Road Trip to Four Celebrations this Weekend!

We were traveling through Texas when we realized that a nine-hour drive would allow us to have a four-celebration-weekend. We didn't want to drive the motor home that far, so we found an RV park where we could leave it. We felt good about the "Over Yonder RV Park" in Olney, Texas, and they gave us a reduced rate since we only needed enough electricity to keep the refrigerator running while we were gone.

This road trip will take us to the panhandle of Oklahoma. Beaver, Oklahoma is where both of us were born and raised, and where both of our Mothers still live. The first two celebrations of the weekend were birthdays. Denisa's Mother and Mark have the same birthday--just a few years apart. So after eating lunch out together, we had a double party celebrating Betty's 89th and Mark's 58th birthday.

You would think that an 89-year-old might have a hard time finding peers to invite to her birthday party. But we come from a long line of good genes, with longevity on both sides of the family. Seated together are friends and relatives including both of our Mothers on the right hand side of the couch. Since the birthday girl is the youngest one in this group, we figured the average age is well over 90.

Denisa's Mother was also glad to see that all three of her daughters made the trip to Beaver for her birthday party. 

After celebrating two birthdays, the third celebration of the weekend was Beaver's annual cowchip festival. In fact, this is a special day, since this is the 50th Cowchip Celebration in Beaver, Oklahoma. We started the day off with a parade that included a motorized cowchip. Notice that it is decorated with flies, and also a gold 5-0 for this special celebration.

For as long as we can remember, the next parade entry has adorned the main drag in Beaver. We've heard all the jokes about people driving through town and asking, "What's with the squirrel holding a cookie?" For the more discerning local, this is obviously a beaver holding a cow chip.

For us, the highlight of the parade was the herd of longhorns, making their way down Main Street.

The Cowchip Celebration includes a carnival, a 3K race, kid's games, barbecue, and vendors. We saw the Bull Bash that included some of the wildest bull riding we have ever seen. We also went to one of the adult contests where facial hair was on center stage. Awards were given for wildest, longest, and grubbiest, but we were there to cheer on our nephew on the right who won for "Best Mustache."

But no celebration would be complete without the world championship cowchip throw. We remember being a tad bit embarrassed when we were kids, and the winner here was asked to be on the Johnny Carson show. Here the contestants are choosing their chips from a wagon load of specially selected cow dung.  There are differing opinions on whether the larger or smaller cowchips are best for the competition.

It was hard to get a picture of the actual cowchip throw since it has been moved from the grandstands to this grassy field. With high winds blowing, it's hard to keep the chips from going out of bounds. We go to a lot of festivals, but this is the only one where spectators take the chance of getting hit by flying cow poop.

The festivities were capped off with some of the best fireworks we have seen in these parts. A Beaver high school graduate now puts on fire works displays for large celebrations all over the state, and he planned a special one for the 50th anniversary.

The fourth celebration of our weekend was the greatest, because on Sunday we celebrated Jesus rising from the dead on Easter. We went to church in the morning with Denisa's family, and church in the evening with Mark's family. In between we had a delicious Easter dinner with 16 family members!

We spent one day longer than we had planned on our road trip, because we also went to the funeral of one of Denisa's cousins. That brings to mind the fifth reason that we decided to make this long road trip. Mark's Father died last year on Mark's birthday. It's hard to believe that has already been one year ago. But Mark wanted to be with his Mother on that sad anniversary this year.

Our road trip also allowed a stop in Oklahoma City to visit our youngest son. He and his wife have a new golden retriever puppy, and we are impressed with his training.

After all that family time, we made the long road trip back to our motor home. Even though some parts of the area had gotten as much as five inches of rain, our home was high and dry. We were glad to be home, but also glad we made the trip for four celebrations in one weekend.