Tag: Edmond

Mountain time zone (finally)

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!

Big campsite with lots of trees and 30 amp electricity

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!

One rainbow
Two rainbows! (Look carefully!)

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.

Iowa – home again first time in 2025

It was time to get home. Always something to look forward to, and something we regret since we love the Southwest so much. I did some serious medication and lots of heating pad use, and I was able to drive semi-comfortably.

We left Monument Valley and went to Page, AZ, staying at the Elks Lodge 4 April.  It was a gravel parking lot, and they charged $15 for dry camping. I thought that was fairly high, but, then again, Page is a big vacation spot. Very friendly people though. The next night we went to the Twin Arrows Casino outside Flagstaff, AZ. It is always an easy spot to stay, free, and not too noisy. On 6 April we spent the night at Santa Rosa State Park, NM. Lovely place. It is a bit of a pain to get to, but worth it for a beautiful and quiet spot. We thought about staying two nights, but there was weather coming in, so we kept going.

Monday saw us all the way through Texas and into Elk City, OK where we spent the night at the Elks Lodge. Again it had no hookups, but we were able to find a nice spot. We got to Oklahoma City fairly early on Tuesday. We stayed at the Edmond Elks Lodge. Not very nice due to crowding. We could hear a lot of conversations from surrounding coaches! We stayed two days because a group of elementary and high school friends were getting together. I keep forgetting how little I have in common with the people I went to high school with! I think this will be the last time I try to get together with them. Life definitely does go on.

We spent 10 April on the trip at the Kansas Star Casino south of Wichita. Great place to spend a quiet night for free. The lot we stayed in was gravel, but it was pretty flat and relatively unoccupied. There is an alternative spot closer to the casino that was asphalt, but it was slightly more occupied. Our last night was spent at the Walmart in Osceola, IA. Lots of reefers running all night, but it was handy. A bad wind was coming, so we left early and headed straight home.

We got here this morning and put the motorhome at Big Woods Lake County Park. We are about half unpacked, and we will finish tomorrow. The cats are enjoying the space. Each of them is rubbing their faces over pretty much every surface, marking the place as theirs after so long.

With the new RZR and tariffs being on and off, Kevin has ordered all kinds of things for it. We had them delivered to my oldest son’s place. A lot of things are big (front and rear windshields, bumper, etc.), and our son has joked that he will give us the bill for the storage unit the items required! He also said we owe the poor UPS guy who has to walk up 20 steps or so to their front door! Kevin will be fully employed getting everything put on. I have a list of things to quilt, and I need to get them done before we leave again around Memorial Day, so most posts going forward will probably be quilt-related.