Grand Lake Oklahoma

Wednesday (11/4) to Sunday (11/8):

We left Chanute KS on Wednesday morning and made the 125 mile drive to Pine Island RV Resort on Grand Lake in Oklahoma. We visited with Mike and Sue for a few minutes before we left. Their 5th wheel was in the service center and they had returned to the campground to take advantage of the peace & quiet to get on the internet with their laptop computers.

Pine Island RV Resort is a Coast-to-Coast RV Park that also is available to the public if sites are available. The campground is a long way off the main road and the county roads getting to the campground are not in the best of shape. This time of year they are looking for campers and we used our Passport America to get our site for 50% off. The campground is 35 years old and showing its age. We were able to select a site in the section that overlooks the lake and pulled the motorhome straight in rather than backing in. This allows us to have a view of the lake through our windows during the day. I had to use all of the sewer hoses I have on board to make the connection while the water/electric connections were not as far away.

Our site in the campground

View out our side window

View out our windshield

We finished setting up and walked around the campground for a few minutes to look at the lake. Here are few photos of us with the lake in the background.

On Thursday we took it easy and stayed in the campground. I got caught up on some financial information, contacted an insurance agency connected with Escapees about health insurance for next year and then took a nice walk around the roads inside the park.

Friday we went into Grove OK to visit the Lindenwood Gardens and do some shopping. The Lindenwood Gardens are on 3 acres with several sections that have different types of plants. With it being the fall most of the plants don't have any color: the color comes from the leaves on the trees. We walked around the garden and took a few photos.

After finishing up our walk through the gardens, we went to a local grocery store (Harps) that is employee owned. It was a small store but had a good selection of products.

On Saturday we took a trip over to the Natural Falls State Park. The park is located about an hour southeast of our campground. The falls are not much to look at these days since they have had very little rain in the park since August. When they get rain the falls are 77 feet high, but as you can see below they were only about 15 feet when we were there.

There are a number of trails in the park and we took advantage of a couple of them. Between our hikes we ate a picnic lunch that we had brought with us. We visited with the ranger in the visitor center about other state parks that might be open for us to stay at on our path south.

Connie had made us a crock pot soup with chicken, sweet potatoes, beans and other ingredients that was ready to eat once we got back to The Duchess. It was delicious and we both had two bowls.

On Sunday we traveled over to Claremont OK near Tulsa to visit the Will Rogers Memorial Museum. Once we got there we found out they are celebrating his birthday (November 4, 1879) all week with free admission to the museum.  Will Rogers was born nearby and was raised on a ranch in the area. We toured the museum and found our the many careers that Will Rogers had during his life. His pursuits includes: (1) time as a cowboy driving cattle to market, (2) a "roping" cowboy in several Wild West shows that toured the USA, (3) a humorist/performer in Vaudeville and in the Ziegfeld Follies, (4) actor in both silent and talking movies, (5) a weekly columnist for a number of large city newspapers, (6) commentator/host of a radio show and (7) world ambassador/humanitarian. He is known around the globe for his humor and his ability to get along with people of every walk of life. His life was cut short at age 56 in a plane crash while traveling in Alaska. The museum does a good job of honoring his life and accomplishments. The museum was serving cake/cookies/punch today to end the week of his birthday celebration, so we had to join in the festivities.

Entry to museum

Large mural with scenes from Will Rogers life as a cowboy.

They had several plaques with Will's famous sayings.

Gravesite of Will Rogers, his wife and several members of his family.

Connie in front of the museum.

Will Rogers on his horse.

View of the front side of the museum.

On the way back to the campground we passed a place that had a number of totem poles along side of the road. We stopped and took a couple of pictures.

Tomorrow morning we will head south to camp somewhere in Oklahoma. We find out tomorrow when we make some calls which direction we will be heading.