Blue Skies & Blue Bell…Lake Wedington, Ozarks Mts. –Arkansas 5/28

Ned here. We left Boiling Springs State Park and headed toward Arkansas. This part of Okalahoma was looking very green, but very flat so we kept ourselves busy listening to the local NPR station. The show we heard had the typical sound of an NPR interview, but the content had a Southern-Midwestern spin. The story was about a woman who had made history by breaking into the all male arena of bbq competition. She was from Mississippi and her family had developed a prize winning bbq sauce recipe. The irony of the story it seemed to both Debi and me was that despite the theme of the story being the groundbreaking ascension of a young woman into a man’s domain, the father remained extremely patronizing toward his daughter and the balance of power clearly remained all with him. Debi pointed out that if this man had a son this would never have happened. Clearly, this story never would have made it on air in our part of the country. We finally arrived at the Blue Bell Ice Cream plant in Broken Arrow, it was 1:05 pm and we expected the last tour to be at 1:00 so we were delighted to get a private 1:30 tour. (Today’s picture is Debi hamming it up before the tour). Our tour guide was “Miss Delores” a handsome large Black woman who also tutors middle-school special ed kids. She was warm, friendly, enthusiastic, and we had a great time bonding with her over kids going off to college and our common love of ice cream. She showed us the whole operation from observation windows above the factory. When we went back to the tasting room, Miss Delores snuck us a special cup of their “Southern Hospitality” flavor (crushed pineapple, strawberry swirl and chopped pecans) which we were amazed was our favorite of the three scoops we tried. For the record, Farr’s Ice Cream from Ogden, Utah is still our trip favorite. From Broken Arrow, OK we made a straight shot into Arkansas where we met Teri and Terry, who had driven down from Chicago. The campground Debi reserved on the internet, Lake Wedington, is really nicely wooded and set along side of a beautiful lake. We plan to stay here for the next three nights to avoid any Memorial Day weekend craziness. Debi is really looking forward to hanging out with her childhood buddy from 7th grade.