Ooooooklahoma!!

 August 31 - September 7, 2021

   Yes, one must sing that, not just say it, LOL. We breeze right across Texas, into Oklahoma. We were determined not to stop except for lunch as last time we spent a week in Texas turned into 46 days, not doing that again.

Not a whole lot going on across that section of Texas and Oklahoma, quite flat and open. Writing this a week later, I can't really recall any thing much of notability. Went through Oklahoma City, which is,well, a big city and the western portion of Interstate 40 shares with Historic Route 66. Unfortunately, not much doing on that portion, which was okay as we were just going from point A to Point B. Lots of train traffic on the tracks that paralleled the route and watching trains go by is always fun to us. Let me tell you, some of those trains were long with many over 200 cars! Our first stop in OK. was a community park in Sayre, just across the Texas border.

 

Sayre RV and City Park was a pleasant surprise. The campground section had 80 sites, 25-30 were graveled RV sites with full hookups, and the rest were grass sites with water and electric. A lot of those were more suitable for tents or small campers. It was quite a surprise for only $12.00 a night. This adjoined the rest of the city park, what a park! It had it all; from an 18 hole golf course with clubhouse, fishing pond, horse arena, several playgrounds, mini golf, basketball, volleyball, tennis courts and walking/biking trails. Quite the find. We were only there for one night but one could easily spend several days. One we would go back to if passing through.

Left Sayre and heading on across Oklahoma to Checotah where we stayed at Terra Starr RV Park. 

This was one of those that I'm having difficulty writing up. It was an ok campground, older, could use a bit of sprucing up, friendly staff. The sites were a bit helter skelter without clear definition of individual space. Had decent amenities: pool, community room, mini golf (though course needed a lot of work), tennis and basketball courts and oh yeah, that one thing you hope you never need, a storm shelter.

Storm Shelter

 It is situated along Lake Eufaula, Oklahoma's largest lake which covers 105,000 acres and has over 800 miles of shoreline. Needless to say, boating is a big draw to this and other area parks. It would have been nicer if they developed the shoreline at the park a bit, you couldn't walk the water edge.

Lake Eufaula

 Again, decent enough place, especially for the money, as one of our Coast To Coast membership park was only $14.00 a night. It was something in the atmosphere that had us having a hard time settling in. Very much a hometown campground where most had seasonal sites, with groups clustered and while friendly enough to wave and say a brief hi, you didn't feel drawn in, like a club you weren't a part of. Also, it was Labor Day weekend so was crowded and very busy with people in and out all day. Too much chaotic energies I guess.

I do have to say in one way we were lucky to be there. Unfortunately, our first day there, our toilet's flushing mechanism decided not to work anymore, not a good thing! We tried this and tried that, check online for possibilities but nope it gave up the ghost. The front office gave us a couple of names of mobile mechanics in the area and so we started making calls the next morning. One call us back within 10- 15 minutes, said he was in the area and would stop by. One other did call back several hours later and two we never heard from, not helpful. Anyway, Jim from RV First Aid came by, looked it over, as he was just out getting gas he didn't have tools with him so said he would be back after lunch. He was true to his word. He took it out tried this and tried that but to no avail. After spending quite some time puzzling it out and even calling someone who knew more about RV toilets it was decided that our best option was a new one. A toilet is something we are not willing to go without so we agreed. Only place around that had one available was a good hour or so away, every place else would have had to order one and that would have taken a week to get. Since we were scheduled to leave Tuesday, that wasn't a good option. Jim, himself went to pick it up and installed it the next day. To us that was above and beyond. When it was complete and he quoted the price of the new toilet and his time, we just shook our heads. He was there three different times and for a total of several hours, and if you include his travel time to pick it up that was another couple hours. He said he felt bad for us and only was going to charge us his price for the toilet and a stipend for labor. Toto, we are not in New Jersey any more!!! We gave him a bonus as he came out on the holiday weekend and made a new friend. It goes to show there still are some good honest companies out there and I wish him well in all he does.

Back to Terra Starr, well would be ok in a pinch but not someplace I would seek out to go back to. We were able to get a lot of bicycling in as the roads around the campground were traveled much. 

Goodnight for now, ... Onward to Arkansas