A Change in Plans…

Originally leaving from Hugo Oklahoma our plan was to head to Belle Starr COE park for 6 nights then on to other COE parks around Little Rock to get through the July 4th holiday. While there I was going to figure out what we would do next…

Well then we had a change in plans. Our good friends in Virginia chatted with us and asked if we would like to house sit for them at their farm in Virginia. People who follow this blog will know we love spending time at their farm in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. As a result, the next day I had to make some cancelations and replan our trip with a destination of their farm in Virginia.

The challenge, of course, will be finding a place to stay for the July 4th weekend. After discussing our options we decided that maybe the best idea would be to make the push to get to the farm before the July 4th weekend. Problem solved…

The first thing we did was shrink our reservation at Belle Starr Campground down to three nights so we could plan the rest of our trip from there. Once at Belle Starr I was able to figure out our best route and planned some stops along the way. For us this would be a marathon drive since I planned on only a few multi night stops and longer than normal (for us) drives per day.

While all this planning was going on we were camped at Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma which is another nice COE park with lake front views and ample places to walk. The site we had was a very long, somewhat narrow, pull through site.  Sites in other loops we noticed were more spacious and inviting.

We did take a road trip over to Muskogee Oklahoma and played a round of disc golf. It was nice to get out and throw some discs. We also stopped by a store to pick up some local craft beers and found one that was quite appropriate for this area known as tornado alley. It’s name is F5 IPA. For those that don’t know F5 is the classification moniker for the worst type of tornado. The beer was good!

From Lake Eufaula we drove 264 miles for a one night stop at Laura Ingalls Wilder RV Park & Campground in Mansfield, MO. This was a nice Passport America Park in Missouri. We didn’t do much other than walk around the park which was nice and we even found some black raspberries ready on the vine. As we walked around we also found some cornhole boards where we decided to spend our happy hour tossing some bags.

We had fun tossing bags as we hadn’t done that in a long, long time.  Tomorrow we will push on eastward.… Stay well everyone!

NOTE: We are currently at Glen Maury Park near Buena Vista Virginia until June 29th…

Exploring SE Oklahoma…

Well it was finally time to leave Texas and our destination would be to Oklahoma just north-northeast of where we were. It would be a bit of a longer drive at 173 miles but as it turned out to be pretty easy going. Oh, I almost forgot to mention our last gas stop in Texas was at a Buc-ees where we filled up our diesel tank for $1.39 per gallon. I simply had to document this is our blog! While I fueled up, Sharon couldn’t resist the urge to don her mask and venture inside to purchase some brisket and kolaches for our last taste of Texas.

We pulled into the Kiamichi Recreation Park, yet another COE park and settled into our site which was another beautiful waterfront site. We have been staying at COE parks since we left Canyon Lake and have done so for two main reasons. First and foremost was to be at a park with a beautiful view. We figured since we aren’t going to be doing a whole lot because of the pandemic we might as well have a nice view out our windshield.

The other reason is cost. Corps of Engineer Parks honor the America the Beautiful Senior Lifetime Pass where all camping is half off making our cost as low as $8 per night to only as high as $15 per night. We figure there is no need to be in a private RV park since we wouldn’t use any of the amenities even if they are open. Also, since we are staying close to the RV and doing less excursions we want sites that are spacious and not as confining as commercial parks can be.

But back to this park… it is huge! There are actually several campgrounds around the lake and miles of roads to walk or bike along with very minimal traffic. We might venture for miles, hiking or biking, and only encounter a few cars slowly ambling along the roadways inside the park. This park is remote with Hugo, Oklahoma being the nearest town and it is a very small town with little charm.

We did take a few drives around the area with the highlight being a drive over to Beavers Bend Oklahoma. We really had no idea how scenic this part of the state of Oklahoma turned out to be all around the Broken Bow Lake. If we had done our homework better we would have found a nice hike there.

Other than a few scenic drives we spent our time at our park biking nd walking around while enjoying more wildflowers before they give up their blooms. I also fished a little and caught a nice bass for dinner one evening. Another day I was trying my luck at catfishing and hooked about a 12 pound carp. I have never caught a carp on a meaty bait before so I thought I had hooked a huge catfish but after about a 15 minute battle I finally landed it and later returned it to the lake. If I had a smoker I think I would have tried smoking it as they do in northern Florida.

We have decided to continue eastward this year so I will need to find some more COE stops since this virus doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.  Stay well everybody! 

NOTE: We are currently at Bell Star COE Park near Eufaula Oklahoma until June 21st…

Last Day in OKC and on to Wichita KS…

We did end up adding another day (Friday of Memorial Day Weekend) to our stay at the  Cleveland County Fairgrounds. We had thought about moving a bit north to the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds but we ended up making the right choice as severe thunderstorms went through there and dropped quite a bit of hail.

We used our extra day to drive into the town of Oklahoma City. Our first stop was at the Oklahoma State Capitol building. This is another domed capitol building but interestingly even though they had planned to build a dome on it originally it didn’t have one. The dome was added later.

We stopped in at the visitor's center and picked up a self guided tour brochure as I prefer the self guided tours to guided ones because we can proceed at our own pace and if we aren’t interested in something we have the ability to move on. We found a lot of art to enjoy in the Capitol and visited an art gallery on the main floor. We certainly enjoyed touring this capitol.

I had a bought a Groupon some time ago for lunch in Oklahoma City so we stopped in at the 809 Sports Grill. Lunch was really good but I wouldn’t have thought so at their normal prices but with the Groupon it was great. After lunch we drove into town and parked at a meter across from the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

The Memorial is a tribute to the memory of those who were killed, those who survived and those whose lives were changed forever after the 1995 bombing. A lunatic had parked a Ryder rental truck filled with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and when the truck exploded there were 168 people dead and the building was destroyed

Walking into the memorial and seeing The Field of Empty Chairs beside the Reflecting Pool makes for a solemn occasion. Especially heart wrenching was walking the 9 rows of chairs (one for each floor) while reading the names of those killed etched on the front of each chair. The front row has smaller chairs for the children killed on that fateful day. 

The site is located on about 3 acres and is capped by the Gates of Time (Monumental twin bronze gates). Each gate bears the inscription “We come here to remember Those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.” Quite moving…

After the memorial we took a stroll toward the tall glass Devon Energy Center building which dominates the city skyline. We simply had to stroll into it and when we went through it we discovered the Myriad Botanical Gardens. This accidental find was fantastic as the architecture of the green house made for a striking contrast to the modern skyscrapers of the city. What a beautiful oasis in the center of town not far from the National Memorial. It would have been nice to enjoy music in the beautiful concert space but we thoroughly enjoyed walking all around the park.

We returned to the car with just minutes left on our meter and drove over to Anthem Brewery. Oklahoma has some archaic alcohol laws prohibiting the purchase of full strength beer at a brewery allowing only for the purchase of less than 4% beer. The really odd thing is that you can sample the full strength product but just can’t buy it at the brewery (you can at a liquor store).

I emailed Anthem Brewery and these laws were explained in the response while also informing me that the law allows Anthem to give customers three 4 ounce samples of full strength product at no charge. After our tastes we decided they have a pretty good ESB and Scotch Ale (the stout and IPA were not that great). We purchased a pilsner after our samples but really even a pilsner watered down to be a 3.2 beer wasn’t very good. While there we struck up a conversation with two orthopedic student doctors who graduated from Texas A&M and were in town for a professional conference.  It was the final touch on our really fun day.

We arrived back home and made plans for our next stop in Kansas, another new state in our RV travels…

Strolling around the University of Oklahoma…

We sure enjoyed our brief stay at the Winstar Casino RV Park but did not want to stay too long in this area known as Tornado Alley. Wednesday we stopped in for our free breakfast buffet for seniors at the casino and then took off for our next destination.

We traveled along boring Interstate 35 and headed north again until our arrival in Norman, Oklahoma. We pulled into the Cleveland County Fairgrounds and selected a site. We chose a site with 30 amp since it had a better view (of a community garden) through our dining side window.  However, if our A/C can’t keep up with the heat we will likely move to another 50 amp site. All sites have full hookups along the perimeter of the park but otherwise they are only electric and water. Twenty bucks a night is a good deal for being so close to Norman.  It is really just a large asphalt and gravel lot but this stay was selected in the hope it will keep us away from the severe weather forecasted all around us.

Since we are near the University of Oklahoma and love to tour campuses we drove over to the campus to the visitor center and obtained a visitor parking permit (free). We strolled around the quite scenic campus which has a lot of interesting architecture. It reminded us a bit of the Citadel with its castle-like architectural style on many of the buildings.

       

One thing that surprised us was the football stadium. With the stature of Oklahoma athletics we expected a more impressive stadium than they had. It is still nice but surely not as nice as we thought it would be. We did notice construction for what we assume was to close in the south side of the stadium.  Perhaps it will be more grand after the expansion.  Next to the field is a very nice walk through a park with statues of the university’s Heisman winners. 

Our last stop on campus was the Fred Jones Jr Art Museum. Wow! What a great find this turned out to be. The quality of art in this museum is unheard of for a campus museum and the admission is free! There is art from some of the great artists of all time such as Ansel Adams, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe, Vincent van Gogh as well as a lot of Native American art. There was a few odd but interesting pieces but we feel this is a must see for visitors to Norman Oklahoma.

We also checked out a couple of local hangouts often frequented by OU students and faculty. First up was The Library which is a cool little hangout that brews some of its own beer. Alcohol laws in Oklahoma are on the strange side much like those in Utah. Next up was a really popular spot called The Garage which had we been hungry looked like it would have been a great spot for a tasty and inexpensive meal. Lots of people were there waiting for food and having a good time.

With more bad weather heading our way and with Memorial Day weekend looming we added another day here and will add more if we need to.

Leaving Texas to a New State for our RV–Oklahoma…

We did end up staying an extra day in Wichita Falls as the bad weather was north of us (where we planned to go that day). Having missed out of the severe weather to our north and with more predicted we decided to move east and miss the bad weather predicted. We broke camp and drove east along the Texas and Oklahoma border over to highway 35 where we turned north to cross into Oklahoma.

Oklahoma is a new state for our RV but not for me as I lived in Altus, Oklahoma when I was an eleventh grader. We also frequented Oklahoma City by car when we lived in College Station while Katie played Gold Softball in High School.  Anyway our plan was to visit the Winstar Casino, the largest casino in Oklahoma.  The gaming area is 519,000 square feet. It is actually called Winstar World Casino as its exterior and interior are modeled after cities like Beijing, New York, London, Paris, etc. We thought it would be fun to visit.

I really dislike being in Oklahoma in the late spring as it is known as tornado alley but nevertheless here we are. Thank goodness our site at the Winstar Casino’s RV park is directly across from one of the designated tornado shelters. When we checked into the Casino’s RV park we were told that if we signed up for a player’s card the first night would be free and then it would be $21.45 for our second night. We also discovered a new player card promotion where after earning 5 points on the card, $25 would automatically be added to the card which could be used anywhere in the casino.  I then wondered how much we would have to gamble to get those 5 points!

The Casino’s RV park was really nice with full hookups, WIFI and some of the largest all concrete pads we have ever encountered. There are lounges, restrooms, a laundry facility (with $1.00 machines) and even a pool. (we did take advantage of their laundry room our second day).

After setting up, rather than catching one of their free shuttles we decided to walk over to the casino since it was only about 1/2 a mile away. The lady that checked us in at the RV park said the casino is over a mile long from end to end and we walked the entire length but didn’t really feel like we walked a mile.  It really is big so it took us awhile before we found some penny video poker machines.  We played about an hour and lost a whole 30 cents noticing we never even earned one point on my card.

Before leaving I tried a really good odds video poker machine (25 cent machine with 9/5 odds) and played $5.00 to see what it took to earn a point. Well we were hitting the cards well and after about 40 minutes of playing we earned the five points and still had $2.50 from my $5.00 bill. So we spent $2.50 to earn $25.00! Score!  After that we decided we should get Sharon a card the next day and try again!

And so we did… However, we weren’t quite as lucky the second time around but after playing our money plus what we got from the promo ($50) we did manage to be up a little after we finished playing. We also found out that on Wednesday seniors (that’s us) are offered a free breakfast buffet with a players card. SO we got one night free camping, $50 in free play and each got a breakfast buffet. I say we made out very well indeed!

Next up for us will be the fairgrounds in Norman Oklahoma… Let’s hope the weather gods are on our side!