We liked our few days at Tenkiller Lake on the nights of 10 and 11 October. We stayed at an area called Strayhorn Landing. While the lake is really gorgeous, it is obvious that the Corps of Engineers hasn’t upgraded their roads or sites to accommodate big rigs easily. The place just had that tired look with narrow cracked roadways. The site itself was lovely though with lots of hickory trees. I was really surprised to see how few people were there!
We drove around the lake just for fun, and pretty much all the COE campgrounds had the same tired appearance. It is such a pretty place that it is really too bad. It is located in the southern Ozarks, and the dam is on the Illinois River. We were too early for the best color, and I don’t think it will be that good this year anyway with the dry season they have had. While Iowa has been flooded with rain, Oklahoma has been parched. That has changed as you can see!
It poured down on us as we left Tenkiller on I-40. The weather service reported 5-7” of rain west of Oklahoma City, something they desperately needed.
We went to our standard spot at the Edmond Elks Lodge. These are the nicest people! On Monday we just talked to the bar tender a bit, but when we came back on Friday, 16 October, we were treated as old friends by numerous people in the lodge. They had a choice of two entrees that night – chicken fried steak and liver and onions. I LOVE liver and onions, and this was among the best I have ever eaten. We usually stop at this spot whenever we are traveling on I-35 or I-40, and each time we remember why we like it so much.
So what were we doing between Monday and Friday? We took off in the truck (cats with us) and drove to Iowa on Tuesday, 650 miles. On Wednesday, the first day of early voting in Iowa, we did our duty. We also ran some errands, cleared out the 2 months of mail, and had dinner with all the kids, one on Tuesday and the rest on Wednesday. Then we did the reverse 650 drive on Thursday. Sigh. We took Friday as a recovery day!
Today we left Edmond and headed west on I-40. Originally we planned to stay in Amarillo, but we got a few miles away and decided to continue on to Tucumcari. As we passed the New Mexico State border, our clocks all turned to mountain time! Lovely. Tonight we are in the Elks Lodge in Tucumari. They have electricity which is handy. Tomorrow night will either be Winslow (hopefully) or Holbrook (if we are tired). That should put us into Quartzsite on Monday, 19 October.