I had phoned my friend, Ed, to inform him that I was heading his way. I wasn't sure if I would have much time to spend with him since Teressa was bringing friends with her. I wasn't sure if our schedules and interests would mesh.
But as I drove across the Wildlife refuge, I came upon three riders...
It was Ed and two of his riding buddies, Tom and Mario! We stopped and chatted for a while. I told Ed that I would determine my schedule with Teressa and see what we could do. At the very least, we could go grab a bite to eat together.
I arrived at Camp Doris to find that Teressa had gone home already. Evidently, we had crossed our wires somewhere. And this time we were both blonde. I thought that she was staying a day longer. She thought I was coming a day earlier. So as I was driving in, she was driving out!When I found that Teressa had already gone, I immediately phoned Ed and informed him that it was now his sole duty to entertain me for the next day or two.
"Well, we're sitting around drinking wine and eating peanuts," he told me. "We'll save you some peanuts. Come on over!"
Ed has a small cabin near Lake Lawtonka in Medicine Park. A carpenter by trade, he built the cabin himself. It is so cute! We sat around drinking wine from a box, eating peanuts, and discussing everything under the sun. They were surprised to learn that I was inclined to lean toward a liberal view of things, particularly politics and religion. Everyone always seems to be amazed by this. Even Ed seemed surprised. "Considering where you're from..," they always add. I'm never quite sure what that phrase means.
"What do you mean by that?" I ask.
"Well, I don't know," Ed stammered. "Idabel just seems like it wouldn't produce very many liberals or open-minded people."
"We do have to keep a low profile," I told him. "But we exist quietly, in the shadows. And I don't think Idabel is what you imagine."
Tom looked around the room.
"That makes four liberals - in one small room - at the same time - in Oklahoma," he observed. "I expect the National Guard to break the door down any moment."
We all laughed, but there was a tiny moment of unease while we glanced at the door...
"All right, time to make plans for tomorrow!" I decided.
We discussed possibilities. I didn't bring any bikes, thinking that I would be with Teressa and her gang, so biking was out. That left hiking...
"I still want to find that cave up on Elk Mountain," I told them.
"Oh, you like caves?" Tom asked. He went on to tell me of a cave that we could visit the next day. I learned that Tom is the foreman of a huge ranch in the area. A transplanted Englishman, he loves his Queen and tea. He's also quite a storyteller, one of those people who remember almost everything they read...facts, numbers, everything. And something about his voice, that accent...it was vaguely familiar...
"It was you! You left a message on my phone one time!" I said. "Something about 'polishing canoes' and 'fishing'!" I remembered now - I had spoken to him before while talking to Ed on the phone. I learned that this was when I received most of my phone calls from Ed, while sitting around in smelly bike clothes, drinking wine and eating peanuts...that's when they thought of me! How endearing! I feel so loved!
In fact, they made many phone calls while drinking wine after bike rides. The most recent was to a televangelist. Tom called to make inquiries about his upcoming fortune.
"I've sent you all me money," he told them. "And now I'm just wonderin' when my fortune will start rolling in. The children are gettin' hungry..." Oh brother! I think they have the televangelist on speed dial and call him often. It is their preferred form of entertainment.
The next day I arrived at Ed's and we drove over to Tom's place. He insisted that we have a cup 'o tea before we leave. This was the best tea I've ever had. It's called Builder's Tea and, according to Tom, it is the only tea to drink. It comes in strange little triangular bags and must be steeped an exact amount of time at an exact temperature. I can't remember all the rules, but the result was an excellent cup of tea!
I also learned that we would be doing chores before visiting the cave. First we had to feed and water the cows. Tom used a tractor to load a monstrous bale of hay onto the back of the truck, while his dogs watched closely. You could see that they were ready to go somewhere.
"You should see how Tom has these dogs trained," Ed told me. Sure enough, if Tom told them to stay, they would lie down and not move a muscle. But those eyes would be watching his every move. When he gave the signal, they would jump up, happy to be moving again.
"He once put a piece of steak on that dog's nose and told him not to eat it," he said. "We went in the house and came out quite a while later and that dog was still sitting there with that steak on his nose!" I was impressed. I worked with Dumpster some and had him trained to sit, but I don't know if he would ever have done the steak thing. It was easy to see, though, that Tom loved his animals, even though they were obviously working dogs too. However, they would not be coming along on this trip.We made a short detour to one of the barns to look at Tom's airplane, a work in progress. It was beautiful indeed. I also drooled a bit over his time trial bike - very nice!
Soon we were on our way to feed the cows. According to Tom, these were heifers who had their first calf this year. He drove that truck across terrain that had me gritting my teeth. That is one tough truck! We finally arrived on top of a ridge looking down at the cows below. The sound of petulant mooing wafted up to us.
"Hang on, girls, I'm coming!" Tom yelled out to them. We drove down a seemingly impassable road to the watering trough below. Then I was put into the driver's seat to creep along while Tom and Ed threw the hay off the back. When the truck was empty, we stopped to admire our handiwork. A small group of cows and calves stood nearby, watching us warily.
Tom turned to me and grinned. "I also have these cows trained," he bragged, eyes twinkling. "They will kneel down on their front legs at my command."
Now this I would have to see to believe.
"I've never heard of anyone training cows," I said skeptically. Ed shrugged and raised his eyebrows as if to say "I have no idea". Tom turned slowly toward the group of wary cattle. Their eyes watched him closely, bodies tense.
"Okay, girls," he spoke to them softly, moving very slowly with hand raised. "We've been working on this. I want you to all kneel together. But only on the count of three. Just like we practiced. No premature knee-bending now, girls. I want to be proud of you...." He continued speakingsoftly to them, barely keeping a straight face or the laughter out of his voice. Their large cow eyes were studying him, transfixed. I was thinking that this guys spends waaay too much time with his cows when he suddenly threw his hands out and yelled sharply.
All the cows were so startled that their front legs went weak and buckled immediately! The effect looked like a chorus line of kneeling cows! It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. But then I am easily amused!
Finally, we were off to the cave. This particular cave was on ranch property, nestled between the giant windmills that dominate the landscape north of the wildlife refuge. I've always wanted to see one of these windmills up close and this was my chance. These things are huge!
We stood directly below the giant blades as they turned, listening to the eerie "whoosh" as they passed overhead. Awesome!
The roads connecting the windmills would also make for some great mountain biking someday!Tom turned the truck off the road and proceeded across the field toward a crease in the landscape. Again, the ability of this truck to navigate the boulders hidden in the tall grass was incredible. Any moment, I expected to hear a disastrous 'crunch' from under the truck, but it kept going. I just hoped we could make it out without high-centering on a boulder!
We stopped close to a barbed-wire fence, gathered all the gear, and followed Tom over to the entrance of the cave. We had been racing the clock to get here before nightfall. Hopefully, we would be able to get back out before too late. Getting out of here at night could be tricky.
Several metal rods were mounted across the opening of the cave. These were used to tie off to in order to lower yourself down. I looked over the edge into the abyss. A rock ledge protruded about 30 feet below, and beyond that, only darkness.
We could rappel down. Climbing out could be done in a pinch, but it would be difficult and dangerous. Tonight we would be winched out by Tom, who would stay above ground while Ed and I explored the cave below. Evidently, one of Tom's duties as ranch foreman was to provide guided tours to the cave."You guys gear up while I set up the winch," Tom instructed.
It had been a while since I had strapped myself into a climbing harness, but it quickly came back to me. As I finished, I looked up to see Ed above me, struggling to figure out where everything went. At that moment I learned that he had never rappelled before. It occurred to me that allowing your friends to tie you to a rope and drop you into a cave signifies the height of trust!
Soon enough though, we were on our way! I lowered myself to the bottom, followed by Ed. Our equipment included lights and a walkie-talkie to communicate with Tom up above. We found one of the passageways that Tom had told us about earlier. It disappeared into the darkness below and I could see my light reflecting off the dark water at the bottom. According to Tom, you could dive under the water down there and come up into a secret room on the other side. It was far too cold tonight to test that theory, though.
We inspected some of the tiny bats clinging to the walls. I tried not to get too close or brush up against them, remembering that bats are frequent carriers of rabies. We also found a colorful frog, but I didn't have my camera. We slogged around for a while, and then it was time to go back up, hopefully before complete darkness. We tied back up to the ropes, one attached to the winch, the other tied to one of the iron bars above. While Tom ran the winch, we would need to keep the slack out of the rappelling rope for safety. If the winch rope failed, we would still have the rappelling rope for support.
I tied in and Ed radioed up to begin hoisting. Slowly, the rope began to tighten and I began to inch my way up the wall. I had gone about 5 feet when movement stalled. The bats were waking up and getting hungry. An occasional bat would fly past my ear, heading up into the night to feed. We had joked earlier that Tom, being English and absolutely rabid about tea times, would leave us dangling while he had his evening tea.
After some radio communication, we learned this was not the case, that he was just having difficulty juggling the rope and the winch on uneven ground alone. We learned that he usually had two people performing this task. I eventually made my way back to the top, in fits and starts. I unclipped and set up to help Tom get Ed back up. It was definitely a two-man job. He explained that he had used both hands, one foot, and his teeth to get me out.
As we began pulling Ed out, Tom began telling me about riding bikes with Ed.
"We make plans to ride and I work my butt off to get finished working in time," he complained. "But if we plan to ride at 5 pm, and I arrive at 5:06, he is already gone. I have to ride like mad to catch him. He calls it tough love..."
The winch stalled. His eyes were twinkling.
"Tough love," he called out to Ed below, who was now within hearing distance. I heard Ed yell back something about the tightness of the climbing harness and an inability to have children in the future.
Despite Tom's maniacal desire for payback, we did eventually haul Ed out of the darkness. By now, the sky had turned to dark purple, the wind had picked up, and the windmills were humming!
We quickly gathered the gear and headed back to the truck.
Driving out of the boulder-strewn field was quite an experience after dark. After several route changes, we made our way back onto the road next to the windmills. Then we made another stop at one of ranch houses on the property."You have to see the Spring House and see some of Ed's handiwork," Tom said. The site had once been a public swimming area in the 20's and 30's, I think. Ed had been hired to help turn the old concession stand into a vacation home for the ranch owners.
This place was fabulous. The original beams still crossed the ceiling and the effect was stunning. There are not many houses I am jealous of, but this one was beautiful. Not too big, and the back door opened onto a rock patio that overlooked the rebuilt swimming area. I could see that Ed is a talented carpenter! We hung around, drank a glass of wine, and then locked up and drove out.
Later, Tom handed me a huge bag of Builder's Tea as we were leaving his house. Free Tea is not technically free 'food', but it's close enough!
Ed offered to buy my dinner since I didn't allow Tom to inflict 'tough love' and leave him in the cave. Of course I accepted. More Free Food! He took me to a place in Medicine Park called The Old Plantation. It was built a hundred years ago as an Inn and is now a restaurant. I had Salmon on a Plank. I know, it sounds weird, but it was wonderful. I will certainly dine there again someday!
I returned to my tent at Camp Doris, well-fed and exhausted. After a good night's sleep, I arose to begin my drive home. Missing Teressa had been disappointing, but getting to spend the weekend with Tom and Ed was certainly a satisfying Plan B!!
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