January 21st, 2011: Shanee, OK

     Dom’s family has been enrolled CPN members dating back roughly to the turn of the century.  Several years ago, Dom’s dad (Stan), mother (Val) and sister (Erin) had visited Shawnee, OK and connected with distant relative however Dom was not present on that trip. A couple weeks prior to departing on our Alaska-Alabama road trip, Dom emailed several folks at CPN inquiring about possible accommodations with local CPN College students.  A week before leaving Alaska, he received an email from Linda Capps, the CPN chairperson, informing us that CPN would be happy to host us for a night or two.  Given that we had not had any major trip delays and this was Dom’s first visit to Shawnee, OK, we elected to stay two nights in Shawnee to relax and learn about Oklahoma and the CPN people.  Although both Shatomi and Dom were new the area; our Shawnee hosts treated us as if we were close family by housing us in the newly renovated Elder housing. 

 The CPN police were happy to escort us to our apartment and were interested in our long trip south.  We joked around a little about our winter gear, snow tires, and extra gas.  The frozen winter that characterized our trip in Canada and the Northwest was now behind us- the temps in Shawnee,m OK were considerably warmer (~60F).  To top off this night, the CPN police informed us that our dinner at the local CPN casino would be complimentary.