Back from Oklahoma

The Parks family returned from a whirlwind trip to Oklahoma Wednesday night. Josie and Jenna were both spoiled by their adoring grandparents for four days. This trip gave me the opportunity to get a look at the booming Indian Casino business that has invaded my home state. It would appear that every tribe is out to take the white man's money while filling him with fire water and All-You-Can-Eat- Buffets.

The most disappointing part of the trip was our journey home. Last fall I made the Columbia-Bartlesville run in just over 10 hours. This effort had given me hope that a sub-10 hour time was achievable. Our trip to Bartlesville was accomplished in 10:20. Not a great time but a solid effort given that two of my passengers are under 3 years of age.

As I mentioned, the trip home was a disaster. Arriving in Memphis the van was running solid and we were on pace to hit pretty close to the 10 hour mark. Then the team lost focus and things went downhill in a hurry. First Jenna had a dirty diaper 20 miles east of Memphis. This was followed half and hour later with Josie needing to potty. We made our third stop in Tennessee when Jenna began to cry for super.

The clock read 11:10 when I pulled into our driveway. Before unpacking anything I ordered everyone into the bonus room for a closed door team meeting. The meeting was positive and we got several things off our chests. We talked commitment, discipline, goals, and teamwork. We addressed some attitudes (mostly Jenna) that had infected our team and we talked about ways to improve for our trip back in the fall.