Arbuckle Mountains, OK (USA)

We went to visit the Arbuckle Mountains in Oklahoma today. I'd been there earlier in the month and seen several things that I wanted to visit again with the kids. Erin & Brenna wanted to hang out with friends, so it was just me and Mollie. We left around 1145 and headed north on I-35. It only took a little more than an hour and a half to get to the first exit into the mountains (town of Davis). Our first stop was the Arbuckle Wilderness - a drive-through safari we've seen signs for on the highway several times. The only problem ended up being the HUGE line to get in. There were so many people that we waited in our car in the parking lot (line snaked through like at Disney World!) for over an hour. When we finally made it into the park, though, it was well worth the delay! We saw all kinds of animals - even a white tiger! The animals weren't frantic or pushy like at other parks, so we had to coax them over to the car. We fed an ostrich, some emus, llamas and water buffalos. Other cars got luckier - zebras and giraffes. There were so many interesting animals - wild and rare! Mollie was very excited to see they had Przewalski's Horses (she says they are very rare and that she hadn't seen them at other parks because they seem to be shy). These animals actually walked over to the fence and we got some great video. We were in the park for almost two hours. We wanted to get some souvenirs but the line was too long... We then headed over to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area to try to get Mollie's Junior Ranger badge - we arrived just as the rangers were leaving. Still, we took a nice walk to Antelope and Buffalo springs and Mollie completed the workbook anyway. We saw lots of people swimming in the creeks throughout the park - wish we had brought a bathing suit... We'll have to go back! We did see the bison in the park - that was fun, too. Our next planned stop was Turner Falls. It turned out to be another long line and it was clear we wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the park's amenities. Postponed it for a future visit. Instead, headed back into Davis and had dinner at Pizza Hut. Mollie and I had great conversation all day long today and we enjoyed another nice talk during our leisurely meal. It was just getting dark when we headed home on I-35 again. Things were going OK until near Ardmore, when we came across a dead-stop traffic jam. Luckily, we were able to get off at a nearby exit and we turned onto US-77 (parallels the interstate) - about 15 minutes later we were ahead of the traffic jam and made it across the Red River without further delay. We stopped to pick up kolaches for Nicky and the twins at Rumpy's (mmm...). One last highlight of the day was when we saw fireworks in the distance near Denton (not sure what it was...). Home around 2100L.