"Won’t you get hip to this timely tip: when you make that California trip..."
Our first night on the road was planned for a cowboy tent adventure at the Flying W Guest Ranch in Sayre. Upon arrival we enjoyed a boardwalk conversation with our host, Don Whinery, where we both bragged about how great the weather was and even though the threat of rain was hovering nearby, we seemed to be in for a continuation of a dry spell that has the ponds on the ranch down over 100 inches.
10 minutes later, as we were moving our gear into our canvas cowboy tent, the clouds of ironic vengeance opened up and let loose with a torrent of the wet stuff.
Drip, drip, drip went the tent. Sop, sop, sop went the tourist. Wring, wring, wring went the towels.
So much for the 8 year dry spell.
We gathered our gear into the center, thinking the rain would let up and we could sleep in relative dryness later that night. We then we "mosied" up to the little western town on the ranch for a buffalo steak dinner at Sassy's Cafe.
The buffalo ribeyes were outstanding, fried green beans, garlic mashed spuds, and a berry cobbler to email home about. Sassy's is the cowboy bomb.
While slurping the final drips of decaf, the floodgates opened.
We stood, bellies fully and appetites suppressed, on the boardwalk outside the cafe, watching the dirt road turn to a dirt river, and raising eyebrows as we tried to calculate how best to cross the rapidly flowing river that used to be the main street of the western town.
The rain was so unbelievably heavy that my clothes were soaked in the 10 seconds it took me to cross the river and get into the car.
Needless to say, our after dinner priorities involved retrieving our soggy camping belongings from the rain soaked cowboy tent, slip and sliding our non-4-wheel drive import car out of the mud, and heading straight for the nearest motor lodge with a flashing vacancy sign.
We spent the rest of that uneventful night in a Travelodge of questionably quality in nearby Elk City, listening to the weather outside our window and hoping the down sleeping bags we borrowed from my F-i-L weren't ruined.
The next day we learned that a flash flood had occurred in the stream near our tent and the other occupants camping near us had to be evacuated soon after we left.
Parting words from our host that night were, "here's a spring break your girls won't soon forget."
Next up, experiencing all that Elk City had to offer.
