Last Day of May 2024! And the adventures go on......

OK - 2 June 2024 story updates!

 Stories on the way after 5 nights in Oklahoma for a Jones family visit - Tulsa, Muskogee, Tahlequah and Wauhilla cabin in Welling, OK.  Lots of history and stories.

So today 31 May 2024 - I again checked the cardinal nest on a little shrub by our front porch and they are cute little birdies and another egg there somehow and Mommy Cardinal is watching over very carefully and makes little warning sounds if you look at the next too long!

First night at the Wauhillau Outing Club started in 1902 so a long history on what once was Cherokee land.  This was a little reminder for Memorial Day weekend and I think there are 90+ members and many family cabins and it is still a private "club".  We did of course go to the social hour at someone's cabin and then watched the square dancing and even Ross danced a little.  

This was the sign on arrival flying into Tulsa airport.

First night dinner with Ross' brother Preston and wife Debbie.  Ross' mom was Dorothy Jones, I am DeVerle aka Dee Jones and then Debbie Jones so we call ourselves the DJs - #1, #2, #3.  Debbie and I feel like we are sisters in blood as we have so much of the same chatty personalities and are married to the "quiet guys".

This is the beautiful view from our Tulsa hotel room and his brother's rental condo is 6 blocks away in downtown Tulsa so we can walk there for happy hour, walk with them to a good restaurant and walk back home.  And the 2 days we spent there we got over 10,000 steps each day.

Apparently there is a new Bob Dylan museum and he was actually raised in Duluth Minnesota!

Another fun dinner at a tapas Spanish restaurant so we could share plates and of course it was delicious and of course as always I am in a striped shirt.

A little beer for Ross????

And yes we are on the famous Route 66!

Went for a little drive around Tulsa and walked this beautiful park and the weather "wasn't too bad" as we say in Minnesota.  There have been tornadoes in Texas, Oklahoma and all over the south and we managed to make the whole trip without meeting one even though at times they were pretty close.

The famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed this house and it is up for sale for $4.5 million and first listed at $7+ million and has 5 garages for cars.  I'll have to do a little online searching.

And it is sports country so Ross is in front of a baseball field entrance.  

There are beautiful street murals all around the town like in many places around the world.

We did visit the Greenwood Rising Museum which opened in 2021 which is 100 years after what is known as the Tulsa Race Massacre in the Greenwood District which killed many Black Americans and the area was also called Black Wall Street as there were successful businesses, a hospital, schools, churches and all.  It was time to educate the public about things that were hidden for decades all over the country.

If you read the small print you will learn a lot of the history:

Another absolutely beautiful huge painted mural in Tulsa.

Nighttime view of downtown Tulsa and every time we visit here I see new things - famous art museums, churches, other museums and a lot of history and of course fantastic restaurants.

Then on to Muskogee - Ross' hometown and we made a stop at Fort Gibson and the stones of former soldiers all had flags as it was Memorial Day.  Never forget what our soldiers have done for us!

The little wooden things are called "stocks" and to punish the head was placed in the large hole and the hands through the small holes.  It was built in the 1800s and there were also Army prisoners there. It guarded the American frontier on Indian territory and was farther west than any other fort in the United States in the mid 1800s.

And on to Tahlequah OK one of the places where Ross attended college.

This large power plant on the Arkansas River was former land of Ross' family and was sold to a company to build a power plant.

Next up in Tahlequah we visited the Cherokee National Prison Museum, beds on the floor, leg chains and ball and chain as punishment.  It was built in the late 1800s.

And yes, there was a little kitchen to cook for the prisoners.

Ball and chain punishment - and it was so heavy I could not lift it.

The gallows - prisoners were hung here to die and a small part on the stand was opened to let their feet fall through.

A couple blocks away we visited the Cherokee National History museum which was formerly a Cherokee National Capitol building shares the history and culture of the Cherokee Nation from pre-European contact through the Trail of Tears and the revitalization of the tribe after the American Civil War.

Then on to the family cabin built in 1926 and of course renovated by Preston and Debbie with real air conditioning and all.  The banner was actually painting by a person who was a Judge in the Muskogee court system and did beautiful art work as a relaxing hobby.

View of the Barron Fork from the family cabin as a runoff from the Illinois River.  We used to climb downhill with our kids and play in the sand bars and water for a long time.

Ross and his brother Preston - now 81 and 79 years old and still kickin'

Preston and Debbie.

And of course what else but the striped shirt wife and Okie from Muskogee hubby.

Ross' mom Dorothy did beautiful pencil sketches, painted portraits and beautiful art and never bragged about it and most people didn't even know.  She did tell me a lot of stuff in our "couch chats" about the art classes she took and other things.

So the day after we get home sister-in-law Debbie sends me these photos while she was along at the cabin and packing her car to go back to Muskogee.  There was a copperhead snake on the front porch right outside the front door so she called a cousin at the club to come and watch to keep her safe while she cut off the head of the snake.

And I could tell lots and lots of history and stories but time to move on to planning the next trip and leaving for Scotland next week.  More stories to come - and people are trying to convince me to try haggis which I have seen on previous visits to Edinburgh long ago when Ross worked in England in the 1990s.  It is sheep liver, lungs and kidney cooked in a sheep's stomach bag and tied shut.  Hmmmmm....and the adventures continue......