On the road in May

As the end of school approached, I started thinking a bit more about road trips. One visit I have wanted to make was to the Greenwood Rising Center in Tulsa, especially with my daughter taking classes dealing with history in our state the past couple of years. I realized that we could pair this with a Mother's Day visit, so that Grace could spend some time with her grandma. 

We started the visit with Chickfila all around, visited a while to catch up on the past couple of months and shared a mini chocolate bundt cake. Then it was time for us to head to Greenwood Rising (we had timed tickets). And found a motorcycle rally in front.

Some amazing motorcycles! We stepped into the history center and followed the path around the facilty, following the timeline of that decade and that day. Because of the larger crowd that day at the center, we did not get as much of the usual tour that visitors get--but the exhibits often spoke for themselves, literally.

We finished our tour and headed to the car. Knowing that we had a two hour drive ahead of us, we made a short drive Mother Road Market food hall to get a snack before we got back on the road. I hadn't been there before either, and like Greenwood Rising, was impressed with the facility. Some place to try again!

Big Dippery creamery

We wound our way back to the interstate then headed home. One of us got to sleep a bit--I stayed awake!

Over Memorial Weekend I headed out on another road trip, this time with my husband for our 25th anniversary. This time I headed southwest to Quartz Mountain State Park, one of our state parks that I hadn't visited. In pictures it looked enough like New Mexico (without all of that drive) that we booked a cabin. It did not disappoint. At this point it was not too hot, and it looked like they had received enough April showers for their May flowers. 

Sunday morning was rainy, so we stayed in the cabin and rested. I was super glad we were not in a leaky tent. And after seeing how low the lake was, I knew they needed the rain.

By lunch the rain cleared so we ventured out. We started at the small nature center and a few little trails. Our favorite was still pretty wet, since the runoff down the hill was following the trail. 

 We decided to go back to the cabin, eat a snack, and try again in a couple of hours. It was dry enough so we headed up. So many flowers!!

So grateful for the chance to spend some time away and find some great local treasures, both only a little over two hours away from home.