September 2016 - Took us two months to leave Texas... but we finally made it to OK

Found a great way to share our route and will try to include a link to it every month so everyone can follow along to see how much or how little we have traveled in the previous month. The link for our September travels can be found here: http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5841379905765376

Susan and I left Lake Conroe on the 31^st of August and headed to Thousand Trails Bay Landing http://www.rvonthego.com/texas/bay-landing-rv-campground/ in Bridgeport, TX. We found that park to be nice; it was very large with huge sites.

Unfortunately, there were only a few full hookup sites and we ended up in one with 30 Amp electric and water only. Now take a rig of our size that’s total electric AND combine that with Texas summer temperatures -  it takes some juggling of ACs and appliances to make 30 Amps work, but we did. With electrical limitations, this park would be best to visit in late fall, winter and early spring. No major sightseeing as Susan was still recovering but we did enjoy a nice quiet day sitting in lawn chairs at the lake and a nice seafood meal at the clubhouse. Everyone at the clubhouse was very friendly. The pool was closed for repairs which did greatly disappoint Susan. However, we would easily recommend this park, just be wary of the electrical issue and no sewer hook ups. We did make it work for the time we were there and only triped the breakers a couple of times.
On the 5^th of September we departed for our next stop at Thousand Trails Lake Texoma (http://www.rvonthego.com/texas/lake-texoma-rv-campground/ )near Gordonville, TX. On arrival we found a good spot backed up to a big pond with full hookups and plenty of shade.

We thought all was good UNTIL (there seems always to be an UNTIL) I walked outside only to be greeted by the ranger who said “Mr. Wickett we are going to have to ask you to leave the park” Now mind you we had been there less than 30 minutes. I looked at the ranger with probably a very strange face, “Excuse me?” She proceeded to tell me that I had been seen by a park employee throwing bags of trash out on the side of the road when we were “stopped” right after coming through the gate to unhook our truck. My first thought was WTH” followed by “Now wait just a second.” I agreed that we had stopped to unhook the truck and agreed there were two small bags of trash laying on the ground. I told her that I had even started to pick them up to throw them away until I discovered they had dog poop in them - and I wasn’t going to pick up someone else’s dog doo!

She agreed that the bags had dog poop in them but said the employee specifically saw me throw them out….LOL I kinda laughed and said “Ma’am that would be impossible as we don’t even own a dog and have no pets of any kind but you are free to explore our coach if you would like to verify.” This rather upset me from the get go as I am a responsible camper and always strive to leave a park in as good or better condition as I found it. For me to have two bags full of dog poop would be more odd than me throwing them out on the side of the road…lol She gave me a funny look, apologized and indicated she would talk to the employee who “saw me throwing out trash” immediately. You just can’t make this stuff up! Aw we start off good…lol

We were only at Lake Texoma for a week, but it was a very nice and relaxing week. Susan and I took several long walks and “swam” about every day. Ok, I swam and

One of two pools at Lake Texoma

Susan walked around in the shallow area as the doctor recommended she not submerge for a while longer. Now the swimming was good because it was a huge pool and except for one other couple there was no one there and we had it to ourselves. The other couple, Randy and Debra LaBrash, were very nice, we stay in contact with them still and will be camping with them in March in Arizona. We would again recommend this park, there are several 50 Amp full hookup sites and all the 50 Amps we saw would accommodate large rigs. There are MANY 30 Amp full hook up sites but most of those are either too short or too hard to get into with a big rig, so beware if going there. Side note, I was very proud to see this park flying the flags of our military services EXCEPT the Coast Guard……ugggh

All of the short hops and continual TX stays were because of the earlier issues I spoke of, but also because we had an appointment at http://www.mcdinnovations.com/ to replace all of our old string day/night shades in the coach with new, modern, string-less day/night shades. This was something we were really looking forward too and if you have ever had a coach with the old string shades you can certainly understand. We arrived at MCD on Sept 11th  for our appointment for the 12th.

MCD was outstanding! They had us a parking spot with 50 Amp power all ready for our arrival and right on schedule on Monday morning they came out and began the process. The first day was nothing but measuring all of our windows as the shades are custom built while you wait. Day two and three was nothing but waiting on manufacture and day four was the install.

It was pretty uneventful just sitting there in the parking lot camping and waiting. Well, not just waiting - we did have company too. Jeff and Karen (Susan's brother and his significant other) who live about 45 minutes away in Grapevine stopped by to visit and invited us out to dinner.

We also had a visit from Randy and Debra - the couple we met at the swimming pool at Lake Texoma. They decided to stop in and check things out and they ended up ordering new shades for their coach before they left.

We have been wanting new shades for years and - oh, but the wait was worth it. We LOVE our new window shades…… The install was actually completed by about noon on Thursday, but we didn’t have to be at our next destination in Oklahoma until Friday afternoon so we decided to spend one more free parking night before leaving to head to the big OK.

Mid morning on Sept 16^th we said our farewells to the MCD parking lot and began our trip to the motherland…..yep, Oklahoma here we come. It was an uneventful, and relatively short drive up to the Sallisaw KOA in Sallisaw, Ok http://koa.com/campgrounds/sallisaw/?utm_source=power-listings&utm_medium=yext-partner&utm_content=website-link&utm_campaign=Yext- our home for the remainder of the month. This campground is right off of I-40 which makes it a great place for a quick stop when traveling. Rates are reasonable and they do offer a weekly as well as a monthly rate for anyone interested in sticking around like we do.

HOWEVER, we were in OK and OK has bad storms and yes we were greeted with one of these….We had made plans to go to a HS football game the night we arrived to town and arranged to meet cousins there. Well we got there, got into the stands and all hell broke loose so we all ran to the truck and sat there for an hour until the wind and rain subsided (the game was delayed), then we said to heck with it and we went to a cousins house and visited. When we arrived back at the KOA there were many limbs down and my big flagpole was hanging from the tree, but no apparent damage to any rig….lol WELCOME HOME BRETT.

#1 Cousins 

We had MUCH to do in Oklahoma while we were there and believe it or not, we got it all done and still had time to visit with some wonderful cousins 
and even take time for a very nice motorcycle ride with cousin Kelly and her husband Ross. Susan and I had pretty much laid out our plans for our attack on OK prior to our arrival as one event hinged on another. But during our visit we had to change the registration on the truck, motorcycle and motorhome, get new OK vehicle tags,  get new drivers licenses, go to the VA to get set up in OK, get a tax exempt card, get our passports, get my concealed carried license and apply for a handicapped mirror tag….Believe it or not, nearly every event had a story and a specific order, but we still got it all done. OK has to be about the most backward state I have had to deal with, and most of their stuff cannot be done online.

Love seeing her happy!

Oh yea, did I mention we also had time to take my mom to Tulsa and she bought a new motorhome so she could meet us from time to time……Yeaaaaa! I won’t bore you with all the little details, but it was a very busy couple of weeks. We were very glad to get to spend time with my mom, my Aunt and Uncle Raymond and Louanne and cousins Kelly, Deloris, Memorie and Jennifer (all sisters) and some of the finest people I could ever have in my life, even though one of them caused me to NOT have GRITS for breakfast….:-) I love ya’ll beyond belief, thanks for always being there…..NO WAIT, two of them were NOT there when we hauled our furniture to OK to put in storage...BUT.. oh, nevermind - lol!

 And then just like that, October 2^nd had arrived and we had to get on the road again continuing our northern trek. Missouri here we come.