"Arbuckle Wilderness...Wow! What a Difference!"

I E-mailed my friend Mel today. This made me think of a great, fun memory I have with her...

We originally met in college, and continued to stay friends post graduation as we both moved to the Big D. About a year or so ago we made a trip to OKC for our friend Lauren's wedding. All in all it ended up being a fabulous vacation, and we felt so blessed to have been able to attend the ceremony and catch up with other dear friends that we hadn't seen in some time.

When I was younger, my family lived in Duncan, OK, and as part of my glorious childhood I remember a trip to Arbuckle Wilderness - the kind of place where you drive through a safari type setting with your windows down and animals come up to your car to say hi and eat feed out of pre-purchased paper cups that you hold in your hand. I tend to be reminiscent, and suggested that we make a run through Arbuckle Wilderness on the way back to Dallas for old times sake. We were feeling spontaneous, and thought it to surely be an exciting adventure.

That, my friends, is an understatement.

It was more than an exciting adventure, not necessarily in a good way. To put it simply, we got attacked by camels. I don't mean that to sound sarcastic or funny. Attacked is what I mean. I have never been so fearful in all my life. Somehow we managed to capture said attack on film. I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

First impression of our seemingly sweet and gentle camel friends. We'll call this one Lilly. Look at her pretty eyelashes!

I stand up out of the sunroof to get a better view of Lilly. She is surprisingly unshy, and quickly approaches me for food. I throw my hands up to demonstrate that I have nothing to share at the moment.

Lilly then proceeds to completely bypass me by extending her neck through the sunroof and into to the car, remaining on her aggressive search for food. I yell out a warning to Mel in the car below.

Somehow I make it back down into the car, only to be instantly ambushed by Lilly's friends from the side windows. They eat my hair, leaving behind hay and camel snarf all over the back of my neck and shirt. At this point I'm screaming at Mel....

...to find her in a similar situation and completely as helpless as I am on the other side of the car. Oh my.

I have no idea how, but we finally managed to put the car in drive and get away from those nasty animals. Thankfully we survived, even though the camels continued to follow our car for quite some time after we managed to escape. I have no witty ending to this story, only a warning to watch out for the camels should you ever feel the desire to drive through Arbuckle Wilderness. Yikes...