Day Tripping in Oklahoma: Natural Springs Park (Baby Boomer Moment)

Yes we are preparing to move to Mexico, but we have decided to "Do" Oklahoma while we are still here.  Why not?  We will probably never spend much time here again, and when we do visit, we will be spending time with family and friends, not sightseeing. And we are learning to vlog for when we get to Mexico!

One of the first places we decided to visit is not actually in Oklahoma. It's in Arkansas, and I'll be talking more about Crystal Bridges in a later blog.  But on the way there, I saw the sign for Natural Springs Park and immediately requested (yelled?) for Dan to turn down the next road. I had been there, maybe thirty five years ago or so? I wanted to see it again and I wanted to show it to Dan.

Entering the park costs $5.00 a car and is well worth the price.  You park and walk through a lovely park to get down to the falls. It's not a bad walk at all. Just walk through the entrance way gate and down a wooden walkway.

The sky was blue. The crickets were chirping. It was a beautiful day for August in Oklahoma.  

First you come to a small trickling stream, but soon you realize you are hearing more than the stream. You are hearing the waterfall! But where is it?  You walk a little further and find yourself on a concrete viewing deck, looking down into a cavern....with a waterfall...

Absolutely spectacular.  It falls 77 feet down to a beautiful pool at the bottom. You can walk down to a kind of pebble beach, but we were told that you are not even supposed to touch the water because some rare salamander lives there. We couldn't confirm that online. I know that about 35 years ago, I did swim there, and floated under the waterfall. The waterfall reflected rainbows all around us. It was magical.

But that's one of those "Baby Boomer Moments." When the world was a little different. Not better, maybe, but different. I'll never do that again, like I won't climb Chichen Itza again. It's no longer allowed.  I can see why. It was dangerous. But I'm glad we were able to do it.  

So the moral of the story is....see what you can, where you are. Memories are precious. Make a lot of them!!  And if you are in Oklahoma, Natural Falls State Park is a good place to start.

Here's the video we made of our visit:

Vlogging for Baby Boomers

As you probably know, we are preparing to move to Mexico (CANNOT WAIT!).  What we are doing on line right now is part of that preparation.

We are blogging about our life and our preparation to move to Mexico. We are both partially retired and trying to get our ducks in a row. We hope to sell our house here and move down in the spring.

We have been trying to find YouTube videos of Mexico for years now and have about run out of ones to watch, which is why we plan to make our own to share with YOU when we get down there. Our plan is to first rent in Merida and then travel around Mexico deciding where we really want to live. We may very well end up in the Merida area, but we want to be SURE before we buy. Plus we can't wait to explore our new country/home. When we buy and get settled we want to travel a little farther afield, especially Cuba and the Caribbean!

But recently, we came upon a treasure trove of Mexican videos: Young people vlogging through Mexico. How had we missed them before?  To begin with, we found these two couples and a single guy who traveled through the Yucatan and then went on to Cuba. A treasure trove. And we know other vloggers are traveling down there as well, and we plan to search them out and watch their videos. I will list the three we know so far below so you can enjoy their adventures too.  

But these young people have inspired us.  Watching them has helped us form a better idea of what we want to do...and not do....in our own "vlogs." We've really enjoyed watching these people travel through different cities and experience the food and the locals they meet. None of them have really tried to learn the language because Mexico is only a tiny part of their travel plans and now they are off to other exotic ports (One couple traveled to the Republic of Georgia where my son is in Peace Corps. I LOVED that!). 

We will be looking at Mexico as our new country, not as a vacation. We'll be interested in the medical facilities and permanent housing prices, for instance. We'll try to see what kind of expat communities different locations have. We do not want to live in a Gringo ghetto, but it will be nice to have some friends close by who are experiencing the came cultural changes we are. Plus we'll be looking at the Mexican world through the eyes of Babyboomers, not Millennials. We have certain physical restrictions and, frankly, hope to enjoy a little more comfort and a slower pace that the vloggers we've been watching.

For now, we'll be practicing, as we prepare to move and have a few adventures in our own neck of the woods before we leave it behind.  We need to become more proficient with our cameras and our editing, for instance.

We sat down recently and talked about our plans on camera.

And here are the links to the Mexican playlists of the vloggers we have been following. If you know of any other good ones, please leave us links in the comments. Do you find this kind of thing valuable to you? Thanks!!

Mexico Vlogs - The Way Away

TheTravelingClatt

The Endless Adventure

By the way, what we do is go to their YouTube homepages, click on Playlists, and find their Mexico playlists to watch. They also go other very cool places, but right now, we are interested in Mexico. The links above lead to those playlists.