Today we drove the 130 miles from Ft. Smith, AR to Tulsa. We really enjoyed the park we had in Ft. Smith. Yesterday was a lay day. We planned on golfing but just never got "roun-2-it." Instead we ran some errands and we washed Creme Puff and Fiona. I think I already said we named the truck Fiona. Why? I'm not sure even though it starts with an F and so does Ford. But we like the name Fiona. One of my former grad students, Ashley Roberts, has a baby girl she named Fiona (her husband Tim is Irish). Ashley would bring her by to see me and that was a cute baby!
On Monday we decided to take Maggie to a local vet in Ft. Smith because it was clear that her allergies were beginning to get the best of her. We have to give her a shot every now and then and she hadn't had one since almost a year ago. One of the RV neighbors came over and volunteered local information and told us of the vet he has used. He had been in the Ft. Smith park a month so he knew some local info. So off to the Eastside Vet Clinic we went at our appointment time of 4pm. Three vets, two from LSU and one from Oklahoma State, local name is OSU. We got Dr. France (the OSU Cowboy, or should I say, Cowgirl). She was excellent at examining Maggie and talking to us about her ailments. Not knowing anything about raising children, we are pretty well versed in raising Scotties. We got the shot, dodged the Irish Setter who was bent on riding Maggie, and we were off.
We decided to spend the night watching some Netflix shows. I watched some of the Ken Burns series on the National Parks while Lib read. Then we both watched a recent episode of Orange is the New Black. Weird show but I guess we are hooked. Gotta see what happens to Piper!
The weather has been warning that our cool weather was leaving today and it did. We awoke to a much more humid morning but still cool in the shade in the am. We put the bridle on Fiona and got her ready to tow Creme Puff to Tulsa. The drive is only a little over a hundred miles so it should be an easy day.
We had an easy trip to Tulsa over some nice highways. The Muskogee Turnpike was smooth, quiet and didn't have a lot of traffic until we got near Tulsa. Tulsa is about 1 million in population so we knew the traffic would pick up and it did.
Arrived at Cherry Hill RV Park located near Cherry Creek just off the Arkansas River and not far from Tulsa shopping. Lib had already warned me that we had been out well over a week and we needed to do the laundry. Cherry Hill has a laundromat so after we got Creme Puff hooked up and got the AC running, took Mags for a short walk and had a quick lunch, we spent a couple of hours in the laundromat.
Laundromats are just part of our traveling experience. For 26 years we traveled on boats with Todd and Joy and we've spent many days doing the laundry. Joy still talks about spending one of her anniversary days in a Clearwater, FL laundromat. Lib says she never goes to one without thinking about Joy and the "Apalachicola Girl." But, don't feel too sorry for us; Lib took her book and I used the laundry wifi to make reservations in Dodge City and Colorado Springs...coming up.
Got any quarters?
Tomorrow, one of my fraternity brothers, Dennis Hoyer, is going to pick us up for a tour of Tulsa. I am really looking forward to walking around the Tulsa University campus that I lived on for two years. About 50 years this month, my parents brought me from Alabama to Tulsa and dropped me off for my freshman year. I remember thinking as I sat in that room in John Mabee Hall Dormitory, "I don't know how to do my laundry!" I know now.
We have a good site here. What is a good site? One where you have shade in the hot afternoon yet an open sky to the southwest where the Directv satellite sits. Yea!! We can watch satellite tonight and I can catch up with my talking head news shows. Other good things are to have water, sewer and, of course, electricity. There are some places you can go and there is nothing in terms of these utilities. We've learned campers call this "dry-camping". You have to use your holding tank and your self-contained water tanks. If you dry camp during the summer you've got to have a generator if you want AC. We have one but haven't opted for dry camping yet. We may do some of that out west but up in the mountains where you don't need AC. We have to thank our buddies, Wynn and Cindy Teasley for giving us lessons on camping. They are pros at it and so is Jackie Drewitt!
Some of my friends have asked me about the cost. If you stay in a State Park the fees are around $14 a night and, if you are over 65, you get half price. Thats right, only $7 a night. A private park like we are in tonight will run you from about $25 to $60 (the higher price is for a real premium site/park). The one we are in tonight is $34. So its a good bit cheaper than motels but then you have to factor in your RV cost. But, we really don't want to do that! Being boat owners for decades we have psychologically adjusted our brains to totally mis-perceiving the cost of boating. I must say, I've gotten pretty good at it.
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