A Different Kind of Thanksgiving

This year, being so far away from family, we decided it was best to just stick around for the relatively short Thanksgiving break. We had opportunities to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with friends but decided it would be fun to do something a little different instead! This is where we ended up (it was really bright outside):

And this is how we felt about it:

More specifically, we went camping at Turner Falls near Davis, Oklahoma (as if anybody knows where that is). It was about a 2 hour drive north of home on I-35. I suggested to Grant that we keep driving until we get to Canada and we considered it for about 20 seconds... Here are some of the amazing things we saw on the way there:

Willy Wonka's Factory

Home of the celebrated Bulgarian Seeker

My very own video store! We got closer and found out is was an Adult Video Store... (and a huge one at that...) I disowned it immediately...A car full on burning on the side of the road... I can't imagine that smoke is very "green"

We arrived at Turner Falls in the afternoon and were surprised at how beautiful it was! There was a creek that ran all through the camp. The water was SO clear and at the base of camp, it filled out into pool they turned into a swimming hole. The water was absolutely freezing (get to the end to read about my plunge of death).
We drove to our campsite-- you have to cross the creek at times, it is for fun-- and set everything up. We brought our air mattress because it's the only portable mattress we have that fits two. Unfortunately it is about two feet tall when blown up and it took up probably about half of the total tent volume. It filled up the entire floor of the tent and made it impossible to sit up without running into the ceiling... but it was comfy!!
After that, we set out for a short hike to Turner Falls and some of the surrounding caves. On the way there we discovered The Castle!! I was really excited about this. Some college professor built this place in the 30's for his summer home and Bar C Ranch Headquarters (I really don't know what that means). It was beautiful-- I'm wondering how much it would cost to buy the place and fix it up to live in it, except for the fact that it's in Oklahoma... never mind.

We continued on to the falls-- they were beautiful and it was a fun rocky hike up to the caves and to the top of the falls. I tried to be an artsy photographer-- one of my many aspirations-- although it's difficult when you have no training and a simple point and shoot camera...

Turner FallsThe view from a cave

Inside the cave. "Oooooohhh!"

It was really steep :)
Attempts at artsy-nessView from above the falls

That night we discovered our true callings in life-- Grant is the master fire maker and I am the master camping cook. After I successfully smothered Grant's fire about 5 times, I moved on to preparing the food and all was well. We had stuffing and mashed potatoes as well as campfire vidalias, but the main menu was foil dinners with ham, sweet potatoes and pineapple (with Grant's addition of marshmallows). For dessert we had Banana Boats-- it was super tasty and we were super full! We don't own a camp stove so all of this was done over the fire with pots from our local thrift store-- we were pretty proud!
Here's where I run out of pictures because the camera died... We slept pretty well that night. There was about an hour where we both couldn't sleep because it was too cold, but besides that it was really nice. We woke up and had hot chocolate and a campfire breakfast without a name (bacon, ham, and hash browns cooked with eggs topped with tomatoes and cheese). We packed up and Grant decided it was time to go swimming... Remember that freezing cold swimming hole we talked about earlier? We put our swim suits on and headed out to the water. It was literally an ice bucket. Grant slid in and stayed under for a couple of seconds while I held my hand over my mouth terrified and a couple hikers looked on, probably wondering when they would need to call an ambulance. I sat on the side of the pool for about 10 minutes (too long for the hikers to stick around). I finally got up the nerve to get in. I screamed before I went under and I screamed coming up. I think I was under for approximately .12 seconds because not even all my hair had time to get wet but I DID IT! I was very proud and I told Grant that he owed me something pretty special for getting in the water. (I got breakfast in bed this morning :))

It was definitely a good Thanksgiving-- a little different, a little turkey-less and pumpkin pie-less but still a good one. Now we can't wait until Christmas!!!