A Hayley Vacation: Day One

Here’s a funny thought: A city girl taking a vacation to the middle of nowhere. But that’s just what I did last week, thus the long pause on my blog. This week, I’ll catch you up on the experience.

Armed with 2 types of sunscreen, Deep Woods Off, bandaids and flip flops, I cautiously agreed to head into the countryside near a state park in Oklahoma. The goal was to rest and recharge.

Just getting to our cabin was an adventure. We drive through half-dead small town after another, vacant main street buildings a reminder of heydays long since past. As we cruise through one town, a local bank drive-through sign captures our attention. Today’s teller is “Bob or Jeff.” I guess it pays to keep some mystery in life.

Our mapped route takes us further into the unknown. Miles of twisting roads with no markings and hairpin turns. Our navigator, Stacie, urgently tells us to look for street signs so she can figure out where we are. Everyone glances at the gravel trails intersecting our path and rightly assume that there will be no street signs.

We resort to matching dry creek beds and cemeteries with squiggles on our maps. Two minor “which direction are we headed” panics, one stop to recheck the map and five chicken farm sheds later, we pull up in front of our little cabin in the woods.

Despite the mud-daubers, wasps, spiders, mosquitoes, biting flies, river gnats and cockroaches, it’s not so bad. It’s great, in fact. Air-conditioning, satellite TV, hot tub and a fully equipped kitchen – we aren’t exactly roughing it. This, my friends, is how I roll.

After quickly unpacking the car, we head back into town to grocery shop. Our excitement of driving with the convertible’s top down quickly fades as we drive down our dirt road past several commercial chicken farms.

The town’s grocery store has a great selection – you just have to be willing to bring in your own cart from outside the store and sack your own groceries. It’s not until several hours later that it strikes me as odd that we drove past four liquor stores to get to the town’s lone grocery store.

But this is what I've signed up for: rest, relaxation and, it seems, a little adventure.