Graduation and Zion.

Carol and I flew out to Lee's college graduation. Flying is something new to us, it was the first time we'd ever flown commercially. I found it rather boring (I guess that's a good thing). We flew on Allegiant Airlines out of Springfield, Missouri to Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday, May 2. We drove to Cedar City, Utah to spend the night.

Lee's graduation was at Southern Utah University in Cedar City. He graduated from the College of Business with a degree in Hotel, Resort and Hospitality Management. Carol and I felt like we'd accomplished something, even though he did all the work. With all the hands on experience he has working at Zion Lodge, he was used as an example quite often and even led a field trip to Zion to tour the Lodge.

Afterward, we went to St. George for dinner, then to Zion National Park to spend the night. I even had enough time to hike up to Lower Emerald Pool before dark.

Sunday, I took two hikes, the first to my favorite place in the Canyon, Weeping Rock. That afternoon, I hiked to Hidden Canyon as far as the arch which is almost hidden in the side of the canyon wall.

Monday, it was back to Vegas for the Allegiant flight back to Springfield.

A whirlwind trip, but I did get a couple of hikes in. We'll be back out there in a few weeks to work at the Cave in the Lodge. That will be the 4th summer in a row we've been able to work in one of America's most beautiful places, Zion National Park.

Watch out for those dogwood packs!

Driving my school bus a few weeks ago, I noticed that the dogwoods run in packs. I'd drive a mile and see no dogwoods, then a patch of white would show 20 or 30 dogwoods in a grove. One thing I noticed is that they seem to tend to be on the edge of the woods or in the disturbed parts of the woods. They don't grow under the old growth, rather in the younger sections of the woods, including the areas that burned.

It was really pretty this spring for wildflowers. I can look out my window here at home and see dogwood, daisies and various other wildflowers, including a bright red flower that is in the shade.

It was indeed a tornado.

According to the Tulsa National Weather Service, the storm that hit close to us was an EF-2 tornado. That is a tornado with 111-135 mph winds. It hit a couple of house trailers up on 100 highway west of Stilwell near the hill that has the pipe sticking out of it.

Tornado damage near Bunch, Oklahoma

The storm that blew through Thursday morning did more damage than I knew. A few miles north Bunch, out in the rural area of Adair County, a small tornado hit a couple of trailers. One of our students was injured, not seriously thankfully. Our mail carrier's truck was destroyed when a tree fell on it. The twister hopped it's way across Adair County, touching down in a couple of more locations, taking out a barn here and tearing up a fence there, before making another appearance near Morrow, Arkansas.

We're not in Tornado Alley here in far eastern Oklahoma. That's out in the central part of the state around Oklahoma City, Enid and Wichita, Kansas. Adair County has less tornadoes than any other county in the state. But not yesterday in the early morning. Thankfully, no deaths or serious injuries occurred.

Bunch, Oklahoma rain

It's spring in Bunch, the trees are beginning to leaf out, the early flowers are blooming, both garden and wild flowers, the grass is greening, and the storms are brewing. Last night, we had a number of thunderstorms come through our area, with a possible tornado in the Rocky Mountain area. This morning, our branch (another word for intermittent stream) is running bank full. It comes from Beaver Mountain and empties into Sallisaw Creek. It isn't more than a mile long, but when the rain comes, it gets up quick and goes down quick too.

Bunch is in the Oklahoma part of the Ozark Mountains, so the land is rather rough with lots of ridges and valleys. Beaver Mountain is about 500 feet higher than our house and about 1 mile behind our house although the climb to it begins at the edge of our yard. Up there are waterfalls that only happen during the times of heavy rain. It's a wonderful little day hike to go up there on the State Game Refuge and walk below the falls. There's a fault line that causes these falls and I have noticed that every now and then, a rock will have moved into a different location. Not an earthquake, but a movement.

We had so much rain this morning that school was canceled. Unfortunately, it wasn't decided until after my wife had gone up to start cooking at the school and after I'd left on my bus route. I had to take a 15 mile detour through Stilwell as Sallisaw Creek was over the bridge below Bunch. My cell phone rang just as I was getting ready to pick up my first student, so it was only me making the extra 30 miles of riding, thankfully. I was able to play Paul Revere to 3 students along the route, letting them know that school was dismissed for the day. I thought about going up later and working in my library, but the grandkids came down and I didn't.

There's always tomorrow.

Who I am.

A Christian
A Husband
A Father
A Grandfather
A School Librarian
A Moderate Liberal
An Oklahoman
A Backpacker
A Railfan
A Music Listener
A Reader
A Baseball Fan
A Traveler
A Computer User.