Yesterday Keith and I decided to do something a little different during my time here in Dallas. We drove to Lake Murray in Oklahoma to attend “Willow Swish” which apparently is a weekend long camping expedition for gay men and women from these western states. Strangely enough we found out about it while shopping at, what I've come to find as the gayest Kroger (Stop and Shop for you East coasters) ever -- in the Gayborhood of course. There we met a guy wh. based on our shopping selections, thought we might be camping this weekend too (we were in the paper isle). This (cute) guy told us about the event being held at this lake about 2 hours north from downtown Dallas. (Little did I know that Oklahoma was so close to Dallas!) There were expected to be about 300 people from TX, OK and other neighboring states so we thought if the weather was good on Sunday, we’d go. And we did.
Of course we were out late (or is it up early?) Saturday night, so we got a late start but made it to Lake Murray in the mid-afternoon. As was the case, most of the campers had left by then but it worked out perfectly in my opinion. Lake Murray is rather large, and very beautiful. We explored the western and eastern bottom most tip of the lake (it took about 20 minutes to drive from the west shore to the east) and to get to the camping sites situated on the lake. To get there it required us to off-road, we were both glad that Keith had a 4-wheel drive (mini) SUV. We got to the lake and it was completely deserted. Keith packed a lunch, I packed the towels and other sundries, and so after a 2 hour drive (and a bit of getting lost) Keith, Lucy Lu (his pug) and I piled out of the car 20 feet from the shore of this gorgeous, pristine, fresh water piece of earth. We spread a towel down on the dusty ground (it’s dessert like) and I immediately tore off all my clothes and dove in. The lake was muddy, and dropped off very quickly. I couldn’t even see let alone find the bottom of the lake -- and I was only 10 feet from the shore’s edge.
After 4 days of busily exploring every corner of Dallas — the local Gay scene including the many clubs, shops, restaurants, and neighborhoods, not to mention the Counting Crows/Goo Goo Dolls concert we attended Saturday night (it was amazing, thanks Keith!) this pristine, deafeningly quiet, refreshing, and scenic jaunt was exactly what I needed. It was a moment to be remembered. And incidentally, I can’t imagine a more fitting place to spend a bit of 9/11/06 than in a peaceful place as Murray Lake, OK.
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