June Oklahoma

And what a surprise Oklahoma was for us. We expected dried up grasses and flat lands where the dust still swirls. Were we ever wrong! Spent most of our time in the “Green Hills” and it was rolling hills, plush grasses, trees and lots and lots of lakes, mainly reservoirs. Oklahoma gets its name from Choctaw Chief Allen Wright; okla meaning people and humma meaning red and was first introduced in 1866 and adopted in 1890. The earth is red and the state is beautiful.

Oklahoma became a state 1907; never participated in the Civil War although the Texas Road was used by both side armies as an important travel route. After the war this route was the main cattle drive from Texas to Kansas. Route 66 sprang up as people traveled west and although most of the original road is taken over by I40, there are parts that remain and try and hold on to the nostalgic of the old times.

The Trails and Tribulations of June

Actually, it has been a pretty quiet month – no flat tires, no squeaks, or anything major with Wanda. However, Ty did manage to bump his head several times producing blood worthy gashes in his head; some things never change. And we did have a major infestation of carpenter ants. Must have picked them up when we camp in the wet woods. Nasty looking buggers and they only came out at night when lights off and mostly stayed to the floor in living area but an occasional one was found on the wall. Sleeping at night was tough knowing these monsters were roaming around. Borax mixed with powdered sugar, laid down on their paths was their demise. Took about 10 days to finally eliminate them, but that and the fact that we moved locations twice which meant the nest was left behind. Gross though was when they ingested the borax then they craved water so every morning we would have a pile of them in our shower; ewwww.

We really enjoyed Oklahoma, glad we got there before the tornado season started up. It was HOT, but so was the rest of country so can’t fault OK for that. And the storms we encounter were all night boomers.

IF you are interested in the details of June, read on. Next month, July, we will be in Colorado enjoying the family.

Brynteson Tour of Oklahoma

Aptly named as Donna and Paul, whom spent 13 years in OK, sent us a list of places to visit while on the Eastern side of the state. And we did!

Lake Texoma

Lake Texoma

We left Waco and wandered up to Lake Texoma and spent a rainy/sunshine/rainy 5 days with the most perfect camp spot. Up on a bluff, secluded except for all the geese who also like this grassy, secluded spot. If we had a watercraft of some sort, we could have traveled the lake but we had to be content with tying our floaties up to the dock with a line to let us drift a little. Which we did in between every rain shower, getting out of the water once the lightning and thunder started up again.

RoadWashOut

Robbers Cave

Just a few miles north and east of Lake Texoma and the wow did the scenery ever change! Have gone from flat and sparsely treed to hilly almost mountainous and plush with trees and grasses. And the lakes! Robbers Cave is notorious for the many bandits who hung out hiding from the law. Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris sing about the most famous of them all: “I’ll be your Belle Starr if you’ll be my Jesse James” James was just one of four who was crazy for Belle and hung out with her; she was a ruthless bandit herself, shot dead in the back.

Camping here was challenging. The first site, yes the first of three, was a “shared pull-thru” and unfortunately we couldn’t share because Wanda took up the whole space. We then were reassigned to site 40, nice site in the woods but we didn’t realize was at the bottom of the hill. Rained and rained and rained (over 1 ½ inches overnight) and all that rain rushed down road and hills creating a mudslide into our site. Ty tried to dig a ditch to no avail. Site #3 was just perfect. High and dry, cement pad to rest Wanda on and full hook-ups. Only cost us $3 more.

Went to hike to Robbers Cave the day after the rain and got to see first hand what water over the roadway means (see pic), couldn’t get across so we came back 48 hours later and what a difference (see pic).

Tenkiller Lake

Moving on to the heart of the Osage and Cherokee Nation and it is absolutely beautiful! Tenkiller Lake is named after a prominent Cherokee family by the white soldiers and pioneers at Ft. Gibson, because of the ten notches on his bow.

Will Rogers

A 1922 silent short film starring (and written by) Will Rogers, in which he shows off many of the rope tricks that made him a vaudeville star with the Ziegfeld Follies from 1916 to 1925. 

Take a minute and watch it on You Tube:

“The Ropin’ Fool” you will be amazed!

Tulsa

Got to Tulsa just as the city was winding down the 100 year remembrance of Black Wall Street and the Tulsa massacre. Not a pretty time in Tulsa history and to make matters worse, the city decided to wipe it away by tearing down that section. AND 39 people were killed BUT over 400 were unaccounted for and not one person was ever arrested for this crime. It was sobering to partake in the last day of the remembrance. Woody Guthrie museum also finds its home in Tulsa so we made our way through that.

We actually stayed in a town called Skiatook which was close to Tulsa and of course on a reservoir (Skiatook Lake). Found a great Rails-to-Trails that you could ride all the way into Tulsa (14 miles) but of course you have to ride back. We opted for 20 mile round trips.

Will Rogers museum also in the area so we stopped in. Interesting guy, he was especially known for being “nonpolitical” but gets the idea across.  WR actually got his start in vaudeville twirling a rope and telling jokes – which lead to what he became. Rope twirling wa!s his specialty and he devised some rope tricks that cannot be duplicated today. He made a slow-motion documentary showing his many rope tricks which we watched twice because it was so fascinating to see how the rope maneuvers up and around the horse and rider.

Look close at the pic – yes that is a cow in the middle of a algae pond. One will do anything to escape the heat

sculptures OK City

Oklahoma City

We hit all the “hot spots” and found this to be a very pleasant city to be in. Of course, State Capital was first on our list and we got a private tour which is always a treat. Then onto the Oklahoma History Museum, Stockyards (not much going on there – had lunch), and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum (another private tour plus met the artist of Cougar and Otters sculpture – see pic). Oklahoma has revitalized the Bricktown area which use to be a warehouse district with a small canal running through it. Now it is a pleasant walkway with a few restaurants lining the way.

Black Kettle Carrizo Canyon

Homeward Journey

Black Kettle: I was anxious to return back to Boulder to see the family so we cut the travel thru Oklahoma short and started the homeward trek. But we wanted to see the prairie grasslands of Oklahoma so we overnight at Black Kettle Prairie National Forest. So calm and lush with a lake and we were tempted to go swimming but lightning and thunder all around us so we decided best not. That night we hardly slept at all because of the storms that kept passing through. At one point it just lightening for about an hour straight. One flash after another.

Carrizo Canyon: picked a spot on the map for another prairie grassland and headed out. This spot is in the south east corner of Colorado and is a canyon with one of 2 perennial rivers (in this area). What a lush spot this was. This was a boondocking spot, only 3 campsites and we had to drive 20 miles down a dirt road, got lost, had to turn around (not an easy thing to do pulling 30feet, some cowboy pulls along side and gives us directions to the camp spot (they were wrong too) and finally wade our selves thru a herd of cows and camped in probably the most serene spot we have ever been in.

John Martin Reservoir/Lake Hasty: last stop before Boulder. Needed a place with electricity, water and a dump station so we could “spring clean” Wanda before we store her in Boulder for 3 weeks. What a little gem of a campground this is just east of Las Animas. Sometimes I wish we had a boat.

Oklahoma!

So that’s it for the month of June; thanks Paul and Donna for the suggestions!