Busy busy busy @ the Chicken Creek Classic

Wednesday & Thursday were overcast, rainy & chilly. We cut up a downed tree on Wes' property property and hauled in back in our truck. We have had two campfires burning for 3 or 4 days & evenings now. We went to Tahlequah Friday afternoon in a truck convoy and had GREAT pizza at Sam and Ellas Chicken Palace.

Today was a beautiful 65 and sunny day. Wes and his band of merry men (I wasn't one of them!) were outside at 5am firing up the smoker for 2 briskets & 4 sides of ribs. They smoked all day until we ate at 5pm. Wes takes his smoking very serious, glad he does as it's VERY good! There are 11 1/2 HitchHikers here, the 1/2 is Larry, a sheriff from Texas who drove 500 miles to be here; he hasn't yet taken delivery of his new home, he retires no later than next March & hits the road. We are having a great time with our fellow HitchHiker friends from across the USA as they head for their wintering sites in CA, AZ, TX & us in AL.

Chicken Creek Classic; Cookson, OK

We arrived at 11:15 this morning in the Chicken Creek Corps of Engineers park on Tenkiller Lake. I'm glad it was only 107 miles up & down hills into the wind, we averaged 7.3 mpg, a new record low towing. We were the fourth couple to arrive and we are expecting another 6 or 8 couples. This is our third time here. The trees are really turning colors down here and you can see it in the pictures. he cell phones and Internet access is working well but we are under a very large oak tree that is giving our TV satellite dish fits, maybe I can get Judy on the roof tomorrow to trim some limbs? The weather today has been great, all sunshine, mid 70s and a nice breeze so we all sat outside this afternoon chatting.

Cowboy Church

We went to a Cowboy Church this morning at the Flying Cow Arena. It's a very large pole building, 3/4 of it is a dirt floor arena. One corner had folding chairs and picnic tables set up in front of a large fireplace with a wood fire going. Also in the corner was a 4 cowboy band playing gospel music. That part of the building was on a cement floor but with the doors open we had a couple dogs wandering around during the loose & casual Southern Baptist service. I did say casual and loose didn't I? The service was 1 1/2 hours but they had tons of rolls and coffee & tea all the time. Brother Clint's sermon was were he laid down the law.....no one bad mouths his new church, you don't like it go away, the congregation's job was to visit with & bring in new members. There were 150 to 200 people in attendance. Oh, at the end we were all invited to go outside when Brother Clint was baptizing by immersion a new member....in the horse trough. We had to watch for cow & pies in the parking lot. Quite interesting.