October 12-14, 2017 – Cone’s RV Park, Tahlequah, OK & Side Trip to Mount Vernon, MO

October 12-14, 2017 – Cone’s RV Park, Tahlequah, OK & Mount Vernon, MO

I'm sorry for the time lapse in posting this.  Unfortunately, Verizon notified me I had used all of my 20gb of hotspot on my phone in less than one week.  I'm not sure that is possible since I never went over when I only had 10gb when I used the hotspot for the entire month, and I had barely even used my hotspot this month.  But that lowered the speed to like 600 kbps and in the middle of trying to finish this once we returned home, Windows 10 decided to do an update as I was trying to finish it - you can only imagine how long that took at these slow speeds.  By the time it finally finished I was too tired to add the pictures.  Since we had plans the past few days this is the first time I've had a chance to get it completed.  Hopefully I can get caught up soon and get back to regular posts.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

After a couple of cooler days, we enjoyed one more morning of temperatures in the upper 40’s-low 50’s for our morning walk before we take off for several days to our next RV adventure.  We walk at least 2 miles every morning (weather permitting) in our city park in Oswego.  We really have one of the most beautiful parks for a community our size.  It is located on an approximate 100’ bluff overlooking the Neosho River Valley, there is a beautiful overlook constructed of native stone situated right at the edge of the bluff where you can capture some beautiful sunsets, watch eagles fly and enjoy some beautiful scenery.  One of my favorite views is the sunrise hitting the morning fogs as they hang in the valley area. 

Upon completing our walk, we returned home to complete our list of to-do’s before hitching up and heading south to Tahlequah, OK.  After breakfast, I did part of my “packing” – or putting things away for the drive.  We like to have bottled water with us when we are attending rallies for the convenience of not having to worry about leaving one of our drinking glasses somewhere, so I needed to stop at the grocery store.  I noticed they were on sale for $2.88 for 24 bottles, so I picked up 2 of them.  When I got to the counter I discovered as a Facebook special they were only $1.88 each so I was happy about that. 

We had left a note for our mail carrier to deliver our mail today, and then to hold it until we get home the end of October.  I had ordered some prescriptions on Monday and was hoping to get them before we left.  Our mail carrier usually arrives around 1-1:30 but evidently either changed her route or was running late today and we finally decided to leave close to 2:00.   My daughter went by and checked later and while we had a little mail, there was no RX.  Oh well, we will be home next Friday for a couple of days before taking off again, so we’ll pick it up then. 

We decided to take US Highway 59 (rather than the horribly bumpy Highway 69) towards Tahlequah.  At Chetopa (8 miles south of Oswego) we turned south onto Highway 59 and drove the 2 miles to Oklahoma, when we noticed a sheriff’s vehicle and a deputy in the road stopping people just before the state line.  It was our old neighbor William.  He asked if we were headed toward Grove and when we said yes, he told us we might want to turn around and take a different route.  They were rerouting traffic due to a gas leak between the state line and Welch, OK.   So, Dean pulled onto the state line road, backed Bentley up, turned around and we headed back north.  Fortunately, we can go east through Chetopa and pass through the now “ghost town” of Picher, OK to Miami, OK, through Fairland, OK then south on OK Highway 125 a short distance where we intersected with 59 highway that leads us through Grove, OK.  After spending so much time in Grove during most of our married life we always enjoying driving through and seeing any changes that might have occurred – and we did that today.  A few new restaurants and storefronts but overall it has not changed too much since our last trip through.  We did enjoy seeing some of the beautiful white pelicans that are frequenting Grand Lake of the Cherokees right now.  They are always a delight to watch. 

The rest of our drive was enjoyable although a little longer due to the twisting roads but it was a nice ride through the countryside.  This is one of the things about RVing that we love the most is getting off the Interstates and making use of US and State highways to enjoy the scenery.  As we drew closer to Tahlequah, we enjoyed following Highway 62 along the Illinois River (known for it’s canoeing) to the east and Hanging Rocks, part of the Ozark Mountains on the west.  It was a beautiful drive winding down through this stretch of highway.  Unfortunately, the trees were not quite turning well enough for a big showing yet but it won’t be long until they will be.  Here are a few pictures I took on our drive from Tahlequah to Mount Vernon:

This is our first visit to Tahlequah and I’m excited about visiting for a few reasons.  ''

Welcome to Tahlequah

The street signs include the Cherokee Indian language as well.

First of all, Tahlequah is the Capital City of the Cherokee Indians, second, my friend Karen lives here (who I have not seen in nearly 30 years) and third, I will finally get my follow-up PFT and CT scan so I can hopefully begin reducing the prednisone I’ve been taking for almost 6 months.  As a Cherokee, I am very interested in the history of the Cherokee Nation and Tahlequah is full of it so we intend to visit a few places while we are here.  I am very excited to see my friend Karen again.  When we were married to our former husband's we spent lots of time together and her son and my daughter were born a few months apart, so we shared the excitement of having our first babies together.  After Karen and her family moved to California we didn’t see each other as much but we have stayed in contact on Facebook.  Of course, I am very anxious to get these tests done and I’m expecting good news that will cause my doctor to begin taking me off prednisone.  I feel great even though I am experiencing some side effects from the medication.  The sooner I can quit taking it the better it will be. 

We pulled into Cone’s Quick Stop – a convenience store where we check in and pay for our site.  The RV Park is located behind it – mostly hidden by a few buildings and some trees.  It isn’t anything fancy but it is clean with nice easy to access hookups, grassy sites and a few small trees.  They only have two of four rows open for use.  It appears the last two rows have not yet been used.  There are only 5 sites taken when we arrive out of the 20 that are open.  It appears to be a great location for just a few days.  The rate is $25 a night for full hookups/50 amp.  We select site 9 because we think Bentley’s slides will fit best among the trees at this site.  It was slightly unlevel, but that was remedied by placing a couple of boards under the tires on the door side of Bentley.  This is not that unusual, and we try to be prepared for it.  We were soon set up and had the AC running.  Karen texted me about the time we pulled into the campground to see if we had arrived yet.  We will go pick her up later and bring her out to see the RV and visit a bit.  In the meantime, we had dinner – leftover chili from a night or two ago.  I like an easy meal on a travel day.  After cleaning up the dishes, Karen texted she was ready so we drove in to pick her up.  I wanted to check out the hospital location and where I needed to go tomorrow, so we drove through and Karen was helpful in providing some directions.  We gave her a tour of Bentley when we arrived at the campground and visited for an hour or so before taking her back to her house.  It was great getting caught up on our lives.  Tomorrow evening we will have dinner together and have an opportunity to visit again.

Friday, October 13, 2017

We slept great last night with the windows open – such a nice breeze.  What a great time of the year!  We have several hours before my first appointment, scheduled for 11 this morning, so we took our time getting ready.  I made eggs, bacon and sausage for breakfast and did the dishes.  We had our showers and about 10:15 we headed to the hospital.  I wasn’t sure if I would need to fill out any forms or provide any information so we wanted to arrive early enough to allow time for that if needed. 

W W Hastings Hospital, Talequah, OK

What a busy place this hospital was.  We had to park in the back 40 to maneuver Maxx (our truck) into a spot, but that just gave us more steps for the day!  

Dana, the Pulmonary Testing technician had called me just as we arrived at the RV park yesterday to remind me of my appointment.  She had provided directions on where to find her once we arrived at the hospital.  Our first stop was at the registration area where the nicest lady quickly had me in the system for both tests.  She was so pleasant and visited with me a little while getting things set up.  We moved down the hall to the Pulmonary Testing area.  I noticed a sign on the door that indicated the technician would be back soon.  Within 5 minutes or so she arrived and took the sign off and then turned around and said my name.  We got started a little early and it took almost an hour to complete the testing which is a lot of taking big breaths, blowing out as hard and long as she instructed me to, and lots of puffing in and out with big breaths out and in afterwards.  They shut you in a little enclosed area for one of the tests which evidently cause some people to be claustrophobic, but it didn’t bother me. 

We had a little over 4 hours until the next test, so we returned to Bentley for a little lunch and then we drove slightly over a mile from our campsite to the Cherokee Heritage Center.   There are several things here we wanted to see but were only able to take in two of them due to the time available.   (On our way to Tahlequah, I checked to see how far we are from Sequoyah State Park and found it was only 17 miles.  That’s our next stop for a casual campout with our Escapee friends.  Now that we know we are so close we will plan to return to Tahlequah a few days before or after our stay here in the future.  October seems to be the month for a campout here.  Three of our members live in nearby Wagoner and one of them hosts this annual campout each year.)  Now that we know we will often be close to Tahlequah, we can plan to take a few days to visit here in the future to see Karen and enjoy learning more about the Cherokee Nation.

While there are 4 different areas we could visit, we didn’t have time to see all of them today.  We chose to take a walking tour with a young lady who explained many of the Cherokee Indian traditions to us.  We viewed both a summer and winter house.  The summer house was a long rectangular structure that was constructed of young trees and mud.  They could put water on the inside walls to keep the inside cooler.  There was seating around the outer walls that was also used for sleeping and several within a family could live within this hut.  The guide told us that the women owned the homes and a husband would join the family of his wife.  The children are taught at a young age how to work within the village and one task would include making pottery, and she explained this process to us.  Thatched seating was constructed along all the walls of the house and besides seating it is also used as the sleeping area for all who lived in the house.

Next, we visited a winter house which is a round structure which usually sets lower to the ground to keep it warm during cold winters.  There was only one opening and the outer wall extended out beyond the inner wall a significant distance to keep the cooler temperatures from entering the house.  An open fire could be built in the center of the house to heat the structure and for cooking purposes.  Again, seating was around the outer walls and these were used as sleeping areas.  Animals pelts were used as blankets to keep them warm. 

Other things we learned about were blow guns and darts, games they played such as stick ball that resembles the modern European game of lacrosse.  Two young men gave a demonstration of how the game was played.  A large pole is in the center of a large playing field.  A fish was attached at the top and if you hit it you received points, a small piece of wood extended above it and hitting it provided several points and if you hit within a range marked just below the fish would also provide some points.  The ball was made from either a rock or large nut (walnut possibly) and wrapped with soft leather.

Watching arrowheads being made by one of the Cherokee was quite interesting.  It’s apparent this is an art that demands much time and thought.  It was impressive to watch him use various ways to strike the stone to take off small and larger pieces for a completed arrowhead.  It’s great they are keeping these practices alive for future generations to know and learn.

After our tour guide explained how bows are made two young Cherokee men demonstrated their use by shooting several arrows in to a large round hay bale.  One of the young men definitely had better aim than the other and it was impressive to watch them.

The final stop was the construction of canoes.  Most canoes were made from cottonwood trees, a soft wood.  They would begin to remove the bark and cut into the tree and burn out the hollow until it reached the depth and width they wanted.  Depending on the size of the tree, it could carry quite a few.

We found this tour very interesting, and I apologize for not getting pictures of these various stops.

Finishing this tour, we still had a small amount of time before I needed to return to the hospital for my second test, so we visited the museum inside of the Heritage Center.  The only thing on display today was a depiction of the Trail of Tears.  It was quite moving and extremely sad to see how these folks were treated, being uprooted from their homes in various places around the United States and forced to move through difficult conditions to reach their new homes in Oklahoma.  The stories told by family members of the hardships along the way were heartbreaking.  There was a large number who died in their journey through very harsh conditions to reach their new home.  It was a sombering experience to say the least.  Here are a few pictures:

Enlarge these pictures to read the plaques.  It's hard to imagine the difficulties and pain they went through.

Leaving the Heritage Center, we could not help by notice these large greenhouses.  I'm not positive, but it appeared these houses were full of poinsettias.  

We headed back to the hospital and arrived in plenty of time to find the Radiology Department where we waited for my name to be called.  It wasn’t long when a technician called out my first name.  I walked with her through a maze of halls and doorways for the test.  When we reached the door where the CT Scan was to take place she asked me for my full name and when I said Peine, she asked me again and to spell it.  She said I’m sorry but that’s not the name I have – what are the chances – 2 Cheri’s to have a CT Scan at almost the same time, so back through the maze I went to wait a little longer.  It wasn’t long though and they returned to get me and this time asked for my full name before they took me back.  In less than 15 minutes I was done with the test and we stopped at the Medical/Legal Office to fill out paperwork that would ensure my doctor in Joplin received a copy of both the PFT and CT Scan results.

We had over an hour before we would meet Karen so we returned to Bentley where we enjoyed having some time to relax.  At 5:30 we drove to Karen’s and then stopped at a Mexican Restaurant she recommended.  It was quite good.  I had one of my favorite dishes – Carnitas.  Dean had a burrito I believe and we both thought the food was quite good.  Afterwards we asked Karen if she would mind directing us to the historical downtown area of Tahlequah and give us a bit of a tour and she was agreeable to do so.  Here are a few pictures I took in the area.  It was beginning to get dark so some of these are not the best and of course we were moving when I took most of them, so the quality is not great and I apologize for that.

Cherokee National Capitol

Tahlequah City Office Complex - former Armory

Building on Campus of Northeastern State University 

It was late so we did not get out and walk the university but it's something I'd like to do in a future trip as it was a beautiful campus.

"Taken from "Tahlequah Visitors Guide":  As you enter Northeastern State University’s Tahlequah campus, the paved walkway leading from Muskogee Avenue will take you on a path that embodies the history and heritage of NSU. From the bronze sculpture of Sequoyah, noted 19th century Cherokee diplomat and creator of the Cherokee syllabary, to the clock tower on Seminary Hall that is a symbol of this institution, you will participate in a very unique experience. Northeastern State University was founded as the Cherokee National Female Seminary. This historic link to the Cherokee Nation and Indian Territory make Northeastern the oldest institution of higher learning in Oklahoma. The original Seminary was built in Park Hill south of Tahlequah and destroyed by fire on Easter Sunday 1887. On May 7, 1889, the Cherokee National Female Seminary was dedicated north of Tahlequah, where it would continue to provide learning opportunities for young women for 20 years. Seminary Hall is now the historic centerpiece of Northeastern State, and each year on May 7, descendants of Seminarians gather to observe Seminaries Homecoming in honor of our first students."

After dropping Karen off at her house, we returned to Bentley where I spent time straightening things up, then relaxing before heading to bed.  It was really great seeing Karen again and we look forward to future visits when we are in the area.  Tomorrow is another big day for us.  I asked Dean to help me remember to get a picture of Karen and I together before we left, but we both failed to follow up.  Very disappointed in us!!

Saturday, October 14, 2017 – Mount Vernon, MO

You might remember me mentioning our friends we met in the Kansas City, MO area, Mark and Karen.  We’ve met up with them twice now while staying in KC, at two different city parks in the Lee’s Summit area.  Mark’s family, the Adamson’s, built a log cabin in 1858.  I’m sorry but I do not remember the original location.  Several years ago it was moved from the original site to Mount Vernon where it now sits next to a former church, which is used as a museum, community center and a wedding chapel.

“From the website:  Jones Memorial Chapel is much more than a wedding chapel.  The half-century old stone community building in Mt. Vernon, MO is not only home to a wedding chapel, but it has a reception/community meeting room available for rent, a museum and, on the same grounds, a pre-Civil War cabin.” 

Jones Memorial Chapel

As I noted, the cabin was constructed and owned by some of Mark’s ancestors, the Adamson's.  For the past 15 years or so, Mark and his sister Mary have spent their weekend at the cabin during Mt. Vernon’s annual Apple Butter Making Days (ABMD), where they dress in period clothing, showing folks the construction of the cabin and to share how families lived in this time period.  It is a beautiful dog trot structure, which provides two living quarters with an open area between the two.  When the structure was moved here they built a roof over it with large eaves to assist in preserving the cabin for many more years.  I took several pictures as shown below.  

Mark and his sister Karen in their family's log cabin.

Names of the Adamson's stenciled onto the ceiling boards.

What a beautiful view!

 Pictures below show some of the construction of the cabins. 

View of the Adamson Cabin from the road.

We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the cabin, and meeting not only Marks’ sister Mary but also his cousin Mary.  She is involved with the museum located next door in the Jones Memorial Chapel, which we also visited before leaving.  I took several pictures there as well and was really impressed with these beautiful velvet horse covers that were donated to the museum.

At the bottom of the cover you can see the straps that allow the cover to be strapped on the horse.

Names hand stitched into the cover,

along with an animal that looks like a "rat"?, 

flower

and a hummingbird enjoying the fruits of his/her labor.

Underside of the cover.  Such a beautiful piece.

Interesting drinking fountain - I've never seen anything like this before.

A velvet quilt that was worked on by a family that included four generations.  Maybe the same family that created the horse cover?

Of course, as we always do when visiting with Mark, and after hearing the history of the cabin, the conversation turned to RV’s.  Mark has done some very extensive research as he and Karen prepare for retirement and the full-time lifestyle and shares it in his blog Our Future in an RV  We always enjoy visiting with them and was sorry Karen was unable to join him on this trip.  She stayed at home to care for their dogs.  We plan to see them again in the spring when we attend the annual Escapade in Sedalia, MO – which is not too far from them.

Prior to driving to the cabin, we did stop in downtown Mt. Vernon to check out their festival.  Dean is not a fan of crowds and we soon discovered Apple Butter Making Days draws some huge crowds.  We were just in one part of the festival area and I’m sure there were well over a thousand people – possibly even two, where 100 (plus/minus) food and various craft booths were set up, along with a band which began their entertainment shortly after we arrived.  The streets were packed with folks and you could barely walk between the row of booths set up either side of the street.  The booths wrapped around a squared area, and behind the main street was a large open area where many picnic tables were set up for people to sit and eat the many goodies on sale.  This area was almost entirely full of folks enjoying the food being served by numerous groups.  We chose to buy our lunch from a booth being operated by the local Lion’s Club who was serving fried fish, cole slaw, chips and a drink.  The fish was amazing and was a very wise choice.  I ended up knocking my cole slaw over but really didn’t need to eat it anyways since I’m sure it didn’t make it to the menu for a low carb meal.  I gave my chips away to a young guy sitting across from me and he was happy to take them.  There was more than enough fish to fill me up.

We set down next to a man, along with a family of three on the opposite side and a woman who was sharing their side of the table.  I was sitting next to the lone man.  He asked me if we were from Springfield and I told him no, we were from Southeast Kansas.  He said Oh, I was going to tell you about a restaurant there.  I asked him to please share it as we passed through Springfield often.  He told us of RD’s on Campbell, north of the James River Expressway that also serves fried fish and other great menu items.  The couple across from him was also from Springfield and they whole heartedly agreed.  I’m anxious to try it out next time we pass through there.  I asked them if they had tried the new restaurant around Ozark, MO, Café B-29.  Neither the man or the couple from Springfield had heard of it.  I explained I had seen a sign on a billboard as we passed through Ozark on our way home from Branson a few weeks ago.  After looking it up on Facebook I was now following their page and hoped to try it out in the future.  They were both going to look in to it.  Isn’t it great the information you can share if you just take the time to start a conversation with someone?

Somehow, during our conversation, I discovered he was also an RV’er.  I encouraged him to consider joining our Escapees group but unfortunately, I didn’t have any information with me that I could leave with him, but suggested he look it up on the internet if he was interested. 

We walked back to the truck so we could search out the log cabin for our visit there.  I copied and pasted the address of The Jones Memorial in Google Maps.   After we had driven a considerable distance that was leading us north of town, I double checked the address and evidently didn’t get quite all of the address pasted in and it was taking us on quite a drive.  I re-entered the address and after a nice drive through the countryside north of Mt. Vernon we drove to the correct address of the museum and log cabin that was not that far from the downtown area.  Oh well, it was a pretty drive and we always enjoy a drive in the countryside.  It was a warm day so we also enjoyed the air conditioning after walking to and from the downtown area before getting back out again.

What a nice day trip this was.  Thanks to Mark and Mary for showing us their family’s cabin and to his cousin Mary who took time to point out special items in the museum and answered our questions.  As we prepared to leave I told Dean that if he would drive from Mt. Vernon to Aurora, MO I would drive from there back to Tahlequah, OK.  I need to do this more often to become comfortable driving our large truck in all types of traffic as well as pulling Bentley, especially in tight areas, such as where road construction is taking place, and there was LOTS of road construction to maneuver through on the roads back to Tahlequah.

We arrived in Tahlequah around 7, where we stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings for a bite to eat, before returning to Bentley.  We relaxed for a while and it wasn’t long before we were crashing for the night.  Tomorrow we will be moving less than 20 miles to our next stop.