Travel Day, Ice Issues, & Rodent Problem - (Wyandotte, OK)

I had a hard time choosing our final stop before Branson.  I looked at several Corps of Engineers campgrounds and State Parks in Oklahoma.

We had an offer to stay along the way and I even looked at commercial campgrounds briefly.  With over 400 miles to Branson, I wanted to get at least half way.

We even considered a one-night stop and then going on into Branson and staying at the Escapees Turkey Creek RV Village until our pre-rally check in time on Friday.

Ultimately, we decided to stay at Twin Bridges State Park in northeastern Oklahoma.  It was a bit farther than we wanted to drive, but it would give us a fairly short trip into America's Best Campground on Friday, June 6.

We were up early, but we had done nothing to get ready to leave the night before.  So it took us awhile.

Just as I was organizing the last couple of items in the basement, I saw three newborn rodents on the floor.  That's not good.

With some cursory searching, I didn't find any more.  I didn't want to report the discovery to Linda, but I had to.  Surprisingly, she said "Let's just deal with it when we get to the state park".

So we finished going through our departure checklist, got hitched up, and were on our way.  The Doris Campground is big rig accessible, but I wouldn't call it big rig friendly.

The loop roads are narrow and heavily treed.  It's very difficult to avoid all the leaves and branches.

Once on the main road there is more room.  But the dump station is kind of weird.  After passing the entrance booth, you have to make a pretty sharp right turn back into the dump station.

There is plenty of room to do that going in.  But then you loop back on to the main campground road again and that turn is a bit tight for longer rigs to avoid the trees.

Finally, we were out of the campground safely and on the road around 10:00 am.  We took the shortest route out of the refuge and back to Cache where Linda fueled up.  That cost us a few miles, but it was easier.

In Lawton, OK we picked up I-44 east (more like northeast) and followed that all the way to Fairland.  Sheesh.  There are two sections of "turnpike" (translation: toll road) on that route and we paid over $30 in tolls between our two vehicles.

Since we were driving about 300 miles, we chose to stay on the interstate.  And since we were going through both Oklahoma City and Tulsa, we knew through our experience and recommendations of other full-timers that city travel is best done on Sundays.

We got through the towns okay and made one stop just west of Tulsa.  We had a little lunch and got cups of ice.

The trip was getting monotonous by then, so weird stuff was going through my head.

I am an ice cruncher and had just about finished my cup of ice.  The fellow ice crunchers will know what happened next.

There is always that one last piece that suctions itself to the bottom of the cup.  You can shake and tap the cup, but that one last piece just won't come out.

So you give up and put the cup in the cup holder ... for a few seconds.  But that piece of ice is taunting you.  Now you want it more than all the others and become obsessed with it.

Sometimes you poke at it with a straw and it just circles the bottom of the cup.  Or you might hold the cup in your teeth so you can give it another hard tap on the bottom.  And all you get is the imprint of the cup on your forehead.  :)

Finally, I was defeated.  I just had to let it melt.  But drank those last few drops just to be sure I could claim one small victory.  :)

See?  Told you the drive was getting monotonous.  :)

We finally exited the interstate and Linda led me to the state park.  Things started to look familiar.  Hey, I know this place!

Back in the fall of 2006, we visited this area to see family.  My brother Ron & I drove past this park going to play golf one day.  I had no idea when I called this morning that it was the same place.

This state park is located between the Spring and Neosho Rivers and the confluence of those two form the Grand River which ultimately forms the very large Grand Lake.

One part of the park, called Anglers Paradise, is at river level and has been flooded several times this year.  It was the easiest to access so we dropped the rig off in a large parking lot.  By the way, we got 9.8 mpg on this trip.  Then we went up a steep hill to find the park office and look at other sites.

We found the ranger, Jeff, who I had spoken to on the phone earlier.  What a nice guy.

He told us the sites that would give us our best shot at satellite internet.  We took our compass and checked them out.  We found a few sites that would work, but ultimately selected one with no neighbor to our awning side.

Since it is during the week and there are few other rigs here, it's a nice spot for us.  But with a group pavilion and a playground a few feet away, we probably wouldn't have selected it for a weekend stay.  :)

We got the rig, backed into our site, and made sure we could lock on to our signal before unhitching.  Once on, we unhitched and did our set up.

We might have gotten by without our cellular amplifier and booster antenna, but we hooked them up anyway just to be sure.

It was a good fifteen degrees cooler here than where we came from, so it was nice outside.  Once we were finished with our set-up, it was time to tackle the rodent issue.

I started emptying the basement.  I found three more babies and a nest of fluffy white stuff.  The nest wasn't in a box or anything, it was just nestled between things in the basement.

I put on some vinyl gloves and started the clean-up process.  We were sure the rodent, whatever it was, had chewed our rolled up sleeping bags.  As it turned out, it had chewed up a beach towel and that was the only damage we could find.  And believe me, we went through everything.

I even got all of our sewer hoses out of their separate compartment.  I ran lots of water through each and every one to be sure nothing was hiding in them.  It appears our adults are gone, but we set a trap just in case.

With everything out, I vacuumed and cleaned the basement.  I checked all the various wires and places I could access behind the basement walls.  I didn't see any evidence of the hitchhikers behond the main basement compartment.  Hopefully, they have all checked out.

I suspect we picked up our mouse or rat or whatever it was in Palo Duro.  Everything had been completely cleaned out at Arches and there were no signs then.  It wasn't until we saw the pack rat at Palo Duro that we noticed anything at all.

So the drive and the extra work upon arrival made for a long day.  We were certainly ready for our showers.

We have 30 amp electric and water hook-ups here for $15 a night.  We are not far off the road and the traffic is pretty noisy.  And because we sit up on a hill we can hear traffic from other roads and a nearby railroad.

It's not the quietest state park, but it'll do for our stopover for the next few days.  There are lots of birds and it will be a good place to do our final rally preparations.

Later, I posted the May Financial Summary and Linda made a couple of posts on the Forum regarding arrival at the Rally.

Whew.  It was a long day.  :) 

 

Comments

[Judy]

The last campground we were at DH was watching a rig pull out and a mouse came out of it, the guy then stopped the rig to go in an close his top vent and this darn mouse ran around his tire and got back in while the guy then proceeded on his journey. This was sure funny and rodents are sure smart ones!!
Judy

[The Bear II]

Howard,
Your Ice Crunching story was great. I've done that same thing probably a 1000 times. I had to explain to my co-workers why I was laughing so hard while reading your journal.

The other ice crunching problem I run into while driving, is what I call the ice jam. That's when a big clump of ice comes pouring out of the cup when you tip it up to get some ice. This usually happens during the first couple of times you tip up a new cup of ice. I always end up with a lap full of ice... not so bad on a hot day.

Hope you have a fun and successful rally, wish we could be there to meet everyone.

[Caroline]

I had wondered if the food from your window bird feeders attracted rodents. I had to move our bird feeder away from our house because it attracted mice and critters that feed on mice. Our camper is stored next to a field and we sometimes get mice in it. I spread fabric softner sheets all over the camper and it does help when the sheets are fresh. Apparently what I have now has lost it's sent because last time we picked the RV up a mouse ran over my foot as DH pulled forward. I screamed so loud I bet all of Austin heard me.

[Martin Hill]

I to, have had mouse passengers in the old TT, mousetraps all around....Also, I to was a one time "ice-cruncher" till one day I crunched down on something that was not ice, but instead was a large portion of a tooth...After the crown, I no longer chew ice...funny what it takes to break an old habit. See ya in Branson...