Oklahoma

We had a lovely sunny day at the end of January and had planned to fly up to Oklahoma City in 'Wallace' (Plane looks like Wallace from Wallace and Grommet from the front - see extra) and see some old friends.  The journey there and back was 'plain sailing' especially with the 23 knot tail wind on the return making it only just over an hour to get back.  Lunch with the family of 6 Seth and Tara with their kids are a wonderful couple who both worked for us a few years back and who have had a dream to run a sustainable farm - they now have several sheep and chickens - they had to de-worm the sheep that morning before picking us up from the airport.  Lunch was followed by coffee in a great little coffee house with Charlie and Deborah called Zero Tolerance - the title apparently a reference to having zero tolerance for the rather snobby genre of coffee places that have sprung up all over the US that in the worst cases insist on dictating to people how they should drink their coffee!  Really liked the lady who owned the place and we definitely had a lot in common, including the fact they roast their own coffee, but in addition they also roast cacao and make chocolate.  Charlie was a daily visitor to BG over many years before moving away and we had visited them in Florida on a trip to see N and J 3 years ago.  Turns out that Charlie discovered this year that he had enough Cherokee blood to apply for membership to the 'Cherokee Nation' - which means all kinds of benefits that have been established as part of the US attempt to make up for the poor treatment of indigenous Americans.  However, those that still maintain their original lifestyle are hardly integrated in American life, living on reservations that are plagued by alcohol, drugs and gambling problems.  It was great to meet up with thes fine folk and pictured here all together as they all knew each other from their days at BG.