OOOOOklahoma! 1-3.juni 2007

After much ado and frantic assembling of tax papers and work visa applications, we finally launched our road trip vacation on the first of June. First stop: Wister, Oklahoma and the abode of Jessica's former boss, Jesse Rohde, and his wife Melinda.

Jesse is a horticulturalist/botanist extraordinaire.

Melinda is a pediatrician for the Choctaw Nation.

Both are avid nature lovers and gardeners, and she is slowly converting him to a bird lover as well. The trip to Oklahoma (250 miles from Dallas) took longer than expected, as we HAD to stop along the way and take pictures of landscapes

and wildlife

and dangerous foreign nationals

We were also so fortunate (?) to get to see tarantulas in the wild, crossing the road is some kind of dusk migratory ritual. They really are as big as you imagine, if not bigger. Jessica managed to really piss one off, unfortunately, but avoided attack, fortunately. I promise never again to throw my car keys at a photography subject in order to get a sense of scale...

The eastern part of Oklahoma is forested, and the particular region we were in was neighbor to the Ouachita Forest State Park. The fun part of the journey was actually finding our hosts' house. U.S. Highway 271 is rather long, with about 30 miles of widely spread residences between the "towns" of Talihina and Wister. Google maps turned out to be somewhat misleading, so we ended up driving waaaay past our destination (no cell phone coverage AT ALL), only to end up calling Jesse and Melinda from the nice gas station clerk's cell phone because the pay phone at the Wister gas station would not cooperate. Fortunately we found our way in just as darkness was settling. During our stay we camped at the Tallameena State Park, 5 min. away. The first night was rather rough as my sleeping bag kept sliding off my thermarest and I had visions of angry tarantulas invading our tent all night. But the morning was beautiful, and we eventually headed back to Jesse and Melinda's house for a most lovely afternoon of lazing in their spectacular gardens.

Of furry critters they boast many, including 9 cats, 2 dogs, and a handful of chickens. The two dogs, Marty and Lady, were getting on in years but not at all lacking in cuddling skills.

We tried to earn our keep by brushing the dogs (cool fact! nesting birds will take the dog hair and use it to line their nests for warmth; male birds can actually entice female birds with big clumps of dog hair), not a task for the light-hearted. The 9 cats included two recently adopted female tabby sisters - aka the Twins of Terror.

Weezer was by far the coolest of the bunch, with a chronic upper respiratory infection and a misdiagnosis of asthma as a kitten (read: ignorant vet erroneously prescribed lots of steroids for treatment = fat cat). Poor guy got his very appropriate name from the wheezing noises he makes all the time due to congestion.

But he was very cuddly, loved to follow us around the garden, and was best friends with Marty, the big Samoya. One just tried to avoid standing near his face when he sneezed. The only two remaining cats that were social were Cue and Leon. SM got a nice glam shot of Cue

and I snapped a pic of Leon and SM in the hammock. Leon, aka The Jaguar, weighs 28 pounds and on first impression makes the viewer think of a large black jungle cat. Anyway, SM was relaxing in the hammock, and Leon absolutely had to join him.

Not a problem at first, until Leon decided that he would make biscuits on SM's chest. Some discussion ensued, followed eventually by a truce in which Leon retracted his claws and was permitted to remain in the hammock. I also had Leon for a lap visit

and you FEEL it when a 28-pound cat sits in your lap! Not that I would complain, because I had 5 cats and two dogs to cuddle with for 2 days and loved every minute of it. Strangely enough, Melinda was originally considering going to veterinary school rather than medical school, but changed her mind as her soft-hearted tendencies as a veterinarian would put her all too often in the path of temptation to rescue and adopt animals she came in contact with. So instead of adopting and taking in strays herself, she married a man who does it for her :-D

Here's various flower and insect pics from their garden, taken with our most exciting macro lens.

The second day of our visit (Saturday), we piled in the truck and did a day of scenic drives and small trail hikes, with some amazing views. Along the way we stopped at a site where Nordic runes were discovered. Vikings, who discovered North America long before Christopher Columbus, apparently made it all the way down to Easter Oklahoma during their explorations of what is now the US.

(I saw Santa Claus in his sleigh in the cloud formation above, made SM take a picture of it for me :-)

On Sunday we had to make our goodbyes and start our drive north toward Omaha, Nebraska. Our thanks to Jesse and Melinda, we will miss you, your animals, your gardens, your sanctuary in the Eastern Oklahoma hills!

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