Tulsa Travels & Wonderlust

Today has been... trying.

Bad News: My back up drive is corrupted, it doesn't work at all and when I took it to Best buy they quoted me from $300-$1,000 to get all my files extracted as it has to be sent to a specialist and literally be rebuilt piece by piece I guess. All of my old pictures and 95% of all my photography work is on it so  it's no surprise that I've been in tears today. However, fingers crossed, one of my grandpa's techy friends might be able to do it or I'm going to try other options.. I refuse to give up hope just yet.

Good News: I did book my 5 hour sea kayaking adventure with killer whales in the San Juan Islands today for my birthday! Since I wanted to see Kris as well, we decided that in August I would fly to Seattle, spend some time in San Juan to celebrate my birthday, and then drive down to Oregon to stay with Kris for a week before coming back home. I'm still looking at flights and hotels but at least the fun stuff is booked!

 I can't wait to see orcas wild and free up close in the ocean! 

Source

Today I'm going to put my daydreaming of oceans aside and share my visit to Tulsa OK with you guys! For my new readers who may not know, my parents and little brother moved to Tulsa my senior year of high school when my dad got a good job opportunity. Recently, my dad has been diagnosed with cancer so my grandmother and aunt have been visiting more to help my Mom out around the house and I went down a few weeks ago to see them.

My dad's parents use to live there too but then they moved to Ely NV when my grandmother got very sick and eventually passed. My parents moved into their place which is absolutely amazing. It's a wonderful big house with ten acres of beautiful green land and a huge pond, surrounded by dense forest. In my past visits to Tulsa, nothing ever came close to this. I never knew Oklahoma could be so... green! I totally fell in love with the place. 

As a lover of wildlife and not having much abundance of it here in Vegas, it was so cool to see an owl swoop over head at dusk and hear coyotes howling a mere few feet away from us in the darkness at night. We even saw a coyote crossing the road, they are pretty huge! My mom says they get deer a lot and although they have never seen raccoons or foxes, they find their tracks around the pond. My mom even had an armadillo in the yard once! Speaking of the pond, unfortunately you can't sit at the waters edge (like I wished) as it is occupied by quite a few large water moccasins which are very deadly.

I saw at least three of them swim back and forth across the pond, it was super creepy and that's coming from someone who likes snakes!

I inherited my passion for horses from my mom who bought horses the moment she could. It's much easier (and less expensive) having horses there then it is in Vegas so she jumped on the opportunity to finally have some. Her horses live in the barn behind the pond and have a huge rolling pasture (with a smaller pond) that they are let loose on during the summer. 

This is Stealth, the first horse my mom got. He's incredibly handsome and high spirited. I have a thing for black horses so I can't help but favor him just a little.

Dakota is a sweet boy and the horse I was riding while I was up there. The horses hadn't been ridden since October due to snow and bad weather so I got to be the lucky person to be first on Dakota's back. Just as my mother was telling Nana that she would put anyone on Dakota and feel safe about it, I had Dakota cantering but he wouldn't stop. He went flying towards the fence and then started bucking. I'm proud to say I managed to stay on for two bucks in my mother's huge western saddle before flying off and landing on my back. Quite an experience. Apparently he had some long overdue energy he needed to get out of his system even though I had already worked him in the round pen before I got on! My Mom told me when I got thrown off, Nana got a little pale and said "I need another drink" before heading back to the house for another glass of wine. Priceless.

My mom also has two new dogs since the ones I've known growing up have passed on.

Bella is a very old but sweet Westie that had a rough life. My mom got her from a rescue group and the poor thing walks as slow as a turtle. It's funny though because every once and awhile she will get this spark of energy and dash around the house or the yard before returning to her turtle ways. 

Gunnar is my absolute favorite and was my best friend up there. He's not even a year yet and is very much a puppy. He followed me everywhere and slept with me every night. Apparently he's been looking for me since I left which breaks my heart since I love that little dude. I did threaten to take him back on the plane home with me a dozen times but I guess it's just another good reason to visit again soon.

Coyote tracks!

It rained every day that I was there but always let up so I could get some riding in.

Nana helped herself to plenty of fresh strawberries from my mother's garden.

Yes, my parents even have ducks and chickens. My mom raised all of them by hand when they were babies and they all have names (which I can't remember). Surprisingly, the chickens are much friendlier then the ducks. They would let me pet them and eat frozen peas out of my hand while the ducks just quacked at me and waddled away. 

So that's my little home away from home. One day, I hope to live in a place just as wonderful as my parents house... Just not in Oklahoma. Tornados scare me to death.

Where have you been lately?

Got any travel plans?