Great Get-Away / No Place Like Home

Since July 4th holiday fell on Wednesday, Tom's regular day off, he had today, July 9th off instead.  So, when he got off work on Saturday afternoon, we drove north to Broken Bow, Okla.

Yesterday morning, we went kayaking on the Mountain Fork river.  The outfitters dropped us off  just below the Dam of Broken Bow Lake, for the 4-mile float trip, thru "rock gardens", rapids, some cold, calm water, and over Presbyterian Falls, a fun little 3-foot drop-off in the river!  Fun on a hot day!

In the afternoon, we drove another hour north of Broken Bow, thru the rolling hills of eastern Oklahoma until we reached Hwy. 1, Talimena Scenic Drive.  We followed this road west for 25 miles, over some quite beautiful mountain ridges, with many places to pull over and admire the grand beauty of distant mountains and lush valleys.

This drive reminded me of all the scenic views I enjoyed last year while hiking the A.T.  It was awesome yesterday to be enjoying these views together with Tom!  On our way back to Broken Bow, as we were coming down out of those beautiful mountains, we drove thru some very severe thunderstorms and some torrential rain!  I could not see more than a few feet in front of our car!  Being on unfamiliar, winding, mountain roads, with no place to pull off and take cover, all I could do was keep going forward, at a very slow pace!  So glad there was no cars behind me, only a Tyson's tractor-trailer in front of me!  Very tense driving, I was so glad when it finally let up a little! 

We really enjoyed our little 2-day "get-away", however how sweet it was to get back home!

That's right!  There's no place like Texas!!

We came though Paris, Texas and saw the Paris, Tx. Eiffel Tower!

Last Thursday, I hosted the Saddlebag Trail Ride here at our house.  I always enjoy having the gals come here to ride on our trails.  There were seven of us who braved the hot weather to ride for a couple of hours.  We came back here to the house to have our lunch on our shady back patio, where three other Saddlebag women came and joined us.  Great friends!  Great ride!

The gals getting ready to ride!

Our garden is about done for this year, and we are ready to be done with it.  Our freezer is full!  We have shared  many, many veggies with friends and family!  One of my favorite things about gardening is making and eating good, fresh pica de gallo!  Yum, yum!!