04-23-11 - Fire Lake

04-23-11
Who wants to take that long shot gamble
And head out to fire lake
207.2 miles
I pack the car and leave as late as I dare from the motel in Van Buren. I give Mischa a shampoo and rinse before we head off so she will be clean again for at least a little while. I cross the Oklahoma border before 1pm and am at the “Welcome Center” 24 miles in around 1:30, loaded with info about Muskogee/Tulsa/Route 66/ Downtown Oklahoma City and the national memorial site. I check the weather and decide Muskogee and Tulsa are too risky to chance just for a music themed photo opp and head west to Oklahoma Ciy and beyond if necessary to get past the rain. I drive thru heavy rains and lightning till I pass Shawnee and am approaching the outskirts of Oklahoma City. I stop at an off ramp near Tinker AFB because I spot a Chic Fil-A for internet access.
After getting gas I find that there is a Jack in the Box! Apparently they’d just opened a few months ago and there are a few more opening soon around the Oklahoma City area! (Civilization!)
It seems to indicate that rain will not be a factor here and so I look for gas and a campsite. There is one further west called Red Cliffs but one closer about 5 miles back and 15 south called Lake Thunderbird.
I get to the park around 8pm and am thinking it’s closed because of a locked gate. I realize shortly that it is just a closed access road only open to park employees and I’m just at the park entry and not yet near the campgrounds. (every park does it differently). I wave down a ranger I see in a truck and he confirms this and gives me directions. I get to the campsite and there are a lot of Kayaker’s in a group in the tent area having a great time. I ask about which sites might be open and they give me general opinions and I strike out to find a suitable spot. Finding one close to the parking lot and suitably separate from the Kayaking group I set up my tent.
Not more than 20 minutes after we get settled in to the tent the first drops start to fall on the tent.
Much like the sequence in Saving Private Ryan where the rain builds like a Bolero it is so in the tent. First little plops, then a staccato drumming on the tent top; then Lightning flashes an a long breathless stillness before loud cacophonous howitzer claps of thunder. This continues off an on for hours. At first the kayakers are singing and playing in it; then some take off while others seek their tent’s shelter. Around 2am and later 5 am the revelers come out to taunt the weather gods with guitar play to popular music (I heard Bridge over troubled waters). I was too tired and weather wary to join in the taunting. I got up at about 6:45 having pre-rehearsed how I was going to re-pack the car for the least water impact. Luckily the rain was in abeyance as I did the majority of this. The rain only started as I was finishing up the rolling up of the tent (which was already wet.) I few more drops of rain on my head and I shoved the tent on to the wet tarp and took off.
I though my long day had ended.
It had barely begun.