Today we continued West on I-40 to Oklahoma City at 9:15 AM CDT and then headed North on I-35. We took a short detour to the Oklahoma City Camping World (which we stopped at on our 2018 trip as well) to pickup some Dicor Self Leveling Sealant. We discovered a leak coming in through our bathroom cabinet which we assume is coming through the seal around our kitchen vent or our bathroom skylight. When we stop somewhere that it’s not expected to rain my chief sealant application engineer will climb up on the roof and apply the sealant.
We stopped for lunch in a truck parking area about 70 miles North of Oklahoma City. The Queen of GasBuddy had us stop at one of the last exits in Oklahoma to top off on $1.85/gal diesel fuel at a Shell station (second best price ever). The toll for the I-35 portion of the drive through Kansas was $5.25 (exiting onto I-135/I-235).
We arrived at All Seasons RV Park just West of Wichita, KS at 3:00 PM CDT. This is another no frills RV Park. Based on the office building it appears to be a former KOA. The sites are very tight and our neighbor is parked in the opposite direction so our doors face each other and I think in my younger days I could have jumped from our entry step to theirs. However, the price is right at $36/night (with our GoodSam’s discount) and we got another $5 refund from American Express for shopping at a small business. We have good satellite access and for the second night in a row we have very good Wi-Fi service.
Today we left Lake Catherine State Park and headed West again. Actually, we started out heading East on I-30 towards Little Rock and picked up I-40 and started heading West. We decided on our last trip that we would never take the hilly twisting turning back-roads to/from Fort Smith again. We departed at 9:00 AM CDT and arrived here at the Lazy 8 RV Park in Henryetta, OK (where Troy Aikman attended high school) at approximately 3:15 PM CDT.
We stopped for lunch at the Ozarks Rest Area just East of Fort Smith, AR and ate sandwiches. I opened a bag of Doritos which may be the first ones we’ve had since staying with my parents last summer. It’s a good thing we don’t buy Doritos very often because they are truly addictive. Beth (the proverbial queen of “Gas Buddy”) found diesel fuel at the Murphy USA in Sallisaw, OK for $1.84/gal (yet another new record). It’s fun filling the RV up on the first try (no breaking out another credit card when reaching the $100 limit). Since we were at a Walmart, Beth ran in and grabbed some groceries.
This is a “no frills” RV Park just off of I-40. There are only about 8 or 10 sites, but they are all pull through and have full hookups (with 50 Amp electrical service). We are adjacent to a BBQ restaurant which the park owner also owns. The reviews say that the BBQ is very good, but unfortunately they are only open Thurs – Sun, so we won’t get to try it out. The park has very good Wi-Fi access and free laundry (so Beth is knocking out a couple of loads).
We left Pampa, TX around 8:20AM continuing east on TX-152 until we hit I-40 near Sayre, TX. We dealt with considerable wind, but it didn’t seem as bad as the previous day until we hopped on I-40 at which point the crosswinds were severe and seemed to change directions regularly causing the kayak to start flopping around again on top of the Tahoe. We had to stop at the first I-40 exit and go through the re-securing process again. This time I loosened the front kayak supports and ensured they were completely under the kayak and then pulled the straps down perpendicularly as tight as humanly possible. This apparently worked because the kayak never moved another inch.
We decided to stay at Twin Fountains RV Resort in Oklahoma City so that we’d be close to town so we could celebrate our retirement with a nice steak at one of the local restaurants. Assuming that the resort would be a bit more high end than your standard campground we made our first stop ever at a Blue Beacon Truck Wash to spruce up the Winnebago. I was surprised how clean they got the RV by only using pressure washers (about 8 hand held wands) and hot water with soap. The RV looked great and we didn’t feel like the Beverly Hillbillies checking in at what was the nicest place we had ever camped up to that point. The cats did NOT enjoy the RV wash at all…but that is a story for another day.
Upon arrival I was unable to open the door to our power and water bay. I had to crawl underneath the door and manipulate the latch with a screwdriver to get it open. It turned out that the plastic latch had broken and needed to be replaced. I managed to re-secure the door once we got the power and water hooked up and we quickly showered and prepared for our big meal out on the town (we wore our “going to town pants” and everything).
Beth chose to eat at the Mahogany Prime Steakhouse in downtown Oklahoma City. We were able to park on the street with our kayak and bicycle in tow. Beth chose wisely! Dinner was incredible. I had a Bone-in Filet Mignon and the waiters convinced Beth to try the special which was a Bone-in Cowboy Ribeye (and may now be her favorite steak). We split a side of Au Gratin potatoes covered in smoked cheddar cheese. While we were at the bar waiting for our table we shared an appetizer of Tenderloin on Toast Points (roasted pepper and red wine sauce, served with béarnaise) which could have been a meal in itself. We each had one and brought remaining home to enjoy for multiple future breakfasts (with eggs).
Tenderloin on Toast Points
Filet Mignon
Bone-in Ribeye
The following day I did some research and determined that the local Camping World had a replacement compartment door latch in stock, so once we got around we went there and procured two latches (one spare). On the way back we stopped at a Crest grocery store for supplies and Beth discovered that they stocked Eckrich bologna (it’s like I won the lottery). Forget fancy meals at the Mahogany Prime Steakhouse, I had the most incredible bologna sandwich for lunch the very next day.
Eckrich Bologna
Unfortunately, the compartment door latch was riveted in from the factory and I didn’t have a rivet tool in my toolbox. You know you’re in a high end RV Resort when you can call an onsite mobile RV repairmen and he shows up in less than an hour with rivet tool (and rivets) in hand. By the time he arrived, I had drilled out the old rivets, replaced the latch and all I needed him to do was install two rivets. He was done in 5 minutes and didn’t want any money. I made him take a $20 and we were both happy.
We left Wakeeney, KS this morning at 9:10 AM EDT and arrived at the Guthrie, OK Walmart at 3:18 PM EDT to stock up on supplies before moving on to Cedar Valley RV Park. The campground here is about 5 miles straight west of I-35, but we had an interesting time getting here from the local Walmart. I always verify my GPS routes on the map to make sure I’m not going to run into any issues, but I hadn’t accounted for the side trip to Walmart. The GPS routed us down the main street of Guthrie which was very beautiful. It was the original Oklahoma state capital and one of the home of one of the land offices involved in the Land Run of 1889 (we would be interested in touring the town for a day on a future trip). Unfortunately, the street dead ends into a cross street and due to construction, the bridge we needed to take was closed (missing). We were forced to turn left and it was starting to look like we were going to have to stop and unhook the Tahoe so we could turn the RV around. The final cross street went back to town, but it was brick and had a lot of very large dips. We drug our tail end a bit at a couple of rough intersections. The RV has a pair of metal drag bars back there to protect it, so there was no damage that we could find, but it certainly put our knickers in a bind.
The campground sites are all pull-thru with 50 Amps and septic at each site and plenty of space between. The Verizon reception is 3 bars with great LTE download and upload speeds. The free Wi-Fi is basically useless. There aren’t a lot of trees, so we had no issues setting up the satellite.
A large percentage of the campers here are work campers (construction), but the owners don’t let any of them have the code to the bathrooms and showers because they come home work too filthy.
We will be heading for Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas first thing tomorrow.
