February 2, 2021 - Catfish Ranch for "Breakfast?", Spending the Day Exploring Oklahoma South and East of Muskogee, Update on Bentley

February 2, 2021 - Catfish Ranch for "Breakfast?"; Spending the Day Exploring Areas Around Muskogee, Oklahoma; and An Update on Bentley

Dean and I slept well last night despite the highway traffic nearby.  Once I fell asleep I never heard another sound until I woke up at 5:30 this morning.  We enjoyed our morning coffee while waiting for the RV store to open.  I took these pictures when we left Bentley this morning.  

Pretty sky this morning.

Our parking spot for Mon and Tues night - at least we hope it's the only two nights!

Dean wanted to find a place to have breakfast, so we needed to wait until after 8, as that is when Earl's opens.  There is no need trying to figure out the best place to eat, let's just ask someone who lives here.  It was close to 8:30 when we stopped at the office.  Earl suggested Catfish Ranch - and no, we didn't try the catfish; however, their omelets were pretty good.  I couldn't finish all of mine - it was just too much food, yet not enough leftovers to take home. 

As we left the restaurant I grabbed a brochure of the Muskogee area they had in a rack at the door.  We had originally planned to visit a few places here in town, but once we saw the "ride guides" in the brochure, we quickly changed our mind.  By now, if you've been following our blog for very long, you know how much we enjoy driving around the countryside.

The sky was so pretty this morning

We made a quick stop at Bentley then headed south from Earl's down Highway 69.  At Highway 206, we turned and made a quick drive through Checotah, home of Carrie Underwood, 

Downtown Checotah

and then back down Business 69 to Eufaula, OK, home of Eufaula Lake.  

Drena....we found that long section of road you told me about!  Now to get through here with Bentley!

We enjoyed our ride in this area as the lake winds around several communities.  We drove toward the Eufaula Dam, where we drove through one of the state park camping areas.  

Patsy if you are reading this I couldn't help but think of you & Bill, and Ken and Kim - for our readers in the USA, these are our Canadian friends we met last March in California.  Below is a picture of the Canadian River in Oklahoma.  

Canadian River

One of the things that intrigued us about the drive we chose to follow today, was our interest in Webbers Falls, once we noticed it was nearby.  In 2019 much of the Midwest suffered several days of heavy rain that caused many swollen rivers.  During these downpours, two barges broke loose and hit a dam and lock upstream from Webbers Falls.  I remember that evening we watched and listened to this story on the news.  If the dam broke it would have surely destroyed the town.  Not taking any chances they evacuated the town just in case the dam became compromised.  As it turned out, both barges sunk and the dam held.  I don't know if the barges are still there or if they were later removed, but thankfully Webbers Falls is still standing.  Just before we reached the town, we saw a sign that led us up to the dam and lock area - although we didn't realize at that time this was the dam the barges hit.  We learned about that later in the day.      

The dam to the left, and on the far side is the lock where barges and/or boats pass through on the Arkansas River.

This is a picture I found online of the barges at the dam.  I just remember seeing this on television and praying Webber Falls would not be destroyed.  You can see how high the water was here compared to the picture above.

Dean loves it when I make him take a selfie with me, (and wearing our masks...made by Drena)!

Our next stop is Webbers Falls.  I noticed on the satellite map version they have a park along the Arkansas River so that is where we headed.  I have to admit I was disappointed as I had much bigger visions in my head from what I thought the picture was showing.  I was expecting "Falls" and there were none.  However, there was this tragic, but beautiful memorial.  We immediately felt grief for the families who lost loved ones in this tragedy on the I-40 bridge over the Arkansas River when a section of it failed.

The little girl is holding a dove in her hand.

This tragic accident occurred in May 2002.  This site was dedicated a year later to the day to those who lost their lives and those injured in the accident.

It was a somber moment as we visited and imagined such a tragedy.

After leaving Webbers Falls, we crossed the Arkansas River to a small park where I took my favorite picture of the day.

Our next stop, only a hop and a skip away, was Gore, OK.  I loved this mural as we drove into town.

We stopped at El Lago for a light lunch of tacos.  They were very good.

  
It was nearly 3:00pm when we reached our final destination of the day - Honor Heights Park in Muskogee.  I've visited here a few times over the years, however it has always been in the spring during their azalea festival.  If you have not visited here in the spring, it is worth seeing at least once.  Even today it was beautiful, but when it is blooming with azaleas, along with many other blooming bushes and flowers, it provides a stunning array of colors.  

Entrance to the park

The two pictures above remind me of very similar construction at our Riverside Park in Oswego, especially the pillars with the lanterns.  Even the lanterns are similar. 

There is a butterfly Papilion located in the park, behind the sign above.

Possibly a cypress tree?

Visit this website to see dates for activities held in Honor Heights Park.  We are always looking for a place to see Christmas lights.  I think this park that will be on our "to visit" list next Christmas.

On our way back to Bentley, we received a phone call from Preston, the guy who will be replacing our disc brake for us tomorrow.  He is bringing extras and will be checking all of the brakes while he is here.  He has an install before he can begin work on ours.  We hope he will be done with our job by 5 (when the RV Store closes).  If that happens, we will travel to Durant and stay for the night.  We have stayed at the KOA there many times.  They are open until 10.  Since their sites are all pull through it will be much easier to park, if it gets dark before we arrive.  Say a prayer for us that we can move on. 

I cancelled our reservation last night at Ray Roberts State Park in Valley View, TX, and moved it to Wednesday night.  When we returned I had to call and cancel it altogether since it would be too late to drive that far, especially in an unfamiliar area.  Fortunately, they gave us a full refund since we could not travel until repairs are made.  Another blessing from God!  I was unable to change our reservation at Waco online last night, so I called the park and they changed our arrival date to Thursday.  We'll still be able to spend some time there.

Even though things have not gone as planned we still managed to have a great day together traveling roads we've never been on before.  We enjoy new experiences and we can always find something interesting to see or do.  Thanks for following along.

February 1, 2021 - On The Road Again....But Not Very Long.....We Had A Hiccup!

February 1, 2021 - On The Road Again....But Not Very Long.....We Had A Hiccup!

We have had a wonderful time while in our hometown Oswego, Kansas the past three months, staying very busy.  But we had the itch and were excited to be back on the road again.  

A little back drop before I begin today's adventures.  Our grandson Logan arrived in Oswego last Wednesday.  Thursday evening he arrived at Bentley to visit with us for a couple of hours, before sister Haleigh and her boyfriend Caleb also arrived.  We stayed up until about 11pm visiting with the three of them.  What a fantastic evening it was.  Logan's friend had let him borrow his car, so Friday morning we followed him back to Parsons so he could drop it off, then we headed to Chetopa to The Hornet's Nest for lunch.  My son Marc, and daughter Misti, Logan, Haleigh and Caleb joined us as well.  We had a great visit with everyone for well over an hour or more.  I didn't think to ask someone to take our picture together!  We were too busy catching up I guess.

Dean and I have spent the last week preparing for our move, checking things out, refilling propane bottles, checking tires, etc.  I spent all week cleaning Bentley from top to bottom, vacuuming, cleaning the carpet, the pantry and storage areas throughout.  It always feel good to complete a good deep cleaning!  Everything smells so fresh.

This morning Misti and Logan stopped by around 10 to visit for awhile before we leave.  Our plan was to leave by noon or so.  After visiting for awhile we headed to Big Chief for a quick lunch and a chance to visit some more.  It's hard to leave knowing Logan is here for the week, but he has lots of people to see besides us while he is here.  He recently completed his current Naval duty in El Centro, CA and will be relocating to a base in Hawaii sometime next week.  He has not received his official departure date yet.  I'm so glad we had the chance to spend time with him! 

I had Misti take this picture of us with Logan as we left the restaurant.  The sun was in my eyes and Dean wasn't quite ready for the pic - but Logan looked great!  Lol!

After we returned to the RV Park we quickly finished the last of our packing inside and were soon hooked up; pulling out of out site at Hillside RV Park at 12:32pm.  I had not made a reservation for tonight, but on the way I contacted Arrowhead RV State Park at Eufala, OK to check on a site.  They advised there were several spots available so a reservation for tonight was not required.

As we left Oswego I noted the temperature on my log sheet...it was 31F, and within 15 miles south, the temperature in Oklahoma was 40F.  We are already enjoying those increased temperatures!!  

We stopped for our first bathroom break at the Wood Shed convenience store parking area in Big Cabin, OK, and the start of the bumpy road syndrome on Highway 69 as we continued on south.

As we approached Pryor, OK, a few minutes before 2pm, we noticed the temperatures was now 47.  This is great!  The last few days in Oswego have been wet and cold.  We are so ready for warmer temperatures.

Bumpy roads on 69 Highway.  Bumpty bumpty bumpty, we go!

Dean sent a message to our friends Alvin & Linda as we passed through Wagoner, OK - honk honk!  They will be joining us later this week in Waco, TX.  Only 20 minutes later as we drove into Muskogee, OK we noticed the outdoor temperatures were now at 50F.  Let's keep those numbers moving on up - 70 would be perfect, but I'd take 50/55 over the freezing temps we've had.

As we were nearing the southern part of Muskogee, we barely made it through a green light/it actually turned on us before we made it all the way through....then just seconds later we heard this loud semi horn.  Startled, I looked up and watched as a semi truck pulled up next to us.  The driver was looking at me and pointing down.  I told Dean we better pull over I think he was trying to tell us something.  We found a place a short distance away.  I believe in God and I believe he watches out for us, and today is one of those days proving he does.  One of the brake pads on our disc brakes was evidently falling off that caused the trucker to blow his horn at us.  It was laying on the ground behind us, when we stopped.  So besides the trucker calling attention to our situation us, we were less than 2 miles from Earl's Lake Country RVs.  We pulled in and went inside.  Earl Jr. and Dean went out to take a look at the brake issue.  Bentley will require repairs before we can leave the area.  There was other damage to the disc brake as well.

What a blessing we stopped here.  What a wonderful family group that own and operate this facility.  I cannot say enough good things about how they treated us.  They made several calls to try and locate the parts we needed to get us back on the road.  While we were waiting to hear from another RV center in Pryor, I remembered that the company who installed our disc brakes, Performance Trailer Braking, has a warehouse in Norman, OK.  Dean called Michael, the owner.  He made some calls, and will have an installer here on Wednesday morning to make the necessary repairs to get us back on the road.  Surprisingly, the installer was already scheduled to be here Wednesday for a brake install.  I'm sure we can find something to do in the area tomorrow, and hopefully we'll be on our way by early Wednesday afternoon.  We'll only arrive one day later than planned at our location in Waco, since we plan to stay near Denton, Texas on Wednesday night.  We had originally planned to leave tomorrow (Tuesday), but Sunday afternoon we decided to change our plans and leave today rather than drive a long hard day on Tuesday.  I'm so thankful for that change.  So many things have come together to turn this disappointment into a huge blessing!  We are so thankful!

In addition, the owners allowed us to set up in their lot, allowing us to utilize their electric and water hookups for two nights.  We are just overwhelmed with their kindness.

It was about 4:37pm by the time we were set up in their back lot.  After relaxing a bit, we had leftover white chicken chili for dinner.  We have our feet up, watching TV and thanking God for taking care of us today!

It's good to be back on the road - even with a hiccup!