Which Way Did He Go

Sometimes it's easier to decide where to go than other times.  We have been on a slow trip to Indiana from Las Vegas.  We prefer to travel less than 300 miles a day.  It's not always easy to find an RV Park where you would like one for a good price.

As we were pulling out of the RV Park this morning, we spotted a group of deer that quickly darted away.  Not sure you can see the two blurs that I caught at the last minute just over the fence to the left.

We left the Eufaula, OK area early this morning and traveled up route 69 until it intercepted route 44.  The roads weren't too busy as we started out.

We had to go out of our way to get to the first place we thought we would stay.  As we traveled farther and farther down a narrow, winding road, we began to get concerned that we had made a bad choice.

Today we changed our minds several times and went to one place that we decided not to stay in.

We crossed over a couple of places like the one below that had warnings about HIGH water.  We were glad there was going to be another way out.

The place we  pulled into was a very run down campground designed for tubing trips down the Niangua River.  It was a camp of days gone by.  One look at the electrical box and we decided to keep on going down the road.  We made our way back out to 44.

As we were pulling away, we notices our dash gauges were not working.  We had this issue once before and found that it was a blown fuse under the dash.  Craig changed the fuse, but it blew right away again.  Thankfully, we have a GPS that tells us our speed, so we knew how fast we were going without the speedometer working.

It was back to the drawing board and trying to find a place to stay.  We ended up going 381 miles today.  The traffic was getting pretty heavy with trucks the last hour and we were very glad to find this Meramec Valley Camp Resort.

Once we got the slides out, the electric and water hooked up, Craig went about trying to decide why the fuse was blowing.  He found a loose ground wire and he tightened it against the frame.  We tested the dash gauges and they seem to be working.

What a pleasant surprise. It was once a Jelly Stone Park but is now member owned.  Lots of people pay for a place and come here on the weekends.  The park has 482 spaces and covers many acres. 

Lots of trees

A beautiful lake with a road all the way around to walk on. We may have to see if we can catch anything.

A family (gaggle) of geese.

Wooded areas.

 Wild flowers.

A huge pool. We hope to get down and try this out before the rain starts.

A separate diving platform pool.

A kid's pool.

We are about 80 miles out of St. Louis.  We have been watching the weather and have kept moving trying to get as far away from the worst of it that we can.  It's always hard to track the National Weather as your driving down the road, but a couple of our friends kept warning us about the line of storms coming through around us.

We picked up only four TV channels here in the woods and one weather broadcast looks like there's going to be rain starting tonight and going through Wed.

We may just have to wait it out here.

So, after a long and indecisive day, it's good to be stopped for a night or two in a place that we feel good about.

Now, we wait out the storm like so many of you have been doing this year.

Blessings,

Kathy

Fishing, Fellowship and New Friends

We did a little more fishing in this pond last night.  We didn't even get a bite, but we enjoyed this beautiful little place.  There was an ice cream social and we watched a small fire that was handled by the owner.  He and several others here are retired firemen.  They had some kind of electrical fire that they were able to get under control in the Rec Center. It's just across from our spot.

We were able to see fireworks all around us last night right outside of the Motorhome. 239 years as a Country Under God.

We attended a Church Service this morning at the Rec Center.  Thankfully, they got that fire quickly under control.  It was a nice gathering and we had a great time of fellowship with the Pastor and his wife.  Very sweet people who were once a part of starting many small churches in this area of Oklahoma.

We decided to go in to Checotah to get a bite to eat and then do a little shopping to prepare for our day of travel tomorrow.

We drove around the quaint town and decided to try a little Family Restaurant.  There were people waiting outside and not many tables inside.  So, we were invited to sit on a bench next to the couple that was ahead of us in line.  They came out for lunch to relax after officiating their son's wedding last night .  We chatted for about ten minutes outside when they were called in for their table.  They looked at us and invited us to come and sit at a table and join them so we didn't have to wait any longer. How amazing is that?

We so enjoyed our time with them and learned about their family and how that they have cattle and she works in the bank.  I love the way the Lord brings people like them through our lives and blesses us!

John and Debbie B.

Now, aren't they just the cutest couple?  We are now friends on Facebook, too.

I hope you had a chance to watch the Ladies' Team win the World Cup Soccer Final today against Japan.

We will continue our trek back to Indiana in the morning.  We'll head up 69 and to 44.  

Blessings,
Kathy 

Tahlequah, Oklahoma

We drove a over to Tahlequah, about 1 1/2 hours to visit with friends that we met during our time in Wellton, AZ.  They live in the town and gave us a grand tour.

Sandy and Dave

 The Cherokee settled this area and they built some beautiful educational structures.  We learned things we certainly hadn't heard before.  The area is full of spring fed creeks and rivers.  The one above runs through town and is called The Branch.
Sandy is an avid gardener and has made many beautiful gardens around Tahlequah and belongs to the Garden Club.

They took us to what was their favorite campsite on Tenkiller Lake. The post barely sticking up out of the water on the far right in the above photo marks the site.  The Lake is 14' above normal.  There were still people camping in Chicken Creek Park.

Tenkiller is a very clear lake and has a large variety of fish.

We then drove out of town a short distance to the Illinois River.  Dave told us that he had researched the name and it has nothing to do with the state of Illinios, but was named after what an explorer thought a certain Indiana tribe in the area was called.

It's a poplular lake for floating down.  People use Kayaks and tubes.

There are several rafting companies that use these to launch people down the river.

We so enjoyed our day.  It started to cloud up and we decided to head back to the Whale.  We drove through some pretty heavy rain, but it was sunny when we got back.  Just across the road from our RV is this weather shelter.  Sandy told us that it's hilly in this area and they don't usually have tornadoes here.  I pray she knows what she is talking about!!!

We have extended our stay and we will stay here until Monday.

Have a wonderful celebration of our Independence.

It might do us good to take time to read this Declaration of Independence on this date.

Declaration of Independence

God will fulfill His side of the Covenants we made in His Name.  Will we?

God Bless America!

Kathy

From Texas to Oklahoma

We looked at a couple of properties that were for sale on Hawkins and Holbrook Lakes in Texas.  Holbrook is a really nice smaller lake and it may be a place we revisit in the future.  We decided to start moving north to get out of the heat and humidity.  The Park in Texas didn't have any places over the 4th. We didn't want to be traveling over the 4th of July weekend, so we found a Park on Lake Eufaula southeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Like everywhere in the Midwest, they have had an abundance of rain.  Lake Eufaula is a very large lake and it is muddy looking because it's around 6' higher than normal.

It's always a bit of an adventure pulling up to parks we haven't been in.  This one is very large and right on the lake.  It's called, "Terra Starr RV Park.

The Park owner told us this area in the below picture is usually a camping area and grass.  The lake went down once and they spent lots of time fixing roads and cleaning things up and then it flooded again.  There had been Trailer Homes right on the water that had to be pulled out.

Many of the parks and beaches are closed for the Holiday weekend because of the high water.

The grass is so green and plush and this is a little community area.  You can buy a lot and become part owner of the Park.  Many of the RVes are under covers like this.  A good idea with all of the rain they have had.

We went out for a walk one morning and went through a separate area that is for group camping.  It has this nice little pond.  We checked with the office to see if fishing was allowed.  They said, "YES".

It's still been in the 90's with about the same humidity, so we waiting to fish until the next morning.

We caught a couple of Bass and a Sunfish and had some fun.  We fished from an old pontoon boat that is pulled up on shore and serves as a dock.

There is a small pool right across from us.  We started some laundry and used the wait time to cool off.

There is a thunderstorm moving through the area, but we may escape the worst of it.  Rain is predicted for the entire weekend, though.

If the weather is good in the morning, we plan to drive the car over to Tahlequah to visit friends and see the area.

Blessings,

Kathy