One More Stop in Texas, Then On To Oklahoma

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After our stay in Austin, we continued eastbound by going north first to Weatherford, a city just north of Fort Worth, to visit Natalie’s cousin.

Neither of us have many relatives left, so we try to stay connected. It is so great to lay eyes on their new home and hear their plans to make it their own. They are RVers too, so they are a great resource to talk with and get new ideas.

One thing about visiting friends and relatives is they know the best places to eat. We had fantastic BBQ at the Natty Flat BBQ in Weatherford. The BBQ restaurants go to great efforts to create their own unique character and it’s Interesting to experience their efforts. This one had the world’s largest cedar rocker outside and was very rustic inside. (Side note: it is amazing to Natalie that so far inland fish is so popular that it is found on every menu.)

Natalie’s cousin and his wife are moving into their new and beautiful home, and we were treated to a tour. It is awesome. He has a huge model train collection and a model car collection. And these models are big; we’re not talking about HO gauge trains; they're twice the size of the Lionel trains I remember from when I was a kid.

The park in Weatherford is particularly nice, but maneuvering room is a bit limited, and I almost created a crunch in our still almost new RV by forgetting about tail swing. Tail swing refers to the fact the part of the trailer behind the wheels goes a little bit away from the turn before it follows the rest of the trailer. Getting into our spot was going to be very tight, so I stayed as far to my right as I could before turning into the spot. While turning, I glanced in my right-side mirror to be sure I was clearing the truck parked right there. The timing was barely perfect because it looked like I’d already bumped, so I stopped, jumped out and looked, and I think we were touching, but not crunching, when the truck’s owner came out and moved his truck. So we were very fortunate and I was reminded of this important RV cautionary factor.

Another area of interest to us is the special touches some RV parks create to make them more appealing and pleasant to visit. Weatherford’s office was really something special; it looked like it had been a church at some time, but no, it had been built to be used for weddings, conventions, and similar special occasions. The ceiling of the main meeting room was so large each ceiling fan blade was 12’ across and there are 2 such fans working in the room.

Some RV parks have paved slots for our RVs while others are gravel, and some are just dirt. Some slots are spacious some are tight. All parks try to have colorful flowers and shrubs and trees.

Then there are the play areas. Some parks have nothing more than a swing set, others have mini golf, swim pools, walking trails, horse shoe pits, bocce lanes, and pickle ball courts.

Swimming pools and hot tubs are Natalie’s favorites. This RV park has a hot tub four feet or so above the main pool so the overflow was a rock waterfall into the pool below, warming the main pool.

Several other park’s pools have the hot tub and main pool connected some way, and it does make sense to let the hot tub help heat the main pool. Very creative and each unique and memorable.



There is so much to see and do in Texas, it will take several more drives through and around to see even a little part of it all. This is the main reason we are doing this life now, in addition to looking for a place to eventually drop anchor. With so many fabulous places and fantastic people, we are still searching for THE place to settle and we haven’t found that place yet.



After Weatherford, we headed for eastern Oklahoma to visit friends we met in 1981 when Tom’s job took us to Oklahoma City. The drive was too long to make in one day, so we had to make two short stops in the middle, but both proved pretty nice.

Our first stop after leaving Texas was near Colbert, Oklahoma, a small town just past the border. The park’s name is River View RV Park, appropriate because the park is right on the Red River that serves as the border between and Texas and Oklahoma in this area. It's not a really good place to go swimming, though; we saw a snake of some sort just under the wooden walkway along the river.

This park may be the most charming and well-maintained park we’ll ever see. Everything is in its place, the lawn is manicured, custom carvings made from real trees, a Tornado Shelter for the park, another huge meeting room, and every site is paved concrete and level.

The night we arrived gave us a true Oklahoma welcome with a big, rumbling BOOM, a boom of thunder and lightning, then heavy rain and wind. Because of thunderstorms, we hunkered down the first night with our slides in. Another sound that we had missed and found great joy in was the trains traveling by. The crickets were also in full chorus after the storms passed.

We met a very nice lady here who regularly travels to visit family in Texas. She informed us that distances here are described in travel time instead of miles, largely because the distances between places in and near Texas are usually much longer than we’re used to seeing. So, for example, it is only 45 minutes from point A to point B, not 65 miles.



Because we stayed in Colbert only to rest before continuing toward McAlester, we didn’t do any sightseeing here. Our next stop was a second Oklahoma city, Durant, We were greeted here with an even bigger thunder storm, so we pulled in our slides and hunkered down nice and cozy again.

The wind rocking the RV woke us but we were not concerned, just amazed at the show. In the morning, a beautiful day dawned. This RV park is also manicured like an English Garden. All the shrubs are exactly the same height. Large green fields invite a walk.

This park has a salt water pool, different, but just as relaxing. Because the park is right next to the Choctaw Casino, a free shuttle was available to pick us up and deliver us to the casino almost any time, 24/7. It sure beats driving and having to find a place to park our truck. That casino complex is huge. A train is not far away but no crickets here. Same birds though. I think they are following us!

Aside from the casino, the town’s main claim to fame is the World’s Largest Peanut. It’s almost a joke, though, because it isn’t even a real peanut; it’s a cast. But we had to hunt it down. (We are tourists, you know.)



After a couple days in Durant, we moved on to McAlester OK, where we enjoyed a wonderful reunion with dear friends of 43 years. So good. We stayed with these dear, dear friends for a few days, toured Lake Eufaula, the second largest lake in Oklahoma. Robbers Cave State Park is right by their lovely home, so we were able to enjoy fantastic serene scenery, and just had a fabulous in-person visit. But the fellowship and laughter were the highlight.



Out next target destination was Branson, which was very nice, but we had to make a stop first in Joplin, MO first, and that also proved very nice. We look forward to those stories because we really enjoyed our stays there.

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Comments

[Elaine D Lee]

WOW
You all have had some wonderful times. Wish we were there to be involved. I pray you have a continuing great time and no more kissing someone else's vehicle with your own.

[Grace Trojan]

THANK YOU FOR LETTING US TRAVEL VICARIOUSLY THROUGH YOU AND ALL YOUR EXCELLENT COMMENTARY!
Not sure my comment went through, so better just shorten it up and say how proud we are of what you're doing and how happy we are to see/hear about so many locations we can now only wish we would have visited. I'm a forever country music fan and haven't been to Music Row! Keep enjoying. Can't wait to see where you'll settle, what with all the great choices!