Camping
Rob had to go to Oklahoma City to pick up some things for work this past weekend. We had already requested Friday off from work so we decided to make the trip into a camping trip to Chickasaw National Recreation Area.
Wednesday night we had our bags packed.
Yes, we went extremely overboard but we had never been to Oklahoma and I had NEVER, ever, been camping. You see, I have a huge fear of spiders. I am that girl that screams, no matter where she is at, and yells for assistance when she sees a spider. Then when someone runs to my rescue it turns out it is a microscopic spider that no one can see but me. Any who, we also knew it was going to be cold so we took our sleeping bags plus all of the blankets that we own. And let's not forget the guitar that Rob got for Christmas. Can he play the guitar? No.
I was about to pack my clothes in my cute zebra print suitcase but Rob forbid it.
Thursday right after work we headed out on our 7.5 hour drive to Oklahoma City. We decided to stay at a cheap hotel in OKC on Thursday night since the park is close to 2 hours away from the city. We took plenty of food for the trip to save money.
About three hours from the city I asked Rob how much the hotel cost. His answer: $40. Mmmmm why so inexpensive?? I decided to read some reviews about the hotel. These were some of the things people had to say:
"Do not stay here! In shady part of town!"
"Blood splattered on walls"
"Be ready to share parking with the bar next door in bad part of town"
"Stay here if you want easy access to meth"
"Door would not lock and heater did not work"
I immediately started crying. I called Expedia to see if we could cancel the reservation but it turns out there is a 100% fee to cancel or change since it was passed check-in time. Rob calmed me down by saying we could just stay somewhere else, but I refused to spend more money at another hotel. We decided to begin our camping experience a day early and head out to the city early the next morning.
We got lost for an hour trying to find the campground. By the time that we arrived to a site, it was close to 2 am and we were tired. It was dark. It was scary. It was cold. It was freezing cold. We were the ONLY ones there. Rob set up the tent and we each grabbed our sleeping bags and a blanket. Again, it was cold. It was freezing cold. I could not sleep. Every little sound would wake me up which I ended up waking Rob up with a "did you hear that? what was it?!" I finally fell asleep and after 20 minutes, my fallen-asleep-can't-feel-my-hands sensation woke me up. I immediately began yelling "frostbite!! help me! frostbite!!". I thought I had lost my hands until I got the pins and needles sensation...phew! Let's just say that it was not the most romantic night we have had thus far.
(Rob took a picture of me waking up but I look like Big Foot's wife so I decided not to post it.)
Morning finally arrived, we got ready, and headed out to the city. Rob did his thing in the morning, we ate at an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch, and then headed back to the park. It is so much prettier and less scary during the day.
We were able to pick our site and calmly set up our tent.
We were also able to make dinner.
And s'mores for dessert.
I promise that white speck you see is a marshmallow.
We relaxed by the fire as the sun set.
Friday night was so much better. It was still uncomfortable but not as cold or scary. A group of young guys picked the site less than 30 feet from ours and decided to have a few too many beers. As the night went on, their laughs and voices grew louder and louder and LOUDER. Around 2 am, I awoke to the sound of one guy vomiting. Then a raccoon messed with our cooler which of course, scared the gagizzeers out of me. Now imagine Rob yelling in a whisper throwing the tiniest twigs he could find right outside our tent with a country accent. "G'on, get out-a hea! Shuu! G'on!" The whole time the raccoon just stared at him in confusion while I asked why he was talking funny.
We woke up on Saturday and made breakfast.
We went for a walk.
And then...rain. Lots of rain. We ended up hanging out in our tiny tent reading our books and taking random naps for about 5 hours. It would stop raining, we would get ready to go outside but nope, mother nature was not done. It rained and rained and in the meantime it got colder and colder. My phone had ran out of battery and Rob's iPad did not have reception. Finally, he was able to pull up the weather and it said:
Winter weather advisory. Current weather: 33. Feels like: 17.
Above it had a statement about tornadoes being reported and then BAM! the iPad lost signal again. We. Panicked. It was time to go. We waited for the rain to stop which was about 7 pm. We had already packed everything from inside the tent to get out of there. (We later found out the tornadoes were reported in Kentucky.) Since we had taken hour long naps we decided to head back home. We stopped at a Waffle House in Fort Worth since San Antonio does not have one and ate breakfast for dinner.
We arrived home at 3 in the morning. Our small house had never looked and felt so big and warm...EVER! Although I had never been so cold and afraid in my life, we had fun. We laughed the whole drive back in remembering the many, small events that we experienced. This was definitely an adventure. One that we will never forget.
