SW USA 2024: The Canadian Coddiwomplers*

      *Coddiwomple: “to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination."

 

Oklahoma 

We headed north in search of cooler, less humid weather and decided to visit Oklahoma.  We stopped at two little campgrounds before reaching Oklahoma.  At one, we had a great site looking out to the pond.  

View from our site

On the way out, we spotted this bus with what looks like an organ on its roof.

 I'll bet they have a blast: a horn blast!

Several RVers on Facebook mentioned a variety of state parks to visit, one was Lake Eufaula State Park.  Lake Eufaula is a huge body of water but quite shallow – about 90’ at the deepest spot.  It was started in 1956 by the Army Corps of Engineers for flood control and completed in 1964. By damming the Canadian River, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world was created with a 600 mile shoreline, covering 41,500 hectares. Looking at the area on the Internet it seemed to be a big summer vacation spot and the lake looked beautiful.

Anything I know about Oklahoma comes from watching the Rodgers and Hammerstein ground‑breaking musical Oklahoma.  You may wonder why this particular musical is so special.  It was the first American “Book Musical” where the dances and musical numbers are fully integrated into the plot - the songs are used to move the plot along, not just as a break from the story.

 

The part of Oklahoma we visited is lush with forests – many species of oak trees and a few evergreens.  There was no corn as high as an elephant’s eye – OK so it’s early for corn but I didn’t see corn fields or anything much in the way of fields at all.  Granted we did only visit part of the state.  I did look up corn production and there is very little grown in the state.  The musical was based on “Green Grow the Lilacs”, a 1931 play written by Lynn Riggs and set on a farm near Claremore, Indian Territory in 1906.  Claremore isn’t too far from where we were staying, in the lush green forest.  As it turns out, the movie version was actually filmed in Arizona, so anything I thought I knew, I didn’t.

Swamp Oak (?) near the nice cabins of the group camping area. 

This area is like a summer camp

We were happy to get full-hook-up sites at a very reasonable rate, first in the Arrowhead Campground where we stayed for three days and later in the Dogwood Campground for a week.  These are lovely spots and to our surprise, we were practically the only people camping in the park.  OK maybe there were one or two others but not anywhere near our site.  

Arrowhead Campground (where is everyone?)

The state park is quite large and contains a marina, two different stables and equestrian trails.  The Arrowhead Park also has a campsite just for people with horses.  The site comes with an outdoor stall/paddock for your horse!  At one-time, the state maintained stables where visitors could rent a horse and ride the trails in the parks but I don’t think that activity is run anymore.  Both stable areas looked quite forlorn.  The was an archery trail as well and we did see evidence of targets but not of any recent activity.

It was very quiet in the parks with little traffic and we were able to explore on our bikes.

We went into the little town of Eufaula for dinner one night to the best rated restaurant on Trip Advisor.  The food was just ho‑hum - so much for Trip Advisor or maybe all the others were worse. Before going back to the trailer we did a drive through visit of Canadian, a tiny hamlet on the lake.  We felt obliged.

"Canadian" Oklahoma

Eufaula humour

Park Office

The hope for more comfortable weather did not materialize.  It was cooler but still tremendously humid.  Then we got the tornado warnings on our cell phones, heard sirens and received a warning to find shelter from a volunteer firefighter driving around the park.

Some of you may know that we experienced the tail end of a hurricane on the Isle des Madeleines a few years ago, so we are familiar with this "find shelter" process.  After gathering up a few necessities, (books, flashlights, water, rain gear, snack), we picked up Misty and headed to the laundry – the only brick building in the campground.  Our site was isolated and up the hill from other sites, which was great because it felt like we had the whole forest to ourselves but not so great at that particular time.  Jerry talked with the one other camper there who was a native Eufaulian and a full time RVer, while waiting for the all clear messages.

 

Thankfully, the tornadoes – yes there were at least two passing through Oklahoma that night – passed us by.  We were able to return to our abode but were still under a tornado watch and advised to watch for flooding.  Later we learned that the tornadoes were very unusual.  One was turning the wrong way – very rare and usually weaker; but not this one!  Another actually hit an area close to Oklahoma City and then turned around on its path and revisited the area it just passed over – another rare occurrence.  We are so lucky to have missed these rare events.

 

After the storm, we received some lovely weather and went for more bike rides in the park to check it out.  I was very disappointed as the lake was a horrible greenish mud colour with lots of crap and weeds.  It must have been the storms stirring up the lake, although given how shallow Lake Eufaula is and its reputation as a great fishing lake, I think it’s probably very weedy anyway.  I did not go swimming. Sigh.

Dogwood Campground site was very isolated

After portaging around a fence to ride a windy road in the park, we came across this little turtle.

🎶🎶🎶

Hmmmm I love Turtles

In Eufaula, we discovered the nicest, friendliest grocery store we have encountered so far on this trip – even compared to home.  At Nichols Market, the staff were so helpful and friendly and seemed to enjoying working there.  It was a pleasure to grocery shop.

Across the road from Nichols Grocery Store.

We also found Braums, a family owned dairy bar, that served good food and malted milk shakes!  We overindulged I’m afraid.  Yummy shakes!

Haven't had a corn dog since who knows when ... not Braums though, this was a Love's special.

Looks like Sasquatch has a relative here in OK

Downtown Eufaula

Around town are various "Harmony" sculptures with rubber mallets to play them ... Such Fun!

The downtown of Eufaula.  We had fun.

Something we noticed about Oklahoma was their truck/car washing places.  We’ve never seen so many in one area before.  Most of the time if we need to wash Miss Too we can’t find any washes big enough for her.

 

After spending some time trying to decide where to go next, we both came to the same conclusion.  We were just putting in time.  If we hadn’t signed up for the rally at Pidgeon Forge, Tennessee, we would probably be heading home.  So instead of moving around we decided to find a nice place and stay put.  We choose Gatlinburg, Tennessee – there appears to be a lot happening there.

 

So long for now.

Take care all.

Love from,

Jerry, Elizabeth, Misty, FJ (Flat Jesus), the Guys, Miss Adventure Too and Clifford the Big Red Truck