First off Wow... Follow Eric is really doing something to get this old guy to start a blog page. With that said here we go :o)
Let's see a road trip could be defined as a journey on roads to some place or destination. Usually of course a road trip is so much more than that......
The Naive Start...My trip starts a ways back in life when Melodie and I decided to take a road trip to Turner Falls near Davis, OK. You see this was within the first year (1993) of our lives together which makes things much more interesting of course. I am pretty sure it was my idea to enjoy nature up close and buy a small tent for our housing accommodations. The tent idea was no doubt against Melodie's better judgement. I learned to listen to her better judgement a bit more later in life, I was young at this point and the man so this was no time to listen to better judgment. Well we got the tent at Wally-World, so you know it was a good one, and headed on out for our journey to be remembered. On our way south from OKC we were able to pickup a radio station from Dallas in the old white Chevrolet Baretta. This was no ordinary radio station it was playing music from our favorite group Depeche Mode and the weekend was labeled a butt-load-of-Depeche-Mode so all was awesome. This was really cool except I quickly thought well I missed the boat on this one because here we were going camping when Depeche Mode was playing a concert within an hour of our destination. Oh well, this was just one of my many over-sites as a young man.... we could just make the best of it right. We pressed on toward our road trip destination thoroughly enjoying the super awesome radio station. We arrived at Turner Falls and it was a beautiful day, the water fall was wonderful and it reminded Melodie of her days growing up in Arkansas. Score one for young Tim, things were looking up. It quickly came time to setup camp and we decided why setup around a bunch of neighbors so we found a patch of ground near some cedars that I am pretty sure was the highest point in the area. We worked a bit but before we knew it the "quick and easy" tent was up and ready to provide us rookies some shelter. There was a slight chill in the air and it made for a good start to the nights sleep. Sometime after we both were asleep an amazing and thunderous lightning bolt hit nearby. That was the beginning of a thunder and lighting show that started the next coming of the great flood. You may remember that we found a nice spot on top of a hill, which made us much closer to the storm, getting close to nature you see. If you have not experienced a thunder storm in a tent or cabin on top of a mountain or tall hill it is a shocker, lets just say super powerful. Back to the rain.... we found out that a new tent is not necessarily leak proof on its own. There is something called a seam sealant that the nice salesperson left out of the sales pitch during the tent purchase. Needless to say we had a bit of a water problem, should we pack up or what? No way, we were having a great night of sleep and no way water was going to stop that. We had to huddle up (which I was sad about of course) in the middle of the tent and press the edges down to pond the water. I think we may have even unzipped the door a bit to allow the water to run out. Well we survived the night but what would the day have in store for us?
Day 2... We rolled out of the tent sometime before noon met by a super bright sun. We decided to wander over towards the river/falls to see what was up. As we came out of our seclusion we started to notice something odd was up. There were crowds of young adults (16-22) pretty much in total anarchy. It almost seemed normal but it was much more than just a few rowdy teenagers they were not happy and we didn't feel too good about it. We soon found out that the little bridge we crossed to get to the camp grounds was completely under water. By the way this little bridge was the only way to exit the camp grounds so no way out. Mind you we weren't planning on leaving that morning but when you have no choice your mindset changes pretty rapidly. So here we are trapped above the falls with a bunch of crazy people freaking out because they cannot leave. The crazies only had one form of hydration and it was in the form of alcohol so I wasn't thinking they were going to calm down anytime soon. Melodie and I tried to make the best of it, we hiked around and saw some amazing sights. One of the most memorable was another couple that wanted to be a bit more secluded than us and had a tent setup near the raging river. Now and then you would see the dude unzip the tent that was totally drenched from the water spray just to pull in the beer that he had tied to the end of a rope in the river. I think we spent a good portion of our time watching this display of awesomeness trying not to draw any attention to ourselves, remember there were crazies among us. After about 5 hours of being trapped I am pretty sure the crazies were beginning to start up their own form of "me first" government and claim the mountain and anything on it as theirs. Melodie and I would hide out now and then and open some food to eat, watching our backs of course.... Yes it was that crazy. About the time the newly formed crazy government was about to take over we were saved with news that the water had receded enough to leave, that is if you have a higher profile vehicle. That news was enough to temper the crazies down and the takeover was thwarted, Thank God.
We survived... The crazies started to thin out so that was a major relief but we were not able to leave just yet. The old Baretta was just a little to low to the ground. We ended up waiting at least 6 hours that day to be able to leave, which thinking back doesn't seem too bad. Once we were out of the mayhem of course we were able to reflect and had a few laughs on our way home. Although, I have yet to get Melodie back to a camp ground in a tent (secretly I am not a tent man myself as if you couldn't tell) we will most definitely never forget that road trip. We often refer to it and as time goes on, it has become a memory that we laugh at and enjoy together. So to me this road trip was not the best time of our lives but it was very memorable. So basically good or bad most road trips seem to become bigger than just a trip to do or see something. If your lucky they just may become a memory to call on from time to time where you can relive the good parts. I appreciate that road trip today and look forward to our next adventure.
