sand be fun, because it's awesome! I want to go back to Little Sahara SOON... that place is incredible.
Like slides for four wheelers... "wheeeee"
I like this photo. I like this bridge.
He had to be towed out of the river a few times...
Yeah we had fun last Sunday.
Last week the kids and I went swimming at the Little Niagara near Sulphur- in the Chickasaw National Recreation area. One of our favorite places to go.
Rare do I photograph all three of my children in one shot...getting along. Even rarer.
Not often do I get such a huge grin from this little one.
Fun in the cold, cold water of the little Niagara
SPLASH!
"Look what I caught Mom!"
My daughter is not afraid of crawdads, she did use the poor crawdad to scare some other teenage boys with.
poor little crawdad, he's probably scared.
It's always crowded here in the summer, in fact my Little Niagara posts get the most hits of any.
Mother's Day 2012, or the coercing my children into group photos wearing matching shirts.
This is punishment. This is also one of the best shots of all three of them together. The little one was NOT being agreeable.
My First Mother's Day gift.
Right now my Daughter is making a birthday cake for me. My Son picked me flowers twice today and my oldest son bought me an OU shirt a week ago for Mother's Day. I will keep them.
Me and my kids at Fuqua Lake one of the Duncan Lakes
Me and my Hubby taken by Miss Gracie
Can you see the smart alec looks on their faces? I can.
Earlier in the day I went for a two mile walk, I was going for a four mile walk, but I ended up spending way too much time photogrpahing fencecs. Looking for beauty in negative spaces.
I like this one, it was a beautiful day.
Sometimes fences without flowers are pretty too..
Butterflies! Butterflies! I love them.
Look at this beauty...
I've been wanting a photo of these...
I ate it... until I got to the worm. Then I tossed it in the ditch. I love wild plums.
and a perfect sunset over the lake
The other evening my husband and I drove out by Waurika lake near Comanche, we didn't make it in time to watch the sunset but we tried...
It was so hot last summer that we barely had any time on the lakes like we normally do...Maybe this summer!
Waurika Lake is a 10,000 acre lake. You may have heard of it, on that show "Hillbilly Hand Fishin'" - which I hope to get photos of this summer... as in my Husband noodling.... He knows this, but I will remind him.
Friday, I was all motivated to do laundry and dishes and my brother called me and asked me if I wanted to go four wheeling on the Red River down by Waurika, well that was not a difficult choice to make. So I loaded up the camera bag and myself and headed to town.
The Red River, the dividing line between Oklahoma and Texas.
Well, I did say four wheeling the Red River, not just the sand banks... we were "in" the river. But we didn't get stuck.
The four wheeler needed one more seat... but we managed.
I learned that the allergy counts are really high today, which is why my asthma has been horrible. So not a lot of commentary on these photos.
Our friend... and his friend... in the river. Not splashing us. Yet.
Red River Bridge
Welcome to Texas, that is enough Texas for today, afterall this IS Expedition Oklahoma....
New Years Eve was a beautiful day so we decided to go Kayaking (again) this time at Lake Altus near Quartz Mountain. It is a day trip and a little drive but it is definitely worth it, with the mountains surrounding the lake. Beautiful
To make this New Year's Eve even better the temperature was 80 degrees when we reached the lake. It felt like Spring.
Lake Altus on a beautiful December day.
The lake is really down, the last time I visited the lake in November of 2009, for the Quartz Mountain Arts Institute (which really sparked my interest in photography). This area was coverd in water.
Rowan .... rowing. Just saying this could get me in trouble. Rowan is quite literal and very sensitive to such things regarding his name. In fact most of the time I call him Row. So, no "Row, row, row your boat" jokes on this fine December day.
Justin loves the rocks.. the weathered away ancient range of the Wichita Mountains, one of the oldest mountain chains in the world, now mainly sit underground but in Southwestern Oklahoma we can see their ancient peaks jutting out on the flat landscape of the plains.
Justin is getting ready to go.
Quartz Mountains...
My boys working together. Yes, there are life jackets in the boat. Both boys are better swimmers than I am, we spend all summer in the water every year, since they were tiny. Plus at that time there was no wind and the water was calm and still.
The oldest Son, is not very outdoorsy. He is my gamer.
Such a pretty place.
While the boys Kayaked... the Husband and I worked our way around the mountain.
See the camera bag, that the husband placed on a boulder... not too long after we swapped out of the kayak...
See where I was when I looked up and saw the camera bag begin to roll down the mountain towards the water. I felt so helpless....but fortunately it did not roll into the water, or lose any lenses. No damage was done.
Ray got a great shot of this cactus and the moon..as I was kayaking with Rowan.
As we left the lake the temperature read 80 degrees. The wind was hitting hard as we left and we knew the cold front was coming in. We did not know that it was bringing a blinding dust storm.
Just a few minutes after leaving the Quartz Mountain area you could see the dust in the distance, but I just thought it was a dust devil blowing up in a field, not what we would soon experience. What a memorable New Years Eve.
Today didn't go as planned, but it went perfectly. We ended the day with the kayak on the lake. Yes, in December. I came home cold and wet but we had a great day.
The Husband's new Christmas Toy. His Kayak. This is Lake Fuqua located in Stephens County Oklahoma.
It is in his pleasure that a man really lives; it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self. ~Agnes Repplier
He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate. ~Henry David Thoreau
We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace. ~Aristotle
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. ~Henry David Thoreau
Here are a few photos from early July of Okmulgee State Park. It was about 105 out that day, but by July it was nothing new.
I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer. My bank of wild grass is majestic and full of music. It is a fire that solitude presses against my lips. ~Violette Leduc, Mad in Pursuit
Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker
In summer, the song sings itself. ~William Carlos Williams
Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world. ~Ada Louise Huxtable
Love is to the heart what the summer is to the farmer's year - it brings to harvest all the loveliest flowers of the soul. ~Author Unknown
So, Fort Arbuckle isn't here anymore. You can't go stand outside of any impressive ruins of the 19th century Fort that stood between the Chickasaws and the Comanche Indians, the fort that protected the trail for those westward bound Pioneers. Built on Wildhorse Creek Fort Arbuckle was a fort that stood on Indian Meridian Road and near present day Highway 7.
The marker is not easy to see from the Highway.
Here is a link for some more information on Fort Arbuckle. Besides this marker, there is not much that you can find of Fort Arbuckle.
If you turn on this road and go north, for a little over a mile you'll find Wildhorse Creek.
Wildhorse creek flooded a few years back and it was quite a sight to see. This year is so dry, we still need more rain. The heat continues. These photos were taken mid-July.
The Fort was located near this creek.
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