Oklahoma

We entered Oklahoma on Friday afternoon and exited Oklahoma Saturday evening. On Friday we drove a total of 295 miles from Amarillo, Texas to Oklahoma City. On Saturday morning we had a nice, hot breakfast at our hotel before we headed to the Oklahoma Memorial and Museum. Nadia earned a Junior Ranger badge and a patch by completing two booklets. The boys each earned one Junior Ranger badge. I got overheated sitting in the van for more than 2 hours while they were in the museum. Paul took my phone with him, but he forgot to take any pictures. Even though it was a National Park site, it definitely wasn't free so we did save some money by me sitting in the van. I felt awful by the time they got back so I decided I wasn't going to sit in the van during any of their other outings that day. 

Our next stop was the Science Museum. This was the first time on our trip it was a benefit that we had two ASTC memberships. I got the second one at the Lowell Observatory so we could have a free tour there while they are still closed for general admission due to COVID. If we had only one membership, they wouldn't have allowed all 5 of us to get in for free. They also gave me a wheelchair to use in exchange for leaving my driver's license at the front desk. The museum was very large and the kids didn't have time to explore all of it. They had spent more time at the first museum than I had anticipated. 

Our third stop was Riversport. Paul and the kids went white water rafting during the first hour. The rapids were more intense than their first experience in June. Paul didn't get any pictures or videos of the white water rafting, tubing, or stand up paddle boarding. We did get some videos of the kids attempting to do some surfing. Unfortunately, due to a lack of staffing (another sort of pandemic plaguing our country), all of the dry activities were closed (zip lining, ropes course, etc.). However, it was a hot day and we only spent about 3.5 hours there which really wouldn't have allowed time to do the water AND dry activities.

We stopped at McDonald's for dinner even though we ran out of gift cards for that place because we wanted to get to the hotel in Fort Smith, Arkansas early enough for Paul to do some laundry. We decided to go for a drive-thru instead of a sit down restaurant. We drove 205 miles today. We are in Fort Smith, Arkansas which is very close to the Oklahoma border. Because the kids had just been in the water for a few hours, we didn't attempt to swim in the outdoor pool. The hotel again has chairs with wheels in the rooms - four days in a row. Woo hoo! To be honest, I am very, very ready for this vacation to be over. It's hard to have skip all these fun activities. I would have loved to go white water rafting today, for example.  Tonight we're staying at a Courtyard Marriot, which is definitely the plushest hotel we've stayed in so far this trip, but I wish I had picked a different one because #1 breakfast isn't included and #2 our rooms didn't have two queen beds. I'm not sure if I made a mistake, Priceline made a mistake, or the hotel made a mistake because I had attempted to book rooms with two queen beds and a free breakfast. In the boys room Paul slept on a sofa bed. We shall see if Nadia sleeps on the floor or shares the king size bed with me.

Tomorrow's plans have already been altered because I found out today that the Little Rock Central High School site operated by the National Park service has been closed again because of COVID. Similarly, a science museum that we planned to visit on Monday in Memphis has modified their hours due to COVID, and one of the days they are closed is Monday. This happened a lot when we were on vacation the first week of October 2020. I wouldn't have guessed at that point that almost exactly one year later we'd be in the same boat. Will the same be true if we go on vacation in September 2022? I thought for sure once the vaccine came out that it wouldn't take long after that for things to improve. I was wrong. Now I'm starting how many more years it will take for life to be back to normal. Well just seven more days until we see Milo again. We can't wait!!!