Phil and I recently headed 5 hours north of Austin to Ardmore, Oklahoma to attend the Movies at Murray Letterboxing Event April 4th & 5th. The event was wonderfully organized by Penguin Patrol where she hid more than 50 movie-themed letterboxes in and around the beautiful Lake Murray State Park.Lake Murray is Oklahoma's oldest and largest state park. Developed with the help of Roosevelt's WPA program in the 1930s. The park displays an abundance of reminders of the era of time intensive masonry techniques in its rustic stone building such as the Tucker Tower Nature Center on the east side of the manmade lake.
We camped at the end of the peninsula at Buzzard's Roost 
the first night awakening to the sound of Canadian Geese. Before the event started at 10:30am we decided to hike a couple of the trails that held the dozen and a half temporary boxes, which took a lot longer than we anticipated. These boxes proved to be some of the most intricate of all and well worth the extra time we took to locate them. We joined what part of the group remained, enjoyed talking with old and new friends, did some exchanges and ate pizza before heading out to grab up more! We hiked five or six hours this day for my best one day total of 28 boxes!
the first night awakening to the sound of Canadian Geese. Before the event started at 10:30am we decided to hike a couple of the trails that held the dozen and a half temporary boxes, which took a lot longer than we anticipated. These boxes proved to be some of the most intricate of all and well worth the extra time we took to locate them. We joined what part of the group remained, enjoyed talking with old and new friends, did some exchanges and ate pizza before heading out to grab up more! We hiked five or six hours this day for my best one day total of 28 boxes!
The wind out at the end of the point got the best of us Friday night, so on Saturday we moved inland. The wind did indeed settle down and we slept very comfortably in our outfitted minivan only to wake up Sunday morning and discover it was 40ยบ with the returned wind chill. We dressed without haste, ate a modified breakfast and quickly broke camp. The cold did not deter us from one last trail that proved to be the prettiest of all the hikes we had taken in and around the park.
The trail was located before the entry booth for Tipps Point. We parked on the north side of the road by the speed limit sign. The entrance is not easily seen but we entered the trail at a post with a hiking symbol. We continued due north, ignoring a few intersections until we headed down a fairly rocky hill where we veered left along an incredible inlet complete with a kingfisher hunting for a meal. We hiked to a super comfortable bench next to a bridge built by an Eagle Scout candidate and wished we would have planned this spot for a picnic, but time was fleeting and we needed to head south for Austin.
We pulled out onto I-35 and headed south, but there was
one more stop before the border for Phil...The Winstar Casino!! The slots where calling his name. While I prepared us a lunch in the parking lot and plotted our stop in Fort Worth, Phil had one glorious hour with the one armed bandit...After 50 minutes Phil came out with a big smile on his face and an extra $20 in his pocket. What better way to wrapup our Oklahoma adventure!
one more stop before the border for Phil...The Winstar Casino!! The slots where calling his name. While I prepared us a lunch in the parking lot and plotted our stop in Fort Worth, Phil had one glorious hour with the one armed bandit...After 50 minutes Phil came out with a big smile on his face and an extra $20 in his pocket. What better way to wrapup our Oklahoma adventure!
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