Oklahoma OK, Texas, not so much.

I'm really behind, so I'm really in Colorado, but I'll try and keep these in order so I'll write about our Sunday in Oklahoma and Texas. 

We started out the morning in a hotel with me doing laundry, unfortunately the "guest dryer" worked so poorly that after I took the clothes out, no one could tell they had been in the dryer at all.  We were in a time crunch, so we really had a problem of what to do with two loads of wet clothes.  Doug went up to the desk and informed them that the dryer wasn't working, and convinced them to let us put all our clothes in the industrial dryers in their laundry room.  The maid wasn't all that thrilled about having to take all the sheets and towels out for us, which was too bad.  All it took was for them to dry while we were eating breakfast and everything was done.  I wonder how much one of those things cost?

We first went to the Oklahoma City National Memorial,  such a beautiful and somber place.  It is the first time that I have been to a major Memorial for an event that I remember.  It has a different mood there, it was built while wounds were still very fresh.  There is still a fence there that people still leave things on, the most touching was a "Class of 2010" t-shirt that was signed by the students who would have been the classmates of the children killed there that day.  It was difficult to try to explain things to Ian in a way he could understand, mostly because I don't understand.

After the memorial we went to sacrament meeting in a ward in Oklahoma City.  I wish I could find a way to issue a blanket apology to the Oklahoma City First Ward.  We were sitting in the middle of the chapel about five rows back, and were all so exhausted that after sitting down we immediatley fell asleep, the whole row except of course for one 5 year old who was just thrilled to finally be out of the car.  I have no idea how he behaved, because, well, I was asleep.  So embarrassing.

Arkansas

We stopped first at Arkansas Post, a trading post that had been active from the 1600's to the 1870's.  Honestly there wasn't much to see since it was built on the river, and the river had changed course several times and washed everything away.  But we did enjoy a nice 2 mile hike around the property, Arkansas just has a unique beauty to it that we really love.  (Seriously)

Then we stopped at the one site that isn't new to us, Crater of the Diamonds State park in Murfreesboro.  We went there when Doug was taking paternity leave after Ian was born.  Who is crazy enough to go on a road trip in February with a 5 week old baby?  Apparently, we were.  This time we were determined to find a diamond.  We started out in the diamond field just digging in the mud, this is the best way to find big diamonds, we were told (1 carat +).  Soon, we realized that since it was almost 100 degrees, we would rather be in working in the water troughs in the shade.  Basically the procedure is this, you fill a bucket full of dirt, bring it to the trough and dump a shovelful of dirt in the top of your two screens.  The first one with larger holes, the second with smaller holes.    The top screen just gets out the big rocks, then you rock the bottom screen back and forth, turn it, rock it, turn, rock, until all the heavy rocks are settled in the middle.  Then you flip it over onto a table and look through the pebbles in the bottom to see if there is a shiny mettalic one that doesn't have any dirt stuck to it, that is a diamond.  We spent about 5 hours there, until we were ready to move on.  About 600 diamonds are found there a year, most by "professionals" that spend all their time looking for a selling diamonds.  Ian had the most fun, playing in the mud in a big puddle in the pavilion.

Natchez, Mississippi

After spending the night in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, we drove to Natchez, to stop at A.'s favorite type of place, a big historic mansion.  This one was the Antebellum manion of the McMurran family.  It was built to impress visitors with opulence and exhibit the wealth of the family.  Surprisingly, most of the furnishings were original to the house, including even the china on the dining room table.  Also impressive was the hand painted oilcloth flooring and the giant solid mahgony fan installed over the dining room table.  There was also a majestic magnolia tree growing outside the master bedroom window that had been planted when the house was built in the 1840's.  A. decided that she wanted to live in a house like that someday.

Gulf Islands National Seashore

I apologize for not having pictures, I forgot the cord that attaches our camera to the computer, so they will have to wait until I get one, or find a computer with a SD card drive.

Gulf Islands National Seashore is on the very tip of the Florida panhandle, and happens to be the only National Park site in Florida that we haven't visited, so it was the logical first stop for our trip.  Originally we planned a longer visit, but as it was, we ended up with only an hour before sunset. 
The kids played in the water and searched for seashells, most were types they had never found before. We watched birds start high in the sky and then dive to the surface of the water, only to inexplicably stop at the last moment. 
It was a quiet visit, knowing that this was our goodbye to Florida.  Also a goodbye to this beautiful place that we had only just discovered.  You couldn't help looking out at the ocean and wondering how close the looming oil spill was, and when would it reach that shore.  After taking pictures and some quiet time, I went to search for shells with the girls, in addition to shells, we found flat, oval shaped pieces being tossed in the surf before settling on the bottom.  Picking these up, we found them to be tar balls that were being washed ashore in the high tide. 

Trip Day 0

So yesterday was supposed to be the first day of our trip, but we discovered early what most of you probably already knew, that it is not reasonable to expect to be able to finish up leaving (all the odds and ends), painting an entire house, have movers come, have a birthday party, and prepare for a cross country trip in three days.  We are coming close though, and will probably be able to leave today, thanks to the wonderful people who came and helped us.  I cannot thank them enough.  I'll post pics later. 

For now, goodbye Florida, we have loved living here and will truly miss our dear friends here.

Dry Tortugas National Park May 31, 2010

I will post more about our visit later, but I wanted to post a picture of the beautiful ocean, the water is actually more teal than it appears in the picture and so clear that you can't tell how deep it is. 

How long it will stay clear and beautiful like this is anyone's guess, it all depends on the currents which are pretty unpredictable.  Someone there said "It is like taking a bullet, you don't want it to happen to anybody, but it is going to happen, so you just hope it isn't you".  As we were enjoying the beautiful water, thousands of birds, the coral reef, and thousands and thousands of fish that the oil spill could destroy it all in a matter of days. 

Anyway, 135 National parks down 256 to go.

You haven't failed until you stop trying

This is one of my favorite sayings, or mantras or whatever you want to call it. 
I think it is one of the really great things about life.  We get to decide how long the race is going to be.
For example, I really want to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  I decided in 2002 that I would qualify by my 30th birthday.  My training program was headed in that direction until surprise! I detoured to get my darling boy.  I couldn't eat or sleep during most of my pregnancy, so running was out of the question.  Re-set goal to qualifying by my 35th birthday.  Well, that was 2 weeks ago and guess what? I'm not even close.  Between then and now I have acheived an intermediate goal of completing a marathon.  The great thing is though, even though I haven't accomplished my goal yet, I haven't failed because I am still trying.  My new goal: Qualify for Boston while we are living in New Jersey.  This would be a great opportunity, because unlike other times, it wouldn't be a big burden on my family to travel to Boston for the race. 
I use this for all kinds of things; finishing my degree. (I have been a junior in college for 15 years), being a good housekeeper, etc.  As long as I am still trying, I haven't lost the race because I haven't crossed the finish line.