A Full-time Life

CROSS COUNTRY ROAD TRIP 2008, part 2: Oklahoma and Missouri

 

We left Tucamcari New Mexico on October 26 and, as Bill said, just "waltzed across Texas" (earworms anybody?) without even spending a night.  Although I can look at a map and see that the part of Texas between Tucamcari and Oklahoma isn't all that far, it was still shocking to me that we could get in and out of the great State of Texas during a day's travel.  I swear we've spent weeks and weeks in Texas on other road trips, but those were different parts of the state with more stuff to see. 

So our first overnight stop on the second part of this road trip was in Elk City, Oklahoma.  This was the first time we had RV'd overnight in this state, although, in contrast to Texas, we'd spent a hour or less crossing it on several other trips.  Those other times were across the panhandle, which is uninteresting, at least the little we see driving across it.  So we were pleasantly surprised at how lush and green everything was as we entered this part of the state.  

The previous day, back in not-so-beautiful Tucamcari, we had grazed a post pulling into our spot, (which wasn't nearly as big as advertised) and put a slight ding in the trim.  So after we settled in at Elk City, Bill went out to repair the damages and a whole bunch of guys came out to kibitz.  There is no quicker way to meet people on an overnight stop.  It was fun though, because that whole entire day on the road we actually didn't see one single human being outside of a car.  Sometimes on the road it seems like we are all pod people and there is no life outside of the vehicles.  So the RV Park here was a welcome and friendly overnight stop.  It is called Elk Creek RV Park.  There's no web site, but the review sites give it a positive rating and so do we.

The next night, still in Oklahoma, was in Checotah at Lake Eufaula West KOA.  Again, it was a beautiful drive and this was an interesting stop with woodsy walking paths and nature trails to the Lake and a small restaurant on site.   

The only problem is of course, now that we've seen the good part of it, we want to spend more time in this lovely state. 

We arrived at Branson View RV Park, Missouri the next night. Here we had one of the loveliest view spots ever.  It took a little juggling to get into it, but it was well worth it.   Every so often we are lucky enough to get a beautiful water view, but this was the first time ever we'd had a hilltop view looking down at a City.   We liked this park and if we'd stayed longer, our leg muscles would definitely have grown stronger.  Walking up and down the steep hills, was ...well, breathtaking. 

In some quarters, RVers have a reputation of being a little bit tight with their money.  Merchants think we bring everything with us and don't go anywhere. We feel that reputation is generally unfounded and certainly doesn't apply to us.   We eat (in and out), go to theaters, movies, shop ... whatever we'd do if we weren't RVers.   But our week in Branson threw us right into the tightwad stereotype.  We  couldn't find a single thing in this entertainment city that interested us enough to shell out the big bucks for tickets.  Even the restaurants seemed uninteresting and the whole town too glitzy and fake for our taste.  But we liked our RV Park with its beautiful view and enjoyed enjoyed driving around to see more of the scenic Ozarks.   

One of those drives was to Point Lookout where we had Sunday brunch at The Keeter Center, the restaurant of Hard Work U (otherwise known as the College of the Ozarks).    This is a fully-accredited and well-rated liberal arts and sciences University founded on the premise that each student works on campus to pay for his or her education.  These aren't make-work but real jobs that the students do in restaurants, the farm, and about 80 other jobs or industries right on the campus.  These kids graduate free of debt and with an appreciation for work.  We were impressed.  Some of the job stations are in the dining room and kitchen of the restaurant.  The brunch table included produce and meat raised on their own farms.  After our lovely meal, we toured a little bit of the campus and learned some of history of the school and the Ozark region.  

Chasing Autumn is one of our favorite things to do and we loved the Ozarks.  We drove through more of them on our way to Hot Springs, our next stop (and the next post).  But if we get to visit this area again, we'll spend more time in Oklahoma and Arkansas and less in Branson.

ROADTRIP Part 1 - TEXAS TO COLORADO, Spring 2008

"Getting There is Half the Fun" is the adage we live by as full-time RVers.  You have to enjoy the trip as well as the destination, because there are going to be some road trip days.  Sometimes those days are amazing, sometimes not, but they are always worth it.  Even on the worst road day, we have our house with us at the end of it and we're always heading on to the next adventure.    

It was still tornado season in Colorado when we were ready to leave Port Aransas at the end of May, so we had to choose our route carefully, based on watching the weather. We actually stayed a couple of weeks longer in calm and cozy Port A than we'd originally planned, waiting out some really bad weather to the north of us. By the time we left, the local papers were full of tips on preparing for the coming hurricane season, which starts the first of June.  You've got to hate it when those two seasons overlap.  On this leg of the journey, we had a lot of thunder and lightning and a few nights of big hail -- but no damage at all.  It was a nasty spring in so many places this year -- we were fortunate.  

On our first night out of Port A, we stayed overnight at Armadillo Junction RV Park near Kerrville.  This is in the Texas hill country -- like the Gulf Coast, this isn't the typical Texas that people from the Northwest tend to imagine.  It's green and rolling hills.  The Guadaloupe River flows nearby.  We like this area and have stayed there longer on past trips.  But it was terribly hot this stop -- definitely time to head for cooler climes.

Next we stopped at San Angelo State Park.  Texas State Parks are excellent -- we had purchased an annual pass on our way to Port A.  This makes the cost quite reasonable (and we like the idea of supporting the parks).  This one is on a huge reservoir, lots of birds even this late in the season.  While settling in for the evening, we saw a jack rabbit that we honestly thought for a moment was a small deer.  Huge.  Walking later on, we saw a badger heading for its den.

We had decided to stay a couple of days here because we thought it would be busy on the weekend, with school out and Memorial Day.  It wasn't -- we practically had the park to ourselves -- but it gave us the opportunity to explore the area a little bit. 

Just before getting to the state park, we had driven past the tiny, tiny town of El Dorado.   This little village and the town of San Angelo had been much in the news just before we got there, because it is where the State had removed FLDS children from the El Dorado polygamist compound.  The courthouse where the hearings were held is in San Angelo as is Fort Concho, the frontier era fort where the mothers and children stayed for a time.  We took a quick tour of the Fort, which has now been restored to its status as a historical museum. 

This whole area is quite isolated and it was interesting to see these places.  News-people from back east must have felt like they were in another world.  We kind of did.

We stayed the next night at Amarillo Overnight RV Park.  This is an appropriate name for the park.  It's nothing outstanding but perfectly adequate for one night and easy to find.  You can take a Texas limousine from the RV park to a restaurant called "The Big Texan" in downtown Amarillo.  So this park and the restaurant (for which "big" is a good description, both of the restaurant and the food) are about all we know about this city besides the song "Amarillo High Morning." 

There sure are a lot of Texas cities that have songs written about them!  (I just have to "sing" a bit of them when we drive through El Paso, Laramie or Amarillo....I'm pretty sure Bill wishes that those songs didn't exist -- as I can't carry a tune in a bucket!)

Amarillo to Colorado took us across this skinny little part of Oklahoma.  There is nothing in that part of that state but dead looking grass.  No towns.  We had to stop quickly though just so that we could say we'd been on Oklahoma soil.  I think it only took us about  an hour to cross that panhandle. 

The first night in Colorado we stayed in a town called Lamar at a park called Lamar Sportsman.  The sport of choice here was horseback riding -- and the stables were rather close to the RV spots.  Hot -- and flies.  This was not the Colorado we know and love -- and have already posted about (extensively actually). 

We got to the "real deal" the next day and we had a wonderful time as always.  In case you missed those earlier posts -- or just want another look at the beautiful part of Colorado where we stay -- click on these earlier links:  

http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2007/11/colorado.html

http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2007/12/more-from-color.html

http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/06/sculpture-gardens.html

http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/06/colorado-in-june-2008.html