A Night To Remember

The other day at work, several of us were discussing the "best vacation we ever took".
Hhmmm.....let's see,...Buffalo River? always good, but too familiar to be exciting.
Disney?
Ahhhh. Now that one ranks up there with my all time favorite memories.

But I have to say, my most favorite one of all would be the summer of 1997.

That vacation was when we decided to grant Casey's request (she was 9 yrs old) and go "see some Indians" for a summer vacation.
I did a little research and found a Pow-Wow in Oklahoma for the Sac-Fox tribe.
Now, I had never heard of the Sac-Fox Indian tribe before, but the Oklahoma tourist guide boasted of a gigantic Indian festival full of authentic American Indian food, singing and dancing. From there, we planned a road trip to San Antonio, Texas to see cowboy stuff,.....i.e...the Alamo.

Packed up our trusty blue Dodge caravan and headed West.

The Indian Pow-Wow tourist guide gave times of the various events, but we quickly learned that the Sac-Fox tribe scoffs at schedules.
We also suspected that the Sac-Fox tribe were not consulted about having their Pow-Wow advertised in the Oklahoma tourist guide.
They were suspicious of us, blunt and even rude for pretty much the whole day. I'm pretty sure that we were the only ones there who were not Indian. (Although Casey was convinced she was indeed "one of them")
We stayed anyway. Even though I was intimidated all frazzlin day long.
Just told the girls it was "their culture".
I don't know, maybe it was.

The day was incredibly interesting and entertaining, but the temperature was in the 100's and we had no shelter.
As the festivities pow-wow appeared to be working into an all night deal, we decided to leave. The waiting, the heat and the lack of good food had us all looking forward to a hotel room somewhere, but the minute we climbed into the car to belt the girls in, they each fell asleep leaning all over each other.

Ralph and I pointed the car toward San Antonio and drove for hours.
Midnight came and went as we passed hundred "No Vacancy" signs.
We didn't care.
We had the windows rolled down, a little bit of money in our pockets, fun behind us, days of fun in front of us and our most treasured gifts from God sleeping in little Indian outfits behind us.

It was one of the best nights of my life.