CAMPING DAYS 3-, ARBUCKLE MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUND, DAVIS, OKLAHOMA

JUNE 27-JULY 9, 2009

This blog segment was started on July 4, 2009 and finished on August 3, 2009.We were glad to be back at this little campground, it is quickly becoming like a second home to us. We spent two weeks here in May and the camp host recognized us as we pulled in. She suggested we pull up under the big tree not far from her camper for evening shade, because she knew the weather was going to be hot while we were here. She wasn't wrong it's been 95 and above every day since we've been here.

I'll describe the campground now, just to get it out of the way. It's all grass sites, no sewer–more on this later, but they do have two dump stations. One bathroom building and two shower/bathroom building.

There are a few shade trees scattered about, one existing pavilion and two more being built. With over 200 campsites available.

Now about the sewer thing. You may release grey water at anytime. IF you want to break camp and use their dump stations yourself it's part of your camping fee OR you can hire their honey wagon service that comes to your RV and pumps it out for $8. This is our method of choice.

The shady location she put us at was also very close to the bathroom building. This is very handy for us. We use it like crazy and after a week of being here are just now looking at having to call the honey wagon tomorrow.

The camping fees are low. $12 a night during the Fourth of July time frame. The rest of the time it's $12 a night unless you stay over a week and then they are $10 per night for the whole time. We're here for a long time! If you need to run home and leave your camper here, they have some even lower rates for that too.

But the low camping fees are not the big draw it's what goes on here FOUR times a year. Bluegrass!! Gary and I absolutely love Bluegrass music. In May, July 4, and October it's Bluegrass Jams. In September it's a festival. The spring and fall jams are a week long. The July 4th one is that weekend. We are making plans to hit all four events this year.

We arrived on Saturday and there were already pickers here a week early, every night we have heard some of the finest Bluegrass music this nation has to offer right at our camper door! No I'm not talking big name talent, I'm talking good back porch natural God given talent with no amps, computer generated sounds or other fake things, it's all acoustic.

You will hear beginners and people who have been strumming instruments all their long lives playing together. It doesn't matter your abilities, all are welcome.

Each jam they have a potluck mid jam. July 4th featured the owners and hosts providing hot dogs and homemade ice cream for the entire camp. We all brought go withs to add to the meal. You cannot imagine the good country food that we had for supper today.

Back to coming in on Saturday. We knew arriving that we'd be staying for at least one week, probably as much as a month. So Gary set up camp to the max. Including putting his flagpole and US flag up

If you RV much you've seen these flag poles, made out of pvc pipe. The move in the wind and will hold a full size flag. He also set up our solar yard lights we use to illuminate it at night.

The next morning we found our flag surrounded by people discussing the pole and the set-up. Gary told them to measure it if they wanted to, after all we had ours because someone had told us the same thing.

Imagine our surprise when we came back from doing twelve shops on Monday to find not just our flag flying, but four more on duplicate flag poles. The next day produced more, and more. Until there were over dozen flying proudly to salute our nation and it's veterans. They were all made by one man, who GAVE them away. He even set them up for folks. All they had to do was buy their own flag, and they all did! We have a young man in the National Guard camped behind us and he has one US Flag and one National Guard Flag on his two poles.

It was something to see, something I'd planned on scrapbooking, but once again I got crossed up. Big storms moved in before I got my camera out today, and all the flags and poles, including ours, had to be yanked in quickly because we were told 50 mph winds were coming, with hailstones.

The first of the storm turned out much like one of my old rendezvous stories, which I'll post later on. The second one, the one that has been raging all evening made me glad our flags were all safe.

The weather broke just long enough for us to picnic and let me tell you it was all delicious!

I took a simple dish made from what I had in the camper. Sausage balls. the original recipe calls form making it with Bisquik, I make it with a homemade version of that product. I don't have the recipe with me right now, but I promise to post it at a future date. I do have the sausage ball recipe with me so here it is:

Sausage Balls
2 cups Bisquik or the home made equivalent
1 pound sausage
10 oz. shredded cheddar or other cheeses

Preheat oven to 350.

Now you have a decision to make. To pre-cook or not to precook the sausage. The original recipe calls for using it raw. I have done this in the past and they were very good, but a little greasy for me. However, if you pre-cook and drain the grease then you are going to have to add a little water or milk to the mix to make everything stick together well enough to form a firm ball.

So you simply mix all the ingredients together well then roll it into 1-1.5 inch balls, slightly larger if you like. Place them on a baking sheet you have sprayed with cooking spray and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Back to my story.

They tried valiantly to play a little music after dinner, but with all the awnings, and tents down they had to stop when the second wave of rain hit they had to stop.

So we, Gary and I have spent the evening in the camper. He finishing up the repair job on the closet and I catching up on emails and blogging a bit.

The explanation on the closet will be in the camping trip prep info that will follow at another time.

Something else I found special about this trip and how nice everyone is here. Gary is a Viet Nam vet, and like so many others of that era he came home to hatred and was called a baby killer. It wasn't until recent years that he has, like all the others been thanked publicly for the service they performed for this nation.

Two nights ago he was in the camper working on the closet–it is a long saga–and one of the musicians asked me to get him. I did, they wanted to salute him, the young man in the Coast Guard and two other vets. Then they sang an original song about 911 and their pride in our service men written by the same David that made all the flag poles.

My normally shy husband is becoming more self confident around this group of folks. I actually heard him sing the course of "I'll Fly Away." the other night, something I've never heard him do in public in the 36 years we've been married. It's a good camp..

Follow up to this entry, written August 3, 2009. By the fifth of July much of the camp had left. Gary an I had scared up enough work to do through the ninth. Each day we scoured theonline postings for just a few more shops to do before we moved on. We finally had to head or the house after we had been there 13 days.

camping fees for 13 days $156
one time blackwater holding tank pumping $8