October 4-10, 2020 - Last Few Days in Oswego, Moving to OK City for Oklahoma Heartland Rally

October 4-10, 2020 - Last Few Days in Oswego, Moving to OK City for Oklahoma Heartland Rally

Sunday, Oct 4 - Today was my Sunday to entertain my sisters.  Cindy and I attend the same church here in Oswego.  I picked her up prior to church.  Immediately after church we picked up Crystal and Jody (and Cindy's daughter Nikki) for a trip to Neosho, MO to see our niece and Cindy's daughter, Melissa and her family.

It was a beautiful day.  We made a quick stop at Sonic in Baxter Springs to get something to eat before we continued on with our trip.  We visited with Tim, Melissa, Hannah and Kennedy for about an hour or so, before we returned to Oswego.  We had the opportunity to visit together on the trip there and back, so it was a good day for us to get caught up.

Monday, Oct 5 - I had a list of things I wanted to get done today.  One was to make reservations for our stay in Texas for Jan-March 2021.  I contacted Cottonwood RV Park and Delia was able to fit us in next to our Heartland friends who have stayed here for several years.  All in all there will be 6 of us parked together, which will be nice.  Of course we have several other people staying in the valley located in the towns from Harlingen to Mission that we will visit during our 2.5-3 months there. 

I finally got our September expenses input in the computer.  It was a fairly good month for us.  We will be traveling for nearly two weeks so I called about reservations at two locations during that time and, thankfully was successful in obtaining sites.  

Dean was at the garage a good part of the time preparing for the move as well.  He needed to put the hitch back in the truck since he took it out to move Haleigh's things back to Oswego.  I went along to assist.  He bought a come along from Marc when they moved from Parsons.  Dean rigged it up in the garage so that he can remove the hitch by himself.  After moving the truck, he uses a table he built that he can easily scoot it underneath the hitch, then lowers it with the come along to sit on the table, that he can then move out of the way.  It works great for him to lower it himself, then store the hitch until we need it again.  My job was to let him know when the hitch was over the inset in the truck so he'd know when to stop.  He's always done this by himself before.  He told me it sure made it go quicker since he didn't have to get out and check it so often while doing it on his own.  

Dean and I drove out by the city's RV Park this evening and enjoyed watching these three small fawns running and playing together.  We stopped to watch them for several minutes.  I'm sorry for the picture quality.  We had a pretty sunset too.

Tuesday, Oct 6 - I spent most of the day preparing for our move tomorrow...mostly laundry, and a little grocery shopping.  

We replaced the tires on Bentley today.  Dean ordered tires through the FMCA tire program and had them sent directly to Robison Auto here in Oswego.  Dean put the spare on one side of the RV, and took three of the tires to have them mounted, leaving only one new tire and the better of the four old ones to be mounted as a spare on the last visit.  It went well.  I'm sure glad he warned me before raising one side of the RV at a time.  It's a weird feeling to feel your home move and slant to one side while inside. 

With forecasts of some cooler weather and knowing we would be gone for nearly two weeks, I went through clothes stored at the garage and some that were under the bed, to be sure we had warm clothes if they were needed...and I'm sure glad we did.

Jaxson playing soccer.

Grandson Jaxson had a soccer game this evening in Parsons.  We met Marc at the soccer field and enjoyed visiting with him, while watching Jaxson on the field.

Wednesday, Oct 7- Saturday, Oct 10, 2020 - Oklahoma Heartland Rally

Wednesday morning, we were not in a rush to leave, trying to time our arrival in Oklahoma City between 2-3pm.  It was a wonderful 58 degrees when we left Oswego at 10:18am and a HOT 86 when we arrived at Roadrunner RV Park in Oklahoma City, OK at 2:24pm.  

Above:  newly planted pecan trees near the Arkansas River
Below:  grove of mature pecan trees near the Arkansas River, south of Tulsa, OK

Top: McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigational System Sign
Below:  looking west as we passed over the bridge

Making our way through Tulsa, OK on I-44

We will spend the next five nights at the Roadrunner RV Park in Oklahoma City, OK to attend the Oklahoma Heartland Rally.  We haven't seen any of our Heartland family since we left Mission in mid-February earlier this year, so we are looking forward to visiting with them. 

It wasn't too long after we arrived, while Dean was still outside getting things set up, one of our hosts, Barbara (her and her husband Orville are the OK Chapter Leaders) stopped to give Dean a schedule of the events for the week.  It will be a busy but fun time.  The rally does not begin until tomorrow but later in the evening we gathered at Orville and Barbara's rig to visit outside with those who like us, arrived early.

Thursday evening we gathered at the rally room for a meet and greet, and were provided with a meal of hot dogs and chips provided by the Chapter.  Each year there is a 50/50 raffle, with half of the ticket sales going to the lucky winner whose ticket is drawn and the other half going to the Chapter to help offset costs of the rally. 

Beautiful kitchen area just off of the large meeting room.

Friday - Each morning beginning today, several gathered in the rally room for coffee and pastries.  At 10:00 Barbara provided a craft project for those who wanted to participate.  Our craft today included painting the tips of pine cones, then adding them to a small mason jar.  With a small piece of styrofoam in the bottom of each jar, we added paper string around the inside of the jar to hide the green foam, then hot glued a pretty piece of ribbon around the jar.  We inserted our painted pinecones and a small scarecrow in the jar to top it off.  I'm not much of a crafter, but it it fun doing it alongside others.  The tables were nice, large tables giving room to spread out.  

Working on our project.

A few finished projects

Several participated in the craft session.

We were on our own to do what we wanted until 4:30.  At that time we caravaned to Hidalgo's Mexican Restaurant in Moore, OK - just a few miles south on I-35.  Corbin and Flora asked if we would like to ride with them, since parking will be tight.  We took them up on their offer and had a great visit with them to and from the event.  The food was amazing and we had a great time visiting with friends.  I've never seen so many cheese and salsa choices given with the chips.  There were two kids of tomato salsa (regular and hot) a "yellow" cheese dip, avocado cream dip and a white dip (maybe a mixture of cheese/ranch).  They were all very good and of course everyone ate a ton of chips prior to our meal because of the dips.  In addition they had fresh, warm tortillas to eat as well.  Dean and I chose salads and I'm sure glad we did.  Many people took food home with them.

Waiting outside the restaurant to go in.  

When we returned to the park, the rally hall was open for games or visiting.  We stayed to play LCR (Left, Center, Right).  As always it was a lot of fun, with lots of laughter but neither of us won either of the two games.  There were several people playing which made for a fun evening.

Playing LCR (Left, Center, Right)

Bob Curry took pictures of each couple attending the rally.  Guess who?

Saturday I told Dean to go on up to the rally hall and visit this morning.  I am making bread pudding for our group meal tonight.  Two of our Heartland members love bread pudding, and today I'm going to add raisins, which I do not like, but I know they do....and it means I won't be eating it.  As much as I love it, we have to start cutting back.  We do really good, then we are around all this wonderful, tasty food.  The woes of attending rallies.  Lol!  While the chapter is providing brisket, pulled pork, baked beans and potato salad, we are asked to bring a side dish or dessert.  I laid everything out that I would need to make (except the cold items) so when we return from our trip to a local RV Center, I can get it made in time for our meal at 5:30.

At 10am, we caravanned to the Oklahoma RV Center, again located in Moore.  We arrived around 10:30 and spent the rest of the morning into early afternoon going through the various brands of RV's they had on display.  We always enjoy looking (although we have no desire to upgrade, as we love the layout of Bentley).  They did have several new options in the units, that I would love to have - number one a real 4 burner stove and regular oven - yet, it's not enough to want a new rig.   If an exchange of my old oven could be made to our rig - I might be tempted to do that.  Lol!  While there were a few things that caught my attention - there were way too many things in Bentley's floor plan that I prefer more that were not available in these new ones.  Not only that Bentley is paid for!  I think we've done a pretty good job of keeping him taken care of and he has many, many years left in him - hopefully for a very long time.  Even though we plan to build a house in a couple of years, we will still travel with our RV groups and to see our kids.  Now that five of them are away from our immediate area, it's all the more reason to keep Bentley for trips to see them.

The RV Center had a food truck available for us, and lunch was on them.  It was very nice of them to do that for us and the food was good.

When we returned we rested for a bit and I turned the air conditioner down so it would stay cool while I baked a little later.  We are to have a group picture at 5:00, and our meal will be at 5:30.  I put the bread pudding in the oven at 4:20 or so.  We walked over for the picture and then I came back to make the sauce to go on the bread pudding when it comes out of the oven.  When I walked into the meeting room I could not believe how much food we had.  The one good thing, is there will be plenty of leftovers for tomorrow evening.

After our meal and helping with cleanup, we decided to set outside at Orville and Barbara's this evening rather than play games.  It was a beautiful evening and I had a nice visit with Barbara.  

It has been a great week and a superb rally!  Many thanks to Orville and Barbara, and others who helped make it such a great success!  Today was the last day of the rally.  We are staying an extra day, as several others are too.