Norman, OK
27 June 2007
75 deg, 75% hum, overcast, threat of thunderstorms

Friends of Charlie and Barbara ..

We are still in Norman, OK, if you think they’ve gotten lost. However B/C have lost track of Charlie’s aspiration to float north and south with the seasons following the 70 degree temperature curve.

The significant news has been the weather. Since we arrived more than two weeks ago we’ve had rain everyday except one; there is no drought here! And the heat and humidity! For the first time since buying their Lazy Daze RV six years ago they have been running the air conditioning which they find works well and makes life quite tolerable.

The upside of the weather has been the spectacular thunderstorms and television report of tornados. This is weather at it’s most dramatic which B/C fondly remember from their 10 years living in Norman, 1975-1985.

This post is principally about a campout, weekend before last, with the Spor family at Lake Murray State Park in south central Oklahoma. The Park is off I-35 below Ardmore, 25 miles north of the Red River (of the south) and Lake Texoma, the Oklahoma-Texas border.

Google oblique Earth view of Lake Murray. We stayed at the Buzzard Cove Campground one of many bordering the lake. I-35 is on the left, Ardmore in the upper left. Lake Murray is man-made, one of literally 1000’s now in the state.

Lake Murray, a small part of it, with a marina in the middle ground. Doesn’t this give you the sense of the stereotyped Oklahoma’s barren landscape? Upon their return C/B have been amazed at the beauty and growth in Oklahoma over the last 20 years; the landscape has been gentrified with nicely-maintained substantial subdivision homes and Norman even has 2 Wal-marts!

The eastern half of Oklahoma is covered with Black Jack Oaks and Bermuda Grass growing luxuriously in the state’s trade-marked red clay soil. Bermuda Grass isn‘t like lawn turf that you cut, it has roots 4-6’ deep so it isn’t effected by drought and near impossible to kill.

BTW, Oklahoma rainfall ranges from about 10” a year in the panhandle next to Colorado, to 180” a year in the southeast pine-timber region; Weyerhouser’s largest lumber mill is located there. Norman, in the middle of the state, has 35” of rain a year, the same as Seattle and Philadelphia but it seems to fall an inch at a time. Norman is also on the “ecotone” boundary between the eastern forests beginning on the Atlantic Coast, and the high plains grass lands of the western mid-west. The famous Chisholm cattle trail ran along the ecotone from Texas, through Norman and up to the rail-head at Dodge City, KS.

The Spor family at Lake Murray numbered 13 including younger grandkids, off somewhere in these pictures. You see that they are prepared for the weather including a very roomy fifth-wheel trailer.

From left to right in foreground: Leroy, a retired Norman Fire Marshall, their daughter Donna (2 sons including one in the Navy), Emma-Lou, then Barbara on the right. In the background are sons Eric, a Norman fireman (2 daughters) and Steven, with his wife Kristi, owner-operators of a large CAM machine shop.

Missing is Lisa, an interior designer with 3 daughters, and her husband, Mike a professional sports fisherman off in a fishing tournament on the Potomac.

B/C have known Emma-Lou and Leroy Spor since 1975 when their four children were children. Their family, to B/C, is the epitome of the traditional American family with strong extended-family ties, solid mid-western values and an exemplary Catholic faith. Emma-Lou and Leroy are Elizabeth’s god-parents.

The long weekend was spent swimming; here the Spor matriarchs: Donna, Lisa and Emma-Lou with Barbara in between.

Preparing for swimming; here Curtis, Donna’s husband and owner of a bail-bond company, repairing the family inter-tube. Barbara has been intrigued with Curtis' earlier occupation as a race horse trainer.

Boating on Curtis’ boat

Jet skiing on Steven‘s ski-doos; here being corralled by Steven and Curtis. Barbara enjoyed an exhilarating ride with Steve.

Eating; here Barbara with Scout patiently waiting for scraps.

Biding time with cross-word puzzles; that’s Leroy.

And just gabbing; Barbara's favorite.

What’s next: it is up in the air. Barbara has some doctor’s appointments this coming week for lower back pain left over from her rowing days. Depending upon that and their whim, we may be off for Wisconsin and some genealogy-ing.

… Humphrey, for Barbara and Charlie