Still Getting Our Kicks on Route 66! (National Parks Trip #3)

With this post, I’m finally back to documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  By the end of the previous installment in this series, our intrepid travelers (Alan, Kyra and I) had landed in Oklahoma City on Day #5.  We had already returned home twice – once for Kyra’s forgotten supply of contacts and once to buy a truck – and made a mad and successful dash to catch up with our planned itinerary in Oklahoma City.  All that and we hadn’t even made it to the West Coast yet!  Let’s pick up the story with our departure from OKC and some additional Route 66 highlights as we worked our way west.

After just a one night stop at the Oklahoma City West KOA, I was disappointed to see OKC in our rear view.  Our truck troubles had resulted in the loss of a day of R&R (Rest & Relaxation) in OKC, and I had been really looking forward to visiting the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.  Alas, that was not to be - not on this trip, anyway - but the museum remains a Bucket List item.

Pulling out of our site at the Oklahoma City West KOA

We worked our way across the state of Oklahoma on Interstate 40 and into the Texas panhandle.  The panhandle is comprised of the 26 northernmost counties in Texas, representing just over 10% of the state’s counties (a total of 254).  Texas is B-I-G, and we passed through just a sliver of it, but that sliver included one of our best stops along Historic Route 66.

The Amazingly Wonderful, Incredibly Exhausting and Exceptionally Memorable Wedding Weekend!

On a warm and sunny summer afternoon over the Fourth of July weekend, our son, Ryan, and his long-time girlfriend, Anya, were married.  The date was exactly one month following the ninth anniversary of their first date.  Anyone who knew these two young people in their early years of dating knew that it wasn’t a matter of if they would get married; it was simply a matter of when.  The when was 4:30 p.m. last Saturday afternoon.  You’re invited to come along and share the joy with us, if you’re so inclined.

It’s way too soon to have any photos back from the official wedding photographer, and I was without my camera until we got to the reception.  So thanks to family members and friends who passed along a number of photos that I’ve shared here in this post.  I couldn't have pulled this off without them.  Note that I didn’t request permission to use these specific photos.  If any of them are replaced in a day or two with pics of flowers or clouds, you’ll know that I should have.

It was a dark and stormy night.  No, really, it was.  Despite a sunny and sweltering day on Friday - the day of the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner - it poured almost all night long following a rain-free evening.  On Saturday morning, the weather forecast looked somewhat promising, with the chance of rain diminishing hour by hour as the day went on.  There were many fingers crossed on Saturday prior to the wedding ceremony, which made it awfully difficult to knot the boys’ ties and tie the sashes on the girls’ gowns.  (Yup, it’s definitely boys and girls throughout the post; the words ladies and gentlemen are way too formal for this crowd.)