Travel and a Sabbath Sojourn - Days 10 and 11

Barry

The humidity and heat of the night created near sauna-like conditions, and we awoke Friday morning with high hopes for a refreshing dip. Unfortunately, we discovered a wide ditch of reddish muddy ooze where we had expected to find an emerald tributary of the Green River. We were dismayed not merely for selfish reasons. The next stop on our travels was to be the Oklahoma camp meeting, where we planned to camp and fellowship with estimable Fisher clan. We could only imagine the stifling impact of our arrival! But there was nothing for it.

We disembarked the Coracle and sailed down 65 south into Nashville Tennessee. It felt a bit odd to be within easy striking distance of Southern Adventist University, but at Nashville we struck West on I-40.

We were now deep into our trip, more tangibly beyond the point of no return than ever.

Then we crossed the Mississippi and entered Arkansas. We saw a fantastic pyramid as we crossed the bridge. An undisclosed number of brownie points to the first person who explains what this pyramid is all about.

Arkansas passed without fanfare. I think we would have noticed more if we hadn’t been listening the final chapters of Around the World in 80 Days. Perhaps we were just too enthralled by the story—I’m not sure—but for whatever reason, we missed the Oklahoma welcome sign. Well we sort of got it…

The final miles through Oklahoma were exhausting, in large part because of the oppressive heat. Strange to say, the Fisher’s warm welcome was exactly what we needed, despite the heat:). We showered quickly and soon joined into the camp meeting activities.

There were two notable things I remember about our Sabbath in Oklahoma: the tremendous heat and the mind boggling size of the wonderful Fisher clan. Aunts, Uncles, 3^rd cousins, great aunts and ever other imaginable relation sprouted from everywhere. I met so many relatives that I privately concluded that approximately 50% of all camp-meeting attendants were relatives of the Fishers.

On Sabbath evening we repacked the coracle with great application of scientific reason and brute force, and hit the sack around 10:30pm, ready to reengage our voyage early in the morning.