Wilburton and Back

We left for Wilburton Thursday morning at 8:00 and meandered our way there. First stop was the antique store in Maysville. Apparently, it's not just closed when Greg drives through on Sundays all the time. It is apparently permanently closed. We tried stopping at another store in Paul's Valley, but were unimpressed. I tried the new Ranch chicken club at Chick-fil-A which was pretty good, but just can't trump the traditional. I read a copy cat recipe for the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich, and it has you marinate the chicken in pickle juice! I will have to try it some time.

We got to Wilburton and spent about an hour talking to Fern during which time I fought sleep. She mainly griped about Bill, who is redoing the roof section on her house where the heavy snow brought the back porch awning crashing down a couple of months ago. We heard the same stories many times over during the three days we spent there. She's 95, so not a lot of visitors come and she doesn't get out. Therefore, Bill equals what is current in her life and what she is fixated on.  

Fern Duncan

Another thing she has been fixated on for a few months was the fact that Mike borrowed her ladder and took it to their project at the Old Edward's Store near Red Oak. He is part of the group fixing up the store in the hopes of eventually opening it up as a historical museum. It's very slow going and there are very few people who can do the work. For example, only one person in the country (I believe) had the know-how to restore the chimney. That was the first thing they worked on. They are currently working on redoing the roof and porch. Anyway, Mike had left the ladder there and Fern talked about that on a regular basis. Apparently, the ladder was being kept at the house across from the old store. Greg and I heroically drove out and retrieved the ladder.

Edward's Store - rebuilt chimney

Back view of the store

Front view where they are working on restoring the porch and roof

During other times, we cleaned brush from the house on the hill, picked up groceries for Fern, and went walking in downtown Wilburton. Greg dropped off his Mom's water bill at the post office and we picked out some forever stamps. They are looking at raising prices to a $1 a stamp!! The post mistress told us that wouldn't happen this year though. Still. $1 a stamp?? I remember when it used to be 19 cents. It's going to cost more to mail the letter than the paper in the envelope!

old time post office boxes in Wilburton

Greg installed lights around the back porch on the house on the hill.

On the way home from Wilburton, we detoured through Norman to drop off Hailey's new saxophone that she is renting to own. We ate at Midway Deli with her and Tyler. We talked for almost two hours about all the things they learned at their retreat in Colorado Springs. They were so on fire for Jesus. It was fun listening to them and their excitement. They are hoping to start a Bible group with the saxes and other friends. After about an hour at Mike's house, we finally made it back home. Charley was happy to see us. Back to work tomorrow.