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.