Lost in Oklahoma

“Hey honey, I’m thinking that the girls and I will go with you to Camp Lu-Jo next week, it isn’t very far is it?” says me. “No it isn’t far, maybe two and a half hours (2 ½). That would be great!” says he.

Now we travel a lot, and I do mean a lot. Our girls are car trip pros. So 2 ½ hours is like a drive around the block for us. We did not want to spend another day away from him after he was gone the whole week before at another camp, there was supposed to be fireworks at the end of the day, and air conditioned buildings. We were in!

We were in for a very (read: how in the world did a 2 ½ hour drive turn into that?!?) long day. Keep reading, this could be fun.

First, a brief recap of the morning as we got ready to leave: Chaos. As every single day is when we try to get all 4 of us out of the house at the same time. It is supposed to get easier as my three, I mean two, kids get older, but it seems to just get more difficult. Our almost 3 year old decides she can no longer dress herself, does not know where her shoes are, and just wants to be held. Our sweet almost 6 month old is, well, a baby, so she thinks she needs to nurse, have her diaper changed, and the girl still cannot dress herself. Then we have our almost 31 year old who cannot find his clothes and wants to insist that I must have done something with them. Finally we have everyone dressed, a bag packed for the girls, and the boy goes to start up the car and get the GPS rolling.

Oh, the GPS. The GPS that apparently had Camp Lu-Jo saved as a favorite at one point. The GPS that someone took and deleted that favorite location (hint: it was me). The GPS. 

He was not too happy when he could not find the camp saved as a favorite. So I am rushing to get the girls ready and out the door and he has to come back in to find an address. Camp Lu-Jo does not have a tangible, let’s plug this into the GPS, address. “Why did you delete the address?” says he. “I don’t know what you are talking about” says me. “Well, it isn’t in here anymore” says he. “Oh, ummm” says me. “Guess we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way” says he. Exit me. And the girls.

My Man and Our Oldest

Now we are all in the car, J.J. found some coordinates and plugs those in the GPS while stating, “this should get us close, at least.” Off we go. That is how our 2 ½ hour drive began. Of course behind schedule and with just a tad bit of tension in the air. That was just about 10:15 in the morning.

The drive was nice and smooth, we get into Oklahoma and onto the I-44 turnpike, we scrounge up $1.50 at the end of it, stop to get more cash at a gas station, and go to a McDonalds that I never want to go to again. Life is good and we are almost there.

Ha.

His Road Trip Snack

Off we go again. Our handy dandy GPS does what it was made to do and bosses us right along and at some point we end up in Lawton, OK. “Hey, don’t we know someone who lives or used to live in Lawton?” says me. “Yes, I wonder if that is the church he worked with,” says he. And we keep going. “Um, honey,does any of this look familiar to you?” says me. “Did you go through a Wildlife Refuge when you came up here last year?” says me.

It did not. He did not.

Yes, well, I guess this is pretty and a bonus. I was not expecting to drive through a wildlife refuge on our way to camp. Everything was still good at this point, now we were a bit confused, but it was still good. Then we see a bunch of cars stopped ahead of us and a huge black rock on the side of the road. Then that rock turned into a huge buffalo on the side of the road. Okay, so it was most likely already a buffalo. Anywho, the thing was huge. Monkey see, monkey do, so we also stop to take pictures. While he is trying to snap a shot this huge monstrosity starts kicking and nudging in the dirt and we are straight in its path. Now I am talking a small 2 lane road and he is on the shoulder of the other lane looking right at us. I am almost positive I even heard him think “Oh, look at that beautiful blue Highlander. I bet I can flip that. You all got your cameras ready?” I did not wait around to find out.

See? Right at us.

Off Road

Full of adrenaline, we keep plugging along. The next turn our nice GPS tells us to take is down a dirt road. He says he remembers dirt roads from last year, so we are not too concerned. Then we see this on our GPS: In 1.7 miles turn right onto Off Road. I am not feeling too good about this. 1.7 miles come and there is no road at Off Road, but there is a fence. Now it was at this point that our Australian accented direction giver starts talking to her British counterpart and I am certain the conversation went something akin to A: I just do not know where to take them next. B: That is hilarious! What are you going to do? A: Probably nothing. These poor American chumps. B & A: Haaahahahaha. 

Then the GPS quits even trying.

Well, we are just a little lost, we think. Surely, we are close by. How about we try to call someone at camp to see if they can help us out? No one answers. Okay, how about we reset the GPS? Now it says we are 4 hours away from our destination. What?!? Where are we?

He gives me some street names that should be near the camp. While I am plugging those into the GPS, he is messing with his phone trying to find some sort of directions. Hey look, this road ahead of us is paved and looks like a main road. “Go right” he says. 

I go left.

“Where are the directions you printed off?” says me. “I didn’t print any off” says he. “I thought you said we were going to do this the old fashioned way” says me. “Yeah, the directions are on my phone” says he. “That isn’t old fashioned, honey” says me. “Well, if you hadn’t deleted the saved address” says he. “But you should have planned ahead and known where we were going” says me. “I didn’t need to because I had it saved as a favorite from last year” says he. “Well, you should have printed off directions” says me. “Why would I when it was supposed to be saved? You were the one that deleted it” says he. “How could you not remember any of this?” says me. “You deleted it” says he. 

Notice he only had one point in his argument arsenal. :)

So off we go, left, on this road and we see a sign that says Lawton is ahead of us. “Yeah, this must be the right direction because the camp is south of Lawton. “ says he. I say nothing. Nothing. And he stays quiet on that point too. We are finally on the right path and get to the camp at about 4:00 p.m. Our 2 ½ hour drive only took almost 6 hours, not bad, right?

Me & My Girls

We had a great time at camp. Addie made some new friends, we got to visit with old friends, we heard a good lesson, and were able to see some neat fireworks. We left there at 10:30 p.m. and made it down the road about 20 minutes and got onto the I-44 Turnpike. We were only about 20 minutes away when we paid our toll on the way up! We made it home at 1:30 a.m., with a few stops for gas and food. That was 3 hours. ;)

On our way home, I feel it has been long enough since our discussion earlier that I could now ask him a question. “Hey, remember when we were talking while we were lost that you mentioned the camp was south of Lawton?” says me. “Yes. As soon as it came out of my mouth I realized what I had said” says he. 

What are your fun and funny "lost" stories?

~ Lisa