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| Each comments entry box in the guest book is limited to approx. 250 characters including spaces. For longer messages please e-mail us at morton@rmortonc.com |
On April 1st we drove to Parker, TX which is the location of the Southfork Ranch where the TV series “Dallas” was filmed from 1978-89 (< - - please click). The following day, we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary at a Greek restaurant in Plano. It is reported by many sources that the best Greek food in the world can be found in Germany’s Greek restaurants. Since we lived so long in Germany, our palates were spoiled by good Greek food and we have been unable to find a restaurant here that can even come close. Expecting a disappointment, we were pleasantly surprised and are happy to report that it was the best Greek food we have found in the US so far! On the Friday before we left the Dallas area, we invited David and Lee Young for lunch at Kuby’s (< - - please click), reciprocating for their hospitality a week earlier. We spent the next few days at the lake campground and doing a little shopping. On the 6th we went to the Eisemann Center in Richardson, TX (< - - please click) where the “Plano Community Band” had their annual Spring Concert. David plays the trombone and is a member of the community band so we had a personal relationship with the performance. The quality of the performance was quite impressive (Program) (< - - please click).
Our newest acquisition, a TomTom GPS navigation system was given its first long distance trial and performed quite well. This day also marked the first time since we have been “on the road” that we have left something at a campground. We had been using one of Lobo’s leashes, connected to a rope, as a clothes line on the poles of the picnic shelter. Not a great loss but irritating since we take such great effort to clean up and inspect the campground when we leave. |
On the first day of travel we drove about 70 miles to Lake Texoma on the Oklahoma border; staying at Eisenhower State Park and visiting the birthplace of Dwight D. Eisenhower in Denison, TX (see photos). On April 9th we crossed the Red River, saying “Good Bye” to Texas and “Hello” to Oklahoma. In this friendly state we actually had to chase down the people to pay for our night at Lake Eufaula State Park (formerly Fountainhead State Park). As we arrived, the lady at the reception told us to choose a spot and the ranger would come by and collect from us. Later, they did come by and park for a while next to us, looked us over and left. Since we had thunderstorms most of the night we surmised that they would be back the next morning. When we left around noon, they still had not arrived so we stopped at the entrance to pay. The lady at the reception had no record of us even though they had allegedly surveyed the campground and recorded who had been there overnight. She finally accepted our twelve dollars and we left for a Corps of Engineer campground near Muskogee where we wanted to visit the Indian museum. As we arrived at Lake Gibson, the gate was closed and the Ranger informed us that the campground had been closed because of high water and flooding. As we spoke with him we discovered that we had been in the middle of a tornado-stricken area the night before! We turned around and drove back toward Muskogee where we found the Crossroad RV Park on US 69 and rented a spot for a week. The weather turned quite cool after the thunderstorms and we stayed at home the following day. Renée made a strawberry torte and Chuck installed the new Photo Impact program on the computer. After supper Renée began to try out the new graphics program, becoming so involved in it that she didn’t quit until 3 AM! The following day we went to the Muskogee annual Chili Cook-Off (see photos). Not only was there a large variety of Chili, but ribs, chicken, wurst and similar items. All guests pay six dollars each for a “test kit” consisting of a small dish, spoon and a set of coupons that are used to cast the votes for each category, i.e., best Chili, best ribs, best entertainment, etc. The participants are then awarded prizes after the votes have been tallied. Some of the participant’s ideas were quite unique such as the Camel rides and one fellow who had his booth fixed up like an old chuck wagon (see photos). Several local businesses also participated. One of the most amusing was Wal-Mart who gave away a six pack of toilet paper to each person passing their booth. We assume they know what one could expect after sampling all of the different varieties of spicy foods! Incidentally, not all toilet paper can be used in an RV, since it can plug up the sewer system. The six-pack of toilet tissue that we received was one that can’t be used, so we donated it to the campground where we were staying. We had arrived somewhat late at the Cook-Off but we were still not able to try all the different dishes. Not because it was too spicy but so many dishes had so much fat that our stomachs rebelled very quickly. On Sunday we visited the museum of the Five Civilized Tribes in Muskogee (< - - please click). The museum was small and we were quite disappointed that it contained so little about the tribes themselves but appeared to be mainly geared toward selling the articles made by the Indian artists. Photography was limited to only the small historical exhibits. No photos were allowed of the artists’ work that was for sale. Muskogee is the home of the annual Muskogee Azalea Festival, the biggest flower festival in the southwestern United States. On Monday, April 14th we drove through Honor Heights Park, a city-owned park that has 122 acres of land with rocky hillsides, waterfalls, and ponds. The park also has 40 acres of manicured gardens with over 30,000 azaleas in more than 625 varieties, much of which can be viewed from the road that winds through the park. In the spring of 2007 an ice storm destroyed much of the gardens but with a lot of hard work, most have recovered. (See the slide show on the photo page). On April 15th we visited the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, OK. The Cherokees (< - - please click) are the largest of the Native American tribes in the United States. The Heritage Center is an exceptionally interesting museum with a reproduction of a Cherokee village from the time before their first contact with Europeans around 1540. This village helps one to understand their rich centuries-old culture. A reproduction of a settlement in “Indian Territory” from around 1838-39 is also on the museum grounds (see slide show on our photo page). We were surprised to learn that before the Cherokees were transported to Oklahoma, there were some who owned slaves and plantations. After the Civil War, the slaves were declared as “Freedmen” and accepted into the tribe. Many pictures taken of this time period show the Indians dressed in European style clothing. Apparently the Indians in the East adopted the European lifestyle with the idea that to get along, they would go along. It was apparently easier to accept the change in their way of daily life since they were not nomadic, instead they lived in permanent villages and therefore adapted more readily to the European’s lifestyle, whether good or bad. Despite their attempts to try to adapt they were still unfairly treated by the white man. We left the Muskogee area on April 16th and headed toward the Tall Chief campground north of Tulsa at Lake Skiatook. We had made an online reservation for four days at this Corps of Engineer site. On the way we stopped at an Aldi in Broken Arrow. This was the first Aldi store available since we had passed through northern Alabama in December. When we reached the Tall Chief campground, the gate was locked. Fortunately, we had the contact number of the district office. We called and were informed that the campground was closed and had been for two weeks because of the high water. It was a puzzle to them that we had managed to get a reservation online since they had notified the reservation system of the closure a week before we made the reservation. However, shortly thereafter they called us back to inform us of an open spot at one of their other campgrounds that was on higher ground and still open. After arriving at the new campground twelve miles away, we were visited by a representative. The following day we were contacted and told that because of the mix-up with our reservation we could stay there free for the four days and that the credit card charges made online would be refunded. This was totally unexpected and quite a pleasant surprise! On Friday we drove to Tulsa, taking a tire with us that needed to be replaced. We left the tire and rim at the shop and then drove to the Gilcrease Museum which houses the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art and artifacts of the American West. What we didn’t know was that the Art gallery of the American West part of the museum was closed to the public on that day for a special benefit being held only once a year. We toured the other parts of the museum until closing at 5 PM, then picked up our tire and had supper at the Golden Corral. By the time we began our trip back to the campground it was 9 PM. Most Corps of Engineer campgrounds have a gate that is closed after 10 PM. Some have combination or coded locks to open the gate but this was not the case at Skiatook, so we had to rush and make curfew. We made it with a few minutes to spare. Had we been a little later we would have had to walk about a mile in the dark to the RV. On Saturday we returned to the Gilcrease Museum to see the American West collection with works by Frederic Remington, Thomas Moran, George Catlin and Morgan Russel among others. It was worth a second trip (see slide show). We then toured downtown Tulsa (see slide show) before we returned to our campground at Lake Skiatook. We visited the Philbrook Museum on Sunday. It is located in a 1927 Italian Renaissance Style Villa that was the former residence of oil magnate Waite Phillips, who gave the building and grounds to the city of Tulsa in 1938. The primary exhibitions in the museum feature Asian, African, European and Native American Art (see slide show). The grounds surrounding the villa were recently renovated and include 23 acres of formal gardens with sculptures by international artists, natural woods and sweeping lawns (see slide show). We left Lake Skiatook on the 21st and headed toward Oklahoma City. Along the way we drove through a bit of the past on historic Route 66 (see slide show). Oklahoma has the longest stretch of the original Route 66 still in existence. For the uninformed or if you just want to know more about The Mother Road < - - please click. We reached Oklahoma City in the late afternoon and chose a spot to stay at Tinker Air Force Base for eight days. Oklahoma City came into existence almost overnight on April 22nd, 1889 when tens of thousands of people participated in the Oklahoma Land Run (< - - please click). Oil was discovered in 1928, causing a further boom. Even the neo-classical capitol has an oil well on its grounds (see slide show). Incidentally, the dome to the capitol was not completed until 2002, although it was in the original plan of 1915! The time in Oklahoma City went by quickly with veterinary visits, a local arts festival, a visit to the National Memorial where the Murrah building stood before the bombing in 1995 (< - - please click), and a tour by water taxi and city sight-seeing (see slide show) followed by dinner at the Bricktown Brewery. We left Oklahoma City on April 29th and drove southwesterly to Lake Elmer Thomas near Lawton, OK where we have decided to spend another week and explore such sights as Geronimo’s grave. To be continued…… |
Travel Journal April 2008
Our Motto: Home is, where our RV is.
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April 2nd, 1968
April 2nd, 2008
| To view photos and slide shows click on “Photos and Slide Shows April 2008” above. |