Wish you were here. ….just kidding!
I spend the bulk majority of my life either in a kayak, talking about kayaks, or leading a trip. Whether it be a kayak paddle, hike, birdwatching event or what-have-you, this is also what I do in those rare events that I do find some free time. Yesterday, the weather forced me to have one of these busman’s holidays.
The weather, you see, was absolutely perfect for a daytrip to the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge. The only problem was cloudless skies, temps in the seventies, combined with a weekend day translates into lots of folks that I would have to share the place with. Now, nothing against scouts or families with screaming babies, but, this place is kind of like my church. If I am going to be doing some recharging of my batteries, deep soul searching or heaven’s forbid, confessing, I don’t want everyone and there brother to be there right along side me.
Normally, I probably would have waited until some weekday when I could have more of the place to myself, but the call of the mountains proved too tempting. Furthermore, I reasoned that I could always try to scare off the other visitors by making up lies about how the trail had been washed out by the recent rains, or that their safety was in jeopardy due to the rabid (and hungry) mountain lion. As it turned out, the ominous forecast that had been predicted for today made all this unnecessary. I am sure the allure of cotton candy, carnies (did you know that Oklahoma has the highest overwintering population of carnies of any state in the Union? Don’t take my word for it, our state tourism website brags of the fact.), and meat on a stick kept a lot of these folks away as well.
My hike turned out quite splendid. I saw very few people, and lots of neat nature stuff. This was followed up by a trip to my favorite place to get a burger in the state, Meer’s Restaurant. Only problem was, someone had eaten all the peach cobbler before I got there. Oh well, cherry pie with homemade ice cream was a suitable substitute.
Anyway, as a former boss of mine would always close his postcard from the faraway destination he was spending his vacation. Wish you were here……………… Not Really!!!!
Oh, and in case you were wondering what exactly it was that I was needing to confess and get off my chest, it really was me who made that awful sound followed by the acrimonious smell at the movie theater last Friday night.