Friday, July 19 - Dean played golf this morning and I filled my time with things that needed to be done in Bentley. I bought a little steam iron (and I mean little). I try not to buy anything that needs to be ironed but occasionally you just want to do a quick touch up. I bought a shirt recently that needed just that, so I brought the iron out and it worked perfectly.
After lunch, we hopped in the car and headed south to Grove, OK. We were just chatting away as we drove along. I asked Dean if he was going to drive through Vinita or take the cut off. He was so engrossed in our conversation he missed the turn at Welch, and would have bypassed Bluejacket if I hadn't said something. It's not like Dean to do that, so it was a little entertaining.
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| Road to Bluejacket, OK |
Dean wants to visit a golf store in Grove for a new set of golf clubs. When we arrived there was a note on the door the owner was next door at a convenience store. In just a few minutes he arrived. Unfortunately, we left there a little disappointed because he doesn't sell new clubs. While he had quite an inventory of nice used clubs, it's not really what Dean was looking for. He was a very nice guy though and he answered several questions Dean had, so it was not a wasted trip.
Since we were here we decided to visit a few of our favorite haunts. I believe I've mentioned before that almost from the time we were married we've had an RV or mobile home of some sort on Grand Lake near Grove. We originally planned to visit Bernice Point - home to the first two travel trailers we owned, but Dean wanted to drive to ShangriLa, a beautiful "community" with many homes, condos, a beautiful new hotel, a premier golf course (beautifully manicured), and a large boat slip. There are also several locations to choose for dining - from casual to fine dining. It's a beautiful area to just drive through for the landscaping alone. The last time we were there they were building the hotel and today we got to see the finished project.
ShangriLa is located on Monkey Island. If you click on this link you will also find a map of the location as well as the story of how it come to be called Monkey Island.
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| Beautiful rolling hills on our way to ShangriLa |
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| Some of the facilities at ShangriLa, From Top Left, clockwise - The Golf Shop and Restaurants, Boat Slip, Condo, Hotel, Hotel Swimming Pool |
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| Pictures of the golf course |
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| Sorry for the reflection in this picture - I've always loved this house - including the metal sculpture of the Eagle on top. What a view of the lake it has! |
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| Crossing the bridge, looking out over Grand Lake, as we leave Monkey Island. |
We took a quick drive through Horse Creek Resort, the last place we used as a retreat to get away from the day to day work life. I grew up going to the Bernice area and it's still our favorite area of the lake.
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| The water is still high at Grand Lake from rains earlier this spring/summer. In the bottom picture to the right you can see what we've always called the Unfinished Bridge - at normal levels it's not uncommon to see boats tied up here to fish, or swim. We drove by the lot we rented. Someone has replaced our older RV with a new one and looks like it happened recently as there was no skirting around the unit yet. They are still using the deck we had though. |
As we began our drive back through Grove, I was so happy to see the Cherokee Queen running again. I've been going to Grand Lake since I was 10 years old - and I've never rode it. I told Dean when we are here for the campout I would really love to change that! I don't know what they offer now, but in the past they offered dinner cruises on the lake. I hope they still do. It would be beautiful if it was a clear night.
A great place to find bargains - Cheapo Depo. This place has been here for a long time!
Continuing on our reminiscing of our time on Grand Lake, we drove back through Grove to visit Lakewood Village, where we owned a mobile home. As our family grew, and grandchildren came, an RV wasn't quite as comfortable, so we expanded.
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| Our friends owned this RV and we sure enjoyed lots of fun times with them here. |
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| The unit with the blue umbrella and flag out front was ours. Dean and I built the deck here, but someone has replaced or covered the wood with vinyl. |
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| This was our view. We had our boat in the enclosed boat slip. We loved our time here. As the kids got older, they didn't come as often and we decided to sell our place and go back to an RV closer to Bernice. |
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| The third from the left is the back of what was our mobile home. They've added a carport and a storage shed. We were hoping our old neighbors to the left might be there, but not today. |
On the way we passed through what used to be Picher, OK. It makes me sad to drive through here. It is the location of a superfund site that resulted in buyout of most of the homes there, due to the high level of lead found in the area from the huge chat piles that were mined here. A few years after most people had moved from the community from the buyout, an F4 tornado pretty much decimated the remaining homes.
We made a quick stop in Miami, OK to grab something to eat at Braum's - no ice cream today. We made it to Cindy and Elmer's house at 6:10, just a few minutes late.
As usual we laughed a lot all evening - and the guys skunked us again, but Cindy and I did manage to win the last game!
When we returned to Bentley, the sky was so full of stars. It was beautiful. I tried to take a picture, but of course it didn't take well, but I did catch this shooting star. How cool is that!
Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words. I think the first few days of news you don't want to hear is the worse - now we are filling our days with good times and fun things. This too shall pass!
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