Hi y'all,

I guess you can't go to Oklahoma and not pick up a little of lingo. Well, here is the post that Safari and Crossbow insisted I write.

As a matter of fact, they ganged up on me and did not give me a choice.

Oh hush Crossbow, just because I asked for your help doesn't mean you get to comment on every line.

Sigh Anyway, after a sleepless Friday night, due to nerves on meeting the family and anticipation of seeing Crossbow again, Saturday arrived and I was on my way to O'Hare.

Arriving at the airport on time was the only thing that went right.

I arrived at the airport at 6am to drop off a friend catching a 7am flight, which took off on time, then hung around to catch my 8:45am flight. At around 8:15 we hear an announcement that our plane had a problem and we had to wait for a plane to arrive from Montreal at 10:30 and our new departure time was 11:00am. I called Oklahoma to advise Crossbow. I left a message for him to call back on the payphone, which he does after his sister reminds him to call 30 min. later.

We talked until it was time to board the plane. Literally, as soon as I replaced the receiver instead of calling out row numbers to board they announced the plane had developed a faulty windshield on the way from Montreal and needed to be fixed. After 45 min. we were advised repairs would take too long and so they are putting us on another plane which was leaving from another gate at the opposite end of the airport. When we get to the other gate we were advised we now only had to wait for a flight crew. Finally we were able to board and take off.

Arrival time in Tulsa was 2pm, a mere 3 1/2 hours late; but all the aggravation was forgotten though when I saw Crossbow waiting for me.

But our travel adventure does not end there-trying to get our rental car brought us on a tour of Tulsa airport via the Thrifty shuttle bus. I was told by the Thrifty agents in Chicago to get on the Thrifty shuttle and the bus would take us to our car and rental office. Well that's not how

they do it in Tulsa as we were to find out. The driver takes us to the lot and asks us which car is ours, imagine that we get to choose! :)

No really what happened is he took us to their valet parking where you can park your own vehicle, when we explained that we were renting a car he stated that we needed to go back to the terminal and the car would be there. So after another ride we ended up back to where we started.

The good thing was they gave us a nice white Jeep Grand Cherokee. Cool!

As I was getting the car, crossbow called Safari for directions so we could meet for lunch. Safari gave Crossbow excellent directions; too bad we could not follow them. Crossbow kept telling me to go west instead of east so we found ourselves turning around 3 times. Now Crossbow would have us believe that this was due to lack of sleep on his part; he stayed up all Friday night to make sure he would not miss my flight, but we all know men just can't follow directions. :)

We finally found Safari!!!! After lots of hugs we go and have lunch at Arby's while stories are relayed and catching up is done.

After a wonderful but all to short a visit Crossbow and I hit the road again and headed for Muskogee, this time we only had to turn around once.

We finally get to our hotel and found messages waiting for us. Muscogee Creek Nation Bingo (the Natives spell it different from the Anglos) was on for Saturday night. So after taking a shower we went to Bingo....

(OK enough of that, EVERYTHING does not need to be discussed)...where I met Mom, Jan (Crossbow's sister)

and his Aunt Connie.

Unfortunately none of us won, even though Crossbow had one winner but did not catch it in time.

After the 2nd time Crossbow should have been an expert at bingo, but anyway, after Bingo we went to Jan's house where I met Ryan who is 5 and Abby who is 3. They promptly adopted me, and we had a nice visit.

We then went to meet his Aunt Kathy who is a dispatcher for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

She was also the first female officer to work for the Muskogee Police Department, which is quite an honor.

Aunt Kathy was great and she had Crossbow blushing all the way to his toes. I'll let him tell you why.

We finally get back to the hotel around 2am.

(I said HUSH!!)

Sunday brought an early morning wake up so we could go to Sunday Service with the family. Yes everyone Crossbow was awake by 8am!

We went to pick up Ryan and Abby for services where Ryan promptly jumped into the front seat and told Crossbow he had to sit in the back. Crossbow removed him and put him in the back with false promises that they could sit next to me in church.

When we arrived at church the kids were taken to a classroom to keep them occupied during service, they were not happy. After church we went to lunch, at a really nice steakhouse called Golden Corral, where I met more family.

This is where I met Uncle Chuck; he is the character of the bunch.

After lunch we went to Wal-Mart to get a birthday present for Tiffany, Crossbow's oldest niece, who turned 16 a couple of weeks before, and whose birthday he had forgotten.

While leaving the store I see this big black truck coming up behind me and getting very close; I am about to turn around with some choice words when I see an arm hanging out the window grabbing for me. Now me being from Chicago, that usually means someone trying to steal your purse and warrants a slug or worse. Just as I am about to let loose I recognize the arm as belonging to Uncle Chuck. Would that not have been a great meeting, me slapping someone from Crossbow's family on the 2nd day? :)

Crossbow then drove us out to Eufala where we were going to watch his oldest sister, Jackie, play softball. He only managed to make two wrong turns on the way and only put the jeep on two wheels once.

We arrived between games and so did not get to see her play and then left to early to see her almost get into a fight with a very large person from the other team.

I would have been there too, sweetheart, you think I'm going to let someone hurt you? I wonder if they have co-ed cells?

We then went back to the hotel where we were to meet up with the family again because we were all going to go swimming. When we arrived at the pool there were kids in the pool already including a very rambunctious 15 year old boy named Brent.

Brent introduced himself to Crossbow by pushing him and his niece Tiffany into the pool for no reason other than to do it. He then proceeded to cannonball into the pool just barely missing me and coming way to close to little Abby. Shortly after this I was standing by Mom and Crossbow talking, when Brent decided that I needed to be pushed in the pool too At this point I thought we were going to have to bail Crossbow out of jail....

...,but he remained calm and only grabbed Brent and threw him into the pool ,then had a discussion with him about why it would benefit him to leave us alone. After swimming we changed and then started playing some games and cards until about 4am.

We were supposed to get up early and visit Grandma and say our good-byes then meet Safari to go bowling. This time Crossbow would not get up and never even realized when I got up at 7:30am showered, packed, loaded the jeep and went to get coffee.

When I returned at around 10:30 am he did not even realize I was gone but he did now get up but we were behind schedule and so had to cancel bowling with Safari -: ( sigh-

After visiting Grandma and saying a tearful goodbye to his mom, sisters, nieces and nephews we made it out of Muskogee.

I found Crossbow's family to be very warm and wonderful people; and while yes Crossbow and Jan do like to argue.....

...that is because they are very much alike and just know which buttons to push to really piss each other off. Crossbow is also the first one to come to their defense if someone talks ill of them within the family.

We made it back to Safari's house by 3pm-without getting lost- YAY! We visited and Crossbow was able to get a computer fix- talk about a happy reunion. :)

Safari is a wonderful hostess and I only wish we had more time to visit together. You will just have to come to Chicago now Safari!

We then realized the time and we all rushed out the door to get to the airport. Once there we dropped off the car while Safari parked hers. When we were all checked in Safari realized she forgot her wallet and drivers license at home. Don't worry Safari I'll bail you out of a parking garage anytime. :)

After a few drinks it was boarding time. More sad good-byes and our adventures were over. The flight home was on time and, except for Crossbow's fear of flying, the flight was uneventful. What I now need to know is how Crossbow will make an 8 1/2 hour plane ride to Europe to meet my family, when he had a hard time on a 1 1/2 hour flight?