Heading South for the Winter

We have spent three wonderful weeks at Cedar Blue (home base) head to Rockport, TX for the winter tomorrow.  We were reminiscing that the Sunday following Thanksgiving last year we had snow and found ourselves driving our motorhome back to Newcastle in that nasty weather.  It was icy, cold and snowing.  We came across cars in the ditch, had to stop multiple times to deice the windshield and vowed never to drive the motorhome in that type of weather again.  This year we haven’t experienced any bad weather in late November, so very thankful we will have good traveling weather to TX.  

The weather this November has been incredible – sunny, warm days, and cool nights; although there is wintry weather headed to Oklahoma next weekend.  The fall colors finally arrived and the park was full of trees with leaves painted in bright gold, crimson red and flaming orange.  We have enjoyed a lot of outdoor time with our fur babies often walking an average of two miles a day or more.  We enjoyed walks both during the daylight hours as well as after dark when you can hear a pin drop since we are out in the woods and there are very few people in the park now.  The nice weather provided us the ability to get a lot of small projects done around the property.  When we return in April we hope to get some painting done but that will be weather permitting since spring is storm season in Oklahoma and yes, we have our own storm shelter.  We also plan to plant some bushes around the patio.  We will have about 10 weeks at home base before heading out on our next adventure in mid-June 2017.

Some have asked us why we choose to stay put at Cedar Blue during the spring storm season and the answer became very clear to us while traveling during storms two years ago.  In the spring, it seems that there are severe storms throughout the entire east half of the country.  When you are on the road you don’t know the names of counties and cities so when high winds and tornadoes are active you have no idea where they are in relation to your own location.  Also, you have no idea where to go to seek shelter.  A tornado missed us by 2 miles on that trip two years ago – very unnerving.  We would much rather stay put at Cedar Blue where we know exactly what’s going on and we have our own shelter to get into. 

We spent Thanksgiving at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Norman, OK for a couple of nights.  It’s a very nice hotel with an indoor pool, hot tub, a huge free breakfast buffet as well as a free manager’s reception nightly.  They are also very dog friendly – even providing their furry guests with goodie bags.  Ours included some nice treats, bottled water and a great ball.  Dinner was at Legends Restaurant with a dear friend.  It was very nice intimate dining with good food and conversation.  They even gave us desserts to go on top on the desserts we had already eaten.  While in the city we did a bit of shopping, got April’s shots and other vet things taken care of, wondered around the Myriad Gardens in downtown Oklahoma City and visited some friends.  Oh, yes – we did enjoy the hotel’s pool, hot tub and bathtub!  We are hoping to get a portable hot tub for two for our place at Cedar Blue as our Christmas present to ourselves!

We spent Monday and Tuesday making sure we had everything organized to be gone for an extended period.  The cargo hauler is secured on the back of the jeep and loaded up a few extras to take with us.  We also wanted the cargo hauler in case we decide to travel overnight someplace without the RV as there isn’t room in the jeep for suitcases and dog crates.  I’m hoping after taxes are prepared, we have the cash to trade our current 2-door jeep for a slightly newer 4-door jeep.  We are leaving one of our vehicles at Cedar Blue so we need to top off the gas tank to stop condensation, put a trickle charger on it, moth balls under it and a cover over it.

So off we go for our first year as ‘snowbirds’.  We will be staying at Wilderness Oaks RV Park in Rockport.  Once we get ourselves situated there I will put up a post.  Although ‘home’ is now our RV I still consider home to be someplace in Oklahoma so it’s going to be a bit of a transition for me into this next stage of our lives, as I’ve never been away from home for four months.

A Visit to Sipokni West - an unusual place

I won’t normally write about a visit to a restaurant other than in my restaurant reviews but last night was an experience unlike anything we’ve had when eating out – especially out in the middle of nowhere in southern Oklahoma.  We had recently heard about Sipokni West (www.sipokniwest.com) from some friends in the RV park, which is about 30 minutes from us.  In all our years of coming to this area we had never heard of this place and it’s been around since the early 1990’s.  So, last night we headed that way with another couple to check it out.

Upon arriving in Reagan, OK, which you won’t find on a map and I find that surprising as it does have a tiny bit of size to it, but it’s just west of the Tishomingo Fish Hatchery, we headed down a small side road a short distance to a sign for the place, turned left and followed a winding road through tall hay and rock and arrived at what appeared to be a wild west town.  This place is only opened Thursday – Saturday and tonight was Thursday and we had beaten the crowd.  Apparently on Friday and Saturday there are long waits to eat.  We parked on the outskirts and headed into town - just a few yards!  Oh my, what a surprise.  We were in the middle of the street of an entire wild west town with everything from a jail, saloon, general store to a school room, telegraph operator and cemetery.  These were not just store fronts but buildings you could walk into that were each museums in themselves.  Apparently, movies are shot here.  The owner build each of these buildings himself starting in 1991 and I have no idea how long it took him to find all the old things to place inside them.  The Sheriff’s office had two very real looking jail cells in them!  We felt like we had just experienced a time machine ride.

The restaurant is in the saloon, of course.  Initially, it seems that there is limited seating but we were told there was plenty more seating in other rooms.  In fact, they have enough space to host special events.  The owner informed us she was cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 65 family members this year!  There is no alcohol served but their tea was excellent and the glasses never emptied.  We tried the chicken fry steak and we were not disappointed.  You could actually find the meat in it!!  It came with 3 sides, as much gravy as you wanted and Reagan toast so half the meal when home with me.  I also tried their homemade coconut pie and again was not disappointed.  One of the best and unique I’ve had.  It had a graham cracker type of crust and instead of meringue it had real whipped cream on top.  It was yummy.  The menu wasn’t huge but they offered enchiladas as well as catfish, burgers and some lighter options.  The ladies that were taking care of everybody were wonderful.  They were funny, hospitable and tended to anything you requested.  They were also very funny - especially the owner's wife.  There was no way you could sit through a meal without a smile on your face.

We will definitely return to this place and encourage anybody interested in making a day of it to seek this place out and give it a try.  It will be worth the trip.  Also, take time to check out their website.

Our First Week at our New Home Base

Our first week at our new home base – Cedar Blue RV Park – has been wonderful.  The beautiful fall weather has given us sunny days in the upper 60s and low 70s and cool nights.  We are out in the woods near Lake Arbuckle and beside the Chickasaw National Recreation Area so we have a wonderful view at night of the starry sky and moon.  We had a great view of the super moon last night with no city lights or clouds.  It was very bright.

We have used this past week to get a bunch of small projects done.  Our satellite dish has been on a tripod in the drive area taking up parking space so we relocated it to the upper part of the canopy over the RV.  Thank goodness we had a ladder with a long extension as we had to put it at the top of the post so the RV didn’t hit it when we drove it in and out.  Now we have room for both cars and the waverunner side-by-side with room for parking a couple of more cars if we have guests.  We charged up and moved some of our motion lights to give us better lighting at night so we can see to walk to the door of the RV without being in the dark.  The gates in the fencing around our porch needed some tender loving care so they would open and shut better and John took care of them.  The hammock needed to be rearranged and leveled out a bit so we had a better view of the sunsets and the TV on the porch.  John and the girls love sleeping on that.  In the fall it’s nice when you can snuggle up with pillows and a blanket in the cool evenings.  The yard needed mowing!  Not only did we need to mow but the knock-out roses still have roses on them.  Imagine that, roses and mowing in November.  Each time we came to Cedar Blue this year there was always 3-4”of rain in the rain gauge and after being gone this past three weeks there was another 3” in it.  The last project was to stabilize a table that John built for us last year.  He built a nice table with fold down sides so we could use it in our add-on room as a side table or for eating with visitors or playing games and doing puzzles.  However, after it was done, we realized the base and legs were a bit too narrow so it could tip if too much weight was put on one of the folded-out sides.  So, John got after it and built some bases for the legs to give it more support.  I’m in the process of staining those and then they will be secured to the legs and we will be all set.  We look forward to some cards, games and meals around it with visitors.

This past week we made a drive to Ardmore to get the things to fix the table and drove back via Turner Falls.  There is a great lookout on Hwy 77 that overlooks the falls.  When we arrived, we found they have put in a zipline that’s about 777’ long that goes out over the Turner Falls area.  We are going to have to try that out.  You can ride single or double.  It’s called the Turner Falls Zipline - 777 Zip.

This week they are predicting continued great weather and I hope we can take the girls on some of the trails in the Recreation Area.  There are so many pretty areas for walking and hiking here.  John has also assured me that I’m not to worry about him getting bored in retirement and to help that assurance he has purchased a PS4 (Play Station 4) to entertain himself.  He has been looking for a good gaming system that doesn’t require him to play online games yet has games that will interest him and this was the one.  He’s hoping to find out the virtual reality accessory might be worth the purchase.  We’ve never had a blue ray device until now so we can now watch blue ray movies on it as well.

For those interested in visiting us at Cedar Blue when we are here in the spring and fall you can make a day trip OR there are hotels, cabins and houses to rent, a bed and breakfast, as well as camping available.  We have some camping spots in our park that can be rented for $30/night with full hookups as well as camping in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area.  The Buckhorn loop is very near us (about a mile away) on the east side of Lake Arbuckle.  There is plenty to do in the Sulphur/Davis area.