BACK TO TULSA RV RANCH, BEGGS, OK—Camp 29

As we left Kilgore, TX Murphy jumped in the back seat of the truck and decided it was time to create another little bit of mischief.  It was a trailer tire going flat this time.  

Luckily the tire minder warned us and we were able to pull over before it blew.

Once again it was on the drivers side, and this time we were on a fairly narrow stretch of highway.  

A call to AAA got us help in due time, but this time we had to use Gary’s card because Murphy had maxed mine out for the year.  We really need to get rid of that hitch hiker.

We had planned on going on in to Tulsa RV Ranch that night, but with the delay of the flat we pulled into the Choctaw Travel Plaza and Casino near Hugo, OK to boondock. 

It was Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and we were pretty certain we would have to wait until Monday until we could get a trailer tire.

Instead of even trying to find one that late in the evening on a Sunday of a holiday weekend I called my long time friend and fellow rendezvouer Linda Lou Alexander, who lives near where we were camped for the night.  

I have mentioned Linda Lou in another post, one that is a true story of the events at one rendezvous.  You can read “Be Careful What You Ask for” by clicking the hyperlink to refresh your memory.

Besides being a good friend she is also an excellent basket maker.  So of course I have written a review of her baskets, complete with some photos on my “Outside a Dog” blog as well.

Linda Lou came right over that night to chat with us for a while and then again bright and early the next morning to take us looking for a tire so we wouldn’t have to unhook the truck from the trailer. She knew just where to take us.

She also took us to look at various campgrounds in the area.  Many were beautiful, the prettiest one of all, one we had previously considered for camping instead of the Truck Plaza.  We had decided against it at the last minute because we hate arriving in campgrounds after dark.

We definitely made the right choice.  The campground was fairly full and would have been a very tight fit to work our fifth wheel into any of the available spots .

If we hadn’t already been late getting back to Tulsa we would have stayed another day or so to visit a few things in the area like the circusperformer cemetery at Hugo, OK Linda Lou mentioned to us just before dark.  We definitely have it on our list to go back and see.

I have already written about the Tulsa RV Ranch on our previous visits, not too much had changed except we noticed that they were paving the rodeo arena and had signs up that they were instead installing a Pick ‘n Pay auto parts place, read salvage yard.  We were not amused. 

They were paving part of the roads in the park, so that was a good thing.

Neither were we amused that the campsite we were given was not the one we had requested months earlier and it was heavily littered with dog poo.  Before we could complain to management about the dog poo another camper arrived to camp next to us with her two dogs and immediately cleaned both our campsites with her handy pooper scooper because she didn’t want her dogs in another dogs droppings.  Thank you kind lady.

We love dogs, but ours do not travel with us.  They are farm dogs that are happy having the right to run free on our 90 acres.  They would not be happy on a 6 ft leash for certain. Therefore we do not want to clean up after other campers’ dogs. Not to mention our labs are a little big to haul the two of them with us, as you can see.

We paid the monthly rate plus a one week rate to stay this time because we were home for Thanksgiving, our son’s birthday, Christmas, and into January as well as the usual doctor’s appointments.

Oklahoma seldom has below zero temperatures.  We are native Tulsan’s and we were banking on the normal temperatures while we were there.  More than one Christmas I have worn shorts on Christmas Day. 

Boy did we get a surprise. We suffered through several below zero night time temps and nearly 10 days of frozen pipes despite having heat tape on our heavily insulated water hose and insulating the faucet at the campground.  So much for that spigot being frost proof.  Not to mention our Montana has the arctic package on it.

Luckily we did not get any burst pipes, other campers were not as lucky, nor was the campground.

A main line burst and the water, after the repair, the rest of our stay was very brown, most likely we thought, from dirt in the lines.  We did not cook with or drink it and it did stain our toilet.  Again, not amused, but burst pipes happen.

The holidays were fun with our son and I particularly enjoyed my birthday gift from my husband.  He took me to Ree Drummond’s, aka: the Pioneer Woman Mercantile.   I love watching her show when I can. I use many of her recipes, especially her Hot Crash Hot Potatoes and FriedPork Chops.

They even had a special event going on that if you went by the Mercantile you would get a free ticket to tour their lodge for free.  For those of you who don’t watch her show the lodge is where they film most of it.  The lodge was huge I will post photos of it and the restaurant in a separate post.

By the way, to show you how splendid of a gift this was the lines were known to be FIVE HOURS LONG to get just inside the restaurant, mainly outside and remember the temps were below freezing during the day and below zero at night.  Yet my wonderful husband was willing to endure it for me. 

Then there was of course all our pets to love on the two dogs pictured above and our three cats.  The grey one, Gypsy, traveled with us as a kitten, but she has made it very clear she has no intention of going on the road with us again. 

She prefers to stay home with Oliver, the black cat that was missing for two months in the summer last year, to battle the calico, Lizzie.

All five animals were glad to see us, but made it clear they were now Sean’s animals and had no desire to travel with us.

To make up for the cold was the great health news both Gary and I received.  We are both in excellent health and the doctors now only need to see me every six months instead of every six weeks or so.  YES!  Freedom to travel further was a great Christmas gift.

TULSA RV RANCH, SECOND VISIT-Camp 20

As I mentioned after our visit to Sioux Falls we ended up just more or less going straight back to the Tulsa RV Ranch in Beggs, OK. 

A few things had changed there since our previous stay.  The saloon was closed, but the Silverado Steakhouse had re-opened.  We  have never eaten there, but a friend says the food is good.

More of the small cowboy cabins had been installed.  Otherwise everything else seemed to have remained the same.

While we were there was a beautiful full moon.

During that full moon this fellow showed up in our living room.

Since he was so well behaved we let him leave town with us for our fall travels.

We were only there two weeks, bouncing back and forth between the RV Ranch and our farm doing basic maintenance while there.

Because the farm is in the woods and near a game reserve we have wildlife at home too.  One evening as we were leaving the farm a doe and fawn crossed the road in front of us.

All in all it was a short stay and we were soon headed east our intended destination  Williamsburg.

TULSA RV RANCH, BEGGS, OKLAHOMA CAMP 9

All the spring and summer rains have made it impossible to get the fifth wheel up the driveway due to washed out ¼ mile drive and trees that grew like crazy due to all the rains.  So we figured rather than damage the Montana it would be worth staying at a campground the few extra days we had decided to stay in the area.

We could have easily stayed at the Okmulgee State Park again, but being the math nerd I am I started looking at numbers both cash wise and time wise.

Tulsa RV Ranch, who accepts Good Sam’s Club and active military discounts, is $35 a night without discounts, or $150 per week, they also have monthly rates and are a year round park. Not to mention they have a horse camp for those who travel with your horses.  You cannot stack discounts and I noticed the electrical boxes on the monthly ones had a meter slot, so that would be a consideration if you were looking at staying there for a month or more.

I will go into more details about the campground after I get through with the math part.

We decided to stay a week extra to take advantage of the weekly discount.  This campground was roughly 5 miles closer to the farm than the one at the lake, and a good 20 miles closer to all the places we needed to run errands to.  Adding in the discounts, the fuel consumption saved and the time.  The RV Ranch was a lot better choice for this trip.

Now about the Tulsa RV Ranch, it is strictly rv’s no tent sites.  Most of the sites are pull through and many of them are 50 amp.  We saw NO public restroom in the campground part, but there was a metal building painted to look like a wild west series of buildings and it did have a bath house on one of the signs, so perhaps it is there. 
Most likely there are at least restrooms in the arena. 

Pets are welcome with all the usual rules.

If you want wi-fi it too is an extra variable fee, we opted to just use the wifi at the farm for our needs. 

What it does have is rental trailers, small cabins, a horse motel, a LARGE arena, a saloon with entertainment, a general store (albeit poorly stocked), putt putt golf course, pool tables, a weekend restaurant, cowboy church, and go carts.  Oh and did I mention it has a horse motel as well?  This is not your usual campground.

It is located right on highway 75 between Okmulgee and Glenpool Oklahoma near the Duck Creek Casino and about 10 miles south of the Glenpool Supercenter Walmart.

They seem to always have something going there, whether it is karaoke at the saloon, or barrel racing in the arena something is always in the works there.  It is also a work in progress.  They are constantly adding more and more to it.

While we were there they seem to be adding more “cowboy cabins” with attached horse stalls by the arena. 

You can visit their website and find out what is going on when at this link Tulsa RV Ranch.

Now for the down side of it. The day we checked in the lady working the desk was less than friendly.  Not mean or grumpy, but I guess “cold” would be the best term.  Perhaps it was because we were there asking for a spot without the trailer and that threw her off.  We explained we were on our way to pick it up, but that didn’t seem to push her friendly button at all. 

We had already been on their website so we knew about the weekly rate, but when I asked about other discounts she volunteered no info.  You see at that point we weren’t certain if we wanted to stay a full week or not.  It wasn’t until I noticed the Good Sam emblem that she said yes they gave a discount but it would only bring it down to $31.25 per night, so the weekly rate was cheaper.

When we asked for certain pull thrus we were told they were not available for a week and we had to settle for a back in.  No problem, at least that site was partially shaded where the  four pull thrus—that remained VACANT the whole time we were there, except for two late evening arrivals that left before daybreak on two different occasions, --were in full sun.

It is our thought they have set places for set number of days and they won’t alter from that, but that is just our assumption. Holding spots for overnighters is probably a good business concept.  I know there have been times I would have given my eye teeth for a campground at the last minute.

We also asked permission to aerial film the park and was given an adamant NO by MS Chilly. Sorry again.

Another strange thing about the set-up is the hook-ups are all at the middle of the pad, which means we had to set the fifth wheel further forward on the pad than we normally would have in order for all our hook-ups to reach without using extensions. No biggie, we are adaptable.

Although the dumpsters were emptied regularly they seemed to be always full.  Not sure how that happened as there weren’t that many people in the park.

The campground wasn’t dirty, but it wasn’t exactly clean either.  Perhaps they just hadn’t had time to clean our site up before we occupied it, but I had to move several items off our gravel pad before we backed in.  We definitely left the campsite cleaner than it was when we arrived.

The entrance/exit is on a hill directly onto highway 75, which is divided at that point and heavily traveled.  While turning right (north) is no problem, someone pulling a big rig trying to turn left (south) might get to wait awhile for a break in the traffic to get out as the medium break is just large enough for a pickup to sit in waiting for a break on the southbound traffic, no where near big enough for a truck and trailer for certain.

When weighing the pros and cons of the place it balances out to be a decent place to stop, especially if you are interested in cowboy style entertainment. 

We a observed various long term campers washing their rigs and found there was nothing in the rules that said you couldn’t.  So we took advantage of it to knock some of the diesel exhaust and bugs off of Betty Claire.  She seemed to be a happier camper after her bath.

After she was bathed we added the new USA states outline decal we had picked up while staying at Edmond from the Oklahoma City Camping World.  We decided with this one we would basically start over with filling in the states with only the ones we had visited since Gary had retired.  Those four little states: AR, MO, OK and TX sure looks pitiful.  We’ll have to fix that.

Next stop: El Dorado Kansas State Park finally traveling to areas we haven’t previously been and adding state five to our map away from OK.

HOME AGAIN CAMP 8.5

Our first week back at the farm was a blur of one appointment or another for various reasons.  I am very pleased to say that all the medical reports came back good. 

Other meetings and appointments were also good.

It took them 10 days to refinish the trailer from the scrape, and to find the electrical problem. 

The turn signal turned out to be that at some point when someone had worked on the wiring they had wired a ground wire in with others where it shouldn’t have been and two loose connectors.  Why anyone would wire it like that none of us know. But between that, the loose connectors the bumpy roads were definitely causing shorts and blowing the fuses.

Since we had purchased the trailer there, they had done all work on it and the loosing of the connectors could have been due to the bump received on their lot we were only charged a small fee for the work AND they fixed for free the hot water tank that had worked loose from the wall. So that went well as well.

Other happy news was by spending long hours in the heat outside and talking calmly to the terrified cat he is back in the house after nearly two months.  It was worth every bit of the time I spent doing so just to see him and Gypsy curled up together on the sofa safe and sound.

Granted he is minus some fur due to stress and allergies, and he has definitely lost weight.  But my baby boy is home safe and sound. 

Sir Oliver Inkwell before being terrorized

After, as you can see he has a lot of fur to grow back, but I have faith it will. 

Once we got back the trailer back we stayed in the area for a short while to help our son with some things, and to also finish up the retraining of the skittish cat. 

The last 7 nights we stayed at Tulsa RV Ranch which is less than 15 miles from the farm.

All in all the visit home was good, but we were anxious to get back on the road and get away from OK.

BACK TO THE FARM—CAMP 3.5

Because the farm is not an actual campground, but we are trying to keep track of things as we go for when we are old and getting senile (no jokes please) We decided any time we must be at the farm for one reason or another it would be a halfway point between two campgrounds.  Thus the 3.5 in the title.

Being the good “grandparents” we are we took plenty of time to spoil our grandpuppies and grandkitties bringing extra treats, a wading pool for the dogs, and of course letting them into the air conditioning on the 100 degree days that hit during this pit stop.

Most of our days were spent checking out local area campsites for future stopovers for appointments and holidays.  The spring rains had pretty well made the driveway on the farm impassable for the fifth wheel.  Rather than fight with it we had decided staying at local campgrounds would be a better option.  Less possibility of damage to the camper for certain.

We have return trips to the farm area scheduled for July and September due to various appointments and then the holiday season as well to be with our son for Thanksgiving, his birthday, and Christmas.  So we needed convenient, less expensive and winter camping options for those three time periods.

The first day out doing this little errand we checked the campsites at the Okmulgee, OK Lake Campground and Dripping Springs COE Campground that is on the same lake as the Okmulgee one. 

Okmulgee Lake has two rv camping areas (Red Oak and Hickory Point), several day use areas and tenting areas. 

Dripping Springs has several campsites as well.

All are first come first serve sites.  We decided we preferred Hickory Point the most and because it was less than a 30 minute drive to the farm it was a viable option for the July and September visits.

Second was Red Oak. We actually preferred it, but had to make it second  simply because it had only one site with 50 amp that we could easily get our rig into and it was very clearly marked HANDICAPPED.  Because both of us enjoy good health now this was not a viable option for us, or so we thought.  See next post.

Dripping Springs we pretty much ruled out because of the size of the spots.  It is an older campground and so it is geared more toward the older smaller campers or tents.

All three are well maintained.

Another day we went to the Kellyville area to check out the campsites on Lake Hudson.  The distance, combined with the size and quite frankly condition of some of the campsites caused us to rule this one out. They are doing some renovations to this campground, so we will check it again in the future,

None of these sites would be an option during the holiday visit as they are all closed then.

We also checked out Tulsa RV Ranch which is 15 minutes from the farm.  While it costs slightly more it is open for the holiday season and has monthly rates.  So we plan on booking there soon to camp that month there.

While at the farm we helped our son with several chores, tried to find a lost cat that sadly has not been found as of this posting date.  Even more unfortunately it was my lap kitty Sir Oliver Inkwell that went missing.  I am still upset about it two weeks later.  There is a chance he is still there in the woods and just hiding from the dogs, but not likely at this point.

My son needed to do some travel for work and since our camper wasn’t suppose to be ready for a few days yet we agreed to farm sit while he went on site. 

Wouldn’t you know it.  We had no sooner made that decision and the camper was ready.  Sort of…

As soon as they brought the repaired camper around the corner I spotted it.  A dark scrape all down one rear corner  that had not been there when we brought the camper to them for the topper repair.

The silicon disk for the king pin was also missing.  They replaced the silicon disk immediately after we pointed it out and the paperwork showed that we had one on there when it arrived.

We pointed it out to them as well about the damage to our unit which was more concerning, much more. They immediately inspected the unit and agreed it was lot damage done there on site. Only they couldn’t get to fixing it right away.  Seriously?  I held my temper and asked when they could fix it.

I know it wasn't major damage, it could have been a lot worse, but the point is they damaged it. It is hard to tell from this photo but the scrape is all the way down that corner,

Could we hang around a month or so?  They had an opening they could put us in for then OR we could leave it with them that day and they MIGHT be able to get to it sooner, maybe in two to three weeks, but they REALLY didn't have a good place to store it they were so packed with everyone wanting their camper work done to head out for the summer.

We had travel plans to head north and needed to be back for another series of appointments in July so we made a locked in appointment for that time frame, got a receipt showing that it was lot damage, they were going to pay for the repair in full and it would be done immediately when we brought it back so as to not further interrupt our travels.

Several photos were taken by both them and me.  As you can see it is a scuff.  There appears to be no fiberglass damage, but it will need to be buffed out and resealed.  They will also need to replace the rain channel and some of the trim.  They tell us it should only be in the shop two to three days at that time.  We’ll see. I'm certain there is more work our son needs done on the farm for a few days. 

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Of course this now meant we needed to use the local campground now instead of in July as we had planned while waiting for our son to return from Texas.

It was a Thursday in early June when we pulled our camper to Hickory Point to find that the nearly empty campground we had seen on Tuesday was now completely full!  Not a good sign, or was it?

Just on a lark Gary drove us back the two miles or so to Red Oak, our second choice….

Red Oak and what happened there in the next post.