Whirlwind Wild Day

It was wild!  Wildly entertaining, wildly fun, and wildly educational.  Of course, I'm talking about the Oklahoma Wildlife Expo 2010.  The Oklahoma Wildlife Expo is the largest wildlife expo in the nation and is not possible without the effort of every single employee of the wildlife department plus a lot of volunteers.

Pulling anchor at my prairie home at six this morning, I plotted a northern course.  The voyage was a short one, and there were few vessels on the sea-lane early.  However, once I navigated the Waterloo Road current it was vessel after vessel, and we were all headed for the same port - the Lazy E Arena.

The Wildlife Expo certainly catered to all outdoor enthusiasts, but especially to the young ones, which made this old heart feel good.  There seem to be a special emphasis on kids in archery and kids in fishing.  Both of these exhibits were packed with kids waiting their turn to have fun.

One of the most popular exhibits was the Taste of the Wild booth where they were serving up the food.  Lots of takers waiting in line for this one.

One of the more interesting seminars was a survival skills seminar by Peter Kummerfeldt of Colorado.  Peter could make a fire without matches look as easy as one-two-three.  He was an extremely nice gentleman and I enjoyed watching him offer his skills to the onlookers.

There was so much going on at the Wildlife Expo, I don't know if it can all be explored in a single day.  A hat off to the Wildlife Department for their outstanding effort.

Leaving the Expo, I sailed over to Bass Pro for some much need marabou, and then sailed further south to Academy Sports to acquire a t-shirt for my first mate Miss Carol.  Miss Carol loves her t-shirts.

Pulling anchor at Academy, my course was true to Rock Creek to see what the carp had in mind.  Arriving at my port town, I grabbed a cold beer and headed for the creek with rod and fly, and beer of course. 

Sitting on the bank, trying to get a glimpse of a carp, I was seeing very few actually.  Suddenly, I heard and saw something big and hairy coming through the woods. 

Bigfoot?   Nawwwww.... it was Charlie! 

Unfortunately, Charlie couldn't stay long and perhaps that was for the best.  He'd been on water earlier, but the carp were in cruising formation, and we simply weren't seeing that many carp today.

Charlie has created a new worm pattern made out of chamois, and it is doing quite well as you can see from the pictures below.

Wildlife Expo 2010 Just Ahead

In less than three weeks, there will be a great gathering of the outdoor enthusiast, wildlife department personnel, vendors, instructors, and more at the Lazy E arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma. The event is the Oklahoma Wildlife Expo 2010.

This event has continually grown since it's inception, and has hosted as many as 40,000 people over the three day run of the event.

The menu of things to do, see, or get hands-on is way too long to list, but some examples include riding a mountain bike, cooking in a Dutch oven, learning to fly-fish, learn to call a turkey, shoot a bow, or kayak.

Perhaps the most amazing part of this celebration of the outdoors in Oklahoma is that it's free. Free entrance, free parking, just simply free.

The folk at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife put a lot of hard work into this event, but I wager it's a labor of love for each of them.

Support the Oklahoma Wildlife Expo with your attendance. You won't regret it.

For dates and a complete list of events, visit Oklahoma Wildlife Expo.