Day 10 – Home Again, Home Again!! (Sunday)

We were all up and loaded by 930am, stopped at a Starbucks, and were on the road by 10am.  The drive was pretty smooth and uneventful.  We stopped in Amarillo for a quick lunch and were all happy to make it home to ABQ well before dark!

The trip was wonderful and everyone had a great time.  We worked really hard but also played really hard too. 

We are especially thankful to Ava for agreeing to come along as our cook (and driver) for the week.  She did a great job and kept as all full and happy!! We are already begging her to come with us next year!!

Day 9 – Hanging in OKC (Saturday)

Today we had a ‘fun’ day.  No work…just hanging out and having fun.  We started the day by visiting the Oklahoma City Memorial…the site of the 1995 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing.  We were all touched and inspired by the beauty of the memorial.  The youth were just young kids (and some weren’t even born yet) when the bombing happened and some had never even heard about it.  It was a nice little side trip that turned into an educational one too!  If you haven’t ever been there…we would highly recommend that you go.   

While in OKC we were joined by about 10,000 bikers.  “More than 10,000 Harley-Davidson owners and motorcycle enthusiasts will converge on Oklahoma City for their annual celebration and rally, June 26-28, 2009. Activities, concerts and block parties will take place in and around downtown Oklahoma City all weekend.”

After the memorial we loaded up, stopped for lunch, and then descended (I use that word because that is what the 23 of us do everywhwere we go J) on the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.  We only spent about 2 hours there…but probably could have spent much longer.  It was really cool – and huge.  There were rooms and rooms of sculptures and artwork, a whole old west town complete with a church, saloon, and school house. There was a rodeo area, an area about Western movies and tv shows, and more.  It was really neat. (We would suggest a visit to this one too!)

After the Cowboy Museum, a group wanted to take a rest at the hotel…and a large group of youth wanted to go to the mall again (it was a really nice mall).  So…Mindy took 11 youth back to the mall while the other adults and youth went back to the hotel for a bit.  We all met back up at Bricktown (OKC’s version of the San Antonio’s Riverwalk).  First stop…Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World.  Everyone knows that Jeb doesn’t pass a Bass Pro Shops with out stopping and shopping! After Bass Pro (and looking for a lost set of van keys---yikes!) we hopped on the trolley and headed down to the heart of Bricktown for dinner.  And we were once again reunited with our 10,000 bikers who were also taking in the sites of Bricktown…and also it seemed to be the gathering place for their rally.  Dinner was great and by the end of the night we were all ready to get back to the hotel.  Especially the adults who had to get up and drive everyone back to ABQ the next day J

Day 8 – OK City

Today we cleaned, packed, said our goodbyes, and headed OK City.  It is only about a 2 hour drive…so that was nice.  Along the way we even passed Checotah…the hometown of Carrie Underwood (American Idol winner).  After a quick lunch, we checked into our hotels and quickly got settled then headed to the Oklahoma City Zoological Park.  ALL of the information about zoo said it closed at 7pm…but when got there at 4pm---they said they had just recently (due to budget cuts) changed the closing time to 5pm! So…we went to the zoo for an hour…which was fine cause it was like 100+ degrees J  The zoo was actually a really nice one.  After our zoo trip got cut short we had some time before dinner so we headed to at the mall…which was huge and has a ton of cool stores.  So we wandered around there for about an hour and then had dinner at an Italian restaurant connected to the mall.  It was really YUMMY!  After dinner we came back to hotel to relax, swim, and hang out.  Tomorrow we will sleep in a little and then do some more touristy stuff.

Today was our last day of work on the ranch.  We finished painting picnic tables (they have a lot of picnic tables!), painted the bathrooms out by the horse barn, did some more trim painting in places around the ranch, fed the chickens, helped ‘drive’ horses into the pins, shoveled out a horse stall, and more.  We worked very hard today trying to get lots of jobs finished up. 

A special treat was getting to see chicks hatch.  Yesterday we were in the hay barn and noticed a mother hen sitting on her eggs.  Today, we went back in there and she had 8 brand new chicks.  Then later Mindy was showing a couple of the kids the babies and we noticed there were ten and one was even hatching while we watched.  Really cool.  There are a few pictures…but the camera died right as the chick was almost hatched!!

After work we cleaned up and headed down the road a short ways to Fin & Feather (a local resort) with a really good buffet type restaurant.  Tonight was a BBQ type theme.  Each night they have a different theme.  The food was good and it was nice to get out and see some more of the area.

We came back to the lodge and had our devotional and everyone has now scattered to pack, hang out, and play games.  We will leave tomorrow morning and head to OK City for the next two nights.  We have worked hard this week and it will be fun to just play for the next couple of days!

Sorry - this post comes to you a day late as I was at the ER when it was "website" time :)

Wednesday – we were the finishing up some old projects today and also starting new ones.  More painting, some weeding, and other odd jobs.  In the afternoon we got the opportunity to go out on a boat and do some swimming further out on the lake.  We went in 3 smaller groups…and only did about 1 hour per group – but had LOTS of fun.  After work (we still worked in the afternoon…we just took breaks to go on the boat) we loaded up and headed over the dam to a public swimming area of the lake.  We had been in the lake about 2 minutes when someone slipped on a rock and got a rather deep cut under his big toe! So…Mindy (and her trusty helpers – Katie N, Evan, Emilie, and Flor) headed to the closest urgent care facility (30 miles away – on a curvy back road) to get Patrick’s toe sewn up.  We arrived at the urgent care like 5 minutes after the closed – GRR!  So we went up the road to the ER.  The Tahlequa City Hospital ER was actually very nice and pretty speedy.  Patrick is all fixed up now and it looks like he is going to be able to keep the toe! ;) Update:  Darby (who hurt her big toe on Tuesday) is doing fine and her toe is healing nicely.  It was a rough couple of days for big toes around here.  Little Katy even fell off a horse (AKA Lindsey – her pretend horse who was giving her a ride) and hit her eye…and now has a huge shiner!

Besides our few injuries…we all seemed to be doing very well and are ready to work again on Thursday – our last day of work at the Boys Ranch.

Day 5 – Wow It Is Hot Here

First – I have to answer some questions:

How come I see everyone in the water but the adults? Someone needs to take care of that!!!
 ---- Jeb and Mindy have swam with the kids and hang out down by the lake a lot – but Mindy usually takes the photos and doesn’t take the camera in the water.

Tom wants to know if someone saved Darby's toe for re-attachment when she gets home

--- Yes – it is in a Ziploc.  We will try to remember to bring it back to NM.

Today we finished up several projects.  We finished pulling the weeds and grass out of the playground area and volleyball and horseshoe area.  We also finished painting some gates out in one of the pastures and finished cleaning the bathrooms out by the horse barn.  We also got the large fence and gates panted (that we scraped yesterday) over by the horse barn.  After lunch we started a few new projects which we will hopefully finish up tomorrow.

Ava, Mindy, and Katy took several (6) loads of laundry (mission trip shirts, smelly clothes from the lake, etc) to the laundromat.  We hadn’t planned to do any thing but the mission trip shirts, but the smell of the lake clothes was getting to us.  Sadly (it was SO sad!) the laundry mat (closest one was 30 min away) had NO air conditioning and we were REALLY hot.  We actually had to walk outside to cool off (really!).  I would have preferred working back the ranch I think.  Ava said it was 150 degrees in there…and I agree. But…we have clean mission trip shirts and clean clothes…that will probably end up being swam in again! (by the way…there are no pictures of the work done after lunch because Jeb forgets to take photos!!)

In between the end of work and before dinner a rope swing was created.  Some people were really good at swinging on and others (darby) didn’t do so well.  But I think we can save her toe and she will live to work tomorrow.  The swing has been taken down.

For dinner we headed back to the ranch for a meal with the other volunteer group that is here and several of the boys that live at the ranch.  It was lots of fun and the food was great.  After dinner both groups and the boys played kickball and some other games for about 2 hours.  It was nice getting to meet some of the boys from the ranch and the other group.  We are now getting ready have our devotional time and start winding down.  There are lots of complaints first thing in the a.m. and promises that they want to go to bed EARLY…but they never do!!!

Day Three – Sunday (day of rest?)

We started off the day by worshipping at Gore UMC.  After worship, we loaded up and headed to Muskogee, OK (about 45 mins away) to eat lunch and hit the Wal-Mart SuperCenter.  We had lots of grocery shopping to do for the week.  (Still have to go back…but we made a good dent!).  After our shopping trip (and getting the tire fixed---remember the screw--) we loaded back up and headed back to the ranch.  On the way back we stopped at Webber Falls Powerhouse and TenKiller Dam and also took a little walk along a really pretty trout stream.  Evan even found a vine for us (only us brave ones…Evan, Mindy, Kendall, Katie, Patrick, Emilie, Jennifer, and Lindsey) to swing on . We also stopped to looked at dead armadillo (see pic) and dead deer…although it looked like a dead kangaroo!  (Just ask Sari)

Back at the ranch (well actually the lodge we are staying at is down the road from ranch) we just relaxed and hung out. Some people fished…and waded in the lake.  Others played games or just hung out.  We had a wonderful dinner (thank you Ava!) and then played some more.  We also were led in an inspirational devotional by Rev. Archey about Peter walking on water and learning to trust Jesus.

Now – we are just killing bugs, scratching bites, and having fun.

Tomorrow – we work!

Thoughts from the day:

“I like the lake” – Kendall

“do you really think people read this?” - Kendall

“Ha Ha Ha Ha….I am a fan of the rocking chairs” – Patrick

“Ewe – Spiders!” – Emilie

“Warning: Organized Waves Alert!”  “Pretty much I’m hilarious”– Evan

“If I were you – I would be conceded…” – Jennifer

“As Jesus always says…” – Sari

“That’ll do Evan!” - Everyone

“Shut the door Ava!” – Everyone

“Is that really a Kangaroo!?!” – Sari

“So where is the dam?” – Sari (as we sat on top of the dam)

“Oh my gosh I totally don’t care” – Mindy

“Verb conjugation” – Darby

“The red fish net is stuck in my braces”- Lindsey

"You will notice a picture of me...that is my 'Katie being good sport' picure" - Katie N.

Day Two – Gore!

Saturday we started the day with rain…lots of rain.  However, once we left Amarillo (after a much needed Starbucks run!) we drove out of the rain pretty quick.  We were just a few miles out of Amarillo when one of vans had a tire issue.  Turns out we picked up a screw – and had to change a tire.  Jeb and Evan did most of the dirty work and got us back on the road in no time…well not no time – but eventually!

While on the road yesterday we passed the “world’s largest cross”, the National Route 66 Museum, and lots of wind generators. 

We stopped by the OKC Airport to pick up Keith…our final passenger and then made the final push into Gore.  But before we hit Gore, we stopped in Henryetta for dinner.  And we even surprised Jeb with a birthday cake and cards for his big 3-0! Thank you, Becky the yummy chocolate cake.  After dinner we made a quick run into Wal-Mart to grab stuff for breakfast and a few forgotten items.

Then – it was onto Gore (just about 45 more minutes!)…just as the sun began to set.  We met the volunteer coordinator, Larry, and were shown the lodge where we will are staying.  It overlooks a lake!! The accommodations are pretty basic...but the view is amazing. 

Tomorrow we will go to church at Gore UMC and then do a few more errands in Muskogee, OK (bigger town 30 miles away) in preparation to start work on Monday.

So far, so good.  It is very hot and sticky here…and we are learning to love the bugs ;) (we are really trying to embrace the sticky-ness and bugs!)