Road Trip!

This weekend Colleen and I are going to a tiny town called Skiatook right outside Tulsa, OK. We are to visit a side of the family that never gets to get together. It just doesn't happen very often, so when it does we make the best of it.

Jack and Jamie (unce and aunt) homesteaded in the wilderness. That meant they were almost given five acres of land with the promise that they would keep it up and and develope it. Jack's a rough mountain man and Jamie personifies everything John Denver and Jimmy Buffett ever wrote. They have an amazing piece of land. The house sits on the top of a hill and slopes to the back where they have a water inlet. On the other side of the water are foothills covered in trees. It's an amazing place. But it IS in the wilderness. They don't get cable, cell phone reception or city water because it's too far out. Jack has a water truck that he uses to bring city water to their well. It's a different life than that of suburbia.

And they are into folk music. Jack plays the upright bass, but only with the aid of Mr. Jack Daniels. Arthritis has taken over his hands, and he can only loosen them up after he's had a few. Jamie plays the mandolin and sings. This weekend they've called all their friends ("pickers" they call them) in for a night of music out on the tiki-themed porch...it's their very own margaritaville. They've got a fire pit, a hot tube, the hula doll christmas lights...even an outdoor tiki bar. (Appropriate because they at one time made their own beer and wine).

Colleen has never experienced this side of the family before. It promises to be a good time.