2023-6-12 Choctaw Casino and RV Park TRR Rally

 I left Schertz about 10:00 AM and headed up 281 to meet Elaine at Coffee Creek RV Resort on 281 just north of I-20. She was coming on I-20 from Abilene. The next morning we were off to the rally in  Durant Oklahoma heading cross country to avoid going through Dallas/Ft Worth with all their toll roads and traffic. The roads were okay but not great so planning a different route home. We missed a turn in Decatur so saw some county roads not on our list. Stopped for a quick lunch break at the Oklahoma Welcome Center.

Our rally destination was the Choctaw RV Park which is part of the Choctaw Casino Complex.

This place is enormous. This is just one corner of it.

We arrived and got all set up. We were there a couple of days early and the weather was great. We spent an hour or so in the nice salt water pool at the RV Park. Then we decided to take a trip through the casino. As I mentioned, it is absolutely enormous. The shuttle picked us up right at our RVs and took us over. Apparently there was a big concert going on because there was only one drop off point. It was pretty smoky inside and we walked about half a mile to get to the non-smoking section. remember how the casino buffets used to be cheap to draw customers inside? Well, we passed on the $45/person buffet but found a great chicken place after much looking.

Needless to say we didn't win this big jackpot on display.

Elaine gave the slots a spin and came out ahead.

One of the Transformers was at the casino. We got a picture of Elaine and me with him. The guy inside the tranformer was huge, must have been 7 feet tall.

The weather was great the first couple of days but we did have quite a bit of rain. We even spent about an hour and a half in the lobby of the park waiting to see where the tornado and hail were going to hit. Harley thought it was great watching all the people and dogs. Fortunately for us but not North Texas, the worst weather went south of us.

We did lots of fun stuff during this rally some of which I included in separate posts. Olivia put on an impromptu fish fry for us. One night we went out for dinner at Roadhouse Bar and Grill and one morning we had breakfast at Magnolia, both in Durant OK. We also had a Blackjack party. Surprisingly, even though I know nothing about playing blackjack, I came in second. It was all due to placing a huge bet at the end (primarily to lose my pot and just watch the rest of the game). Too funny.

This was a very small rally for the Texas Ramblin' Roses but we had a good time and stayed safe from the weather.

Now on to some of the other things we did while in Durant.

On the Road.....Home....Again

The weather for Memorial Day was predicted to deteriorate later in the day with rain developing and continuing through the night. Since I planned to leave for home in the morning, I decided to pack up most of the outside items earlier in the afternoon so that I wouldn't have to pack away anything that was wet in the morning. I swept off the patio mat and got that rolled up and stowed along with the dog pen and the folding chairs. That turned out to be a very good idea. Although the rain held off until bedtime, it rained quite a bit during the night. I even debated hitching up the night before but that would have put me a little more off level than would be good for my slides. It wasn't raining when I got up so hitching up went smoothly as did the dump station duties. I said my goodbyes to Deb and Dawn and headed out. I didn't make it out of the park before it started raining again. When I left, my plans for the day were written in jello. If the weather didn't cooperate, I had my house with me and could pull over and stop any time.

I headed down I-35 towards Dallas/Ft Worth. Not too far down the road, I went past the Windstar Casino, the largest casino in Oklahoma.

This place looks huge. In addition to the casino, there is a huge hotel, an event center, a spa, a golf course, boutique shopping, and even an RV resort.

The rain was light and sporatic so no real problems with traveling. Since I planned to skirt around Ft Worth on the west side and head back towards 281, I figured the bad weather would be to our east.

At Gainesville, I cut off west on FM51. Although the road is a little hilly and sometimes curvy, it's a great road and certainly no more hilly than the Texas Hill Country that I am used to traveling. I had heard that I-35 through and beyond Ft Worth was all torn up with construction and delays and that was confirmed by my RV neighbors at the park. They said there were lots of delays on that route so even though it was more miles cutting west to 281, I figured it would be worth it.

I hit a few patches of light fog but that was really the worst of the weather on my route.

We stopped for a couple of potty breaks morning and afternoon and had lunch at a Rest Area. All in all, it was a good road trip home although I hate to have any trip end. Even though I didn't get home until 5:30PM, I even managed to get the RV into our cul-de-sac and backed into the driveway. Unloading definitely waited until this morning.

Camping Memories (Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma)

The other day a friend was talking about unique experiences and mishaps while camping and it immediately brought to mind a wild experience we had at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.  It all started when......

As an Air Force family, most of our vacations involved visits home to family.  On one of our trips home to visit Dave's family in Michigan, we decided to buy his brother's pop-up camper when he told us he planned to sell it.  It was a big pop-up but our car could easily pull it.  Then people started asking if we were going to camp in it going home.  The neighbor next to my in-laws was having a garage sale so I went to have a look to see if there might be some things we could use to camp on the way home.  Next thing I knew she went back to her garage and pulled out a box of things that they used to use when they camped.  So we suddenly had dishes, a couple pots, silverware, a percolator, and a few other miscellaneous things.  My MIL quickly pulled out some old sheets and towels.  I bought some pillows and we were set.  It was July so we knew we wouldn't need to worry about a blanket once we left Michigan.

On the way home we went through Missouri to visit my parents where we also picked up my brother who was coming home with us for a longer visit so we had Tim who was 15 and our two boys Steve and Brian who were  9 and 3.  We headed off to spend a few nights at Table Rock Lake, Missouri.  We had a wonderful time with lots of swimming and campfires at night.  We decided we would also stop at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.

Now on to the real adventure......

The reason for the visit to the Wildlife Refuge was that Steve's Boy Scout group was having a weekend family camp out there.  We arrived at the Refuge and headed directly to the group camping area.  Of course, it was only about noon when we got there and no one else was expected until suppertime.  Dave was on leave from the Air Force and we were only a little over an hour from Sheppard AFB.  So, we had already decided that Dave would drop us off and head into the base to sign in so it would not cost us any more leave.

After unhooking the pop-up, Dave was off to sign in at the base and Tim and I began to set up the pop-up. (Keep in mind that although the pop-up was new to me, I had been camping all my life in trailers.)  We quickly pulled out the first bed platform while Steve and Brian watched.  I was on the far side of the camper from the three boys when I turned around and looked behind me.  An entire herd of bison was ambling directly toward our camper.  Bison are huge and furry and have horns!  I quietly said "Tim, take Steve and Brian's hands and walk to the bathroom now."  Of course, I got the "but we don't need to go to the bathroom!"  "Do it right now, be quiet, and don't ask any more questions.....move it!"  I backed quietly around the camper and quickly followed them to the bathroom.  By then they were griping because these were pit toilets and it was in the mid 90s outside.  It was a pitiful little tin building but I figured it was a little more solid than the pop-up and the bison were used to it.  I told the kids to look back by the camper.  At this point, the bison were ambling around the camper.  They moved on past us and headed off to another point on the refuge.  Once they were out of sight, we finished setting up the pop-up and had a picnic lunch.  Dave was back before dinner and the rest of the group began arriving.

My boys and my brother have never forgotten their first camping experience at the refuge although we camped there many times after that.  Back then there were a number of campgrounds without hookups and the bison would wander through although it was usually at night.  Eventually, all those campgrounds became day use only because of tenters panicking and some people foolishly attempting to get too close to the bison.  Now there is only one camping area, the Doris campground but it does have some electrical hook-ups which is really nice during the summer in Oklahoma.

That is exactly how I remember that trip..........


If you are ever near the Refuge at Easter, you should go to The Holy City where they have a fantastic Easter Pageant which is the longest running Easter Passion play in the nation.