Wichita Mountains NWR, OK

We hope you had a very nice Memorial Day Weekend. This picture was taken at Ft. Sill’s Historic Museum area.

We arrived in Lawton on Tuesday, 19 May with our new refrigerator installed. We decided to stay at the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge just outside of Lawton, Oklahoma. What a great choice! This feels more like retirement in the slow lane. The Doris Campground has 50-amp electric, but no water or sewer hookups, so we are semi-dry-camping. We are parked in a heavily wooded area with no close neighbors. We barely have room for our coach and tow car with all the trees. Right from our campsite we have seen deer, wild turkeys sounding off to warn the others about a coyote wandering through, squirrels, and many birds waking us in the morning instead of an alarm. There is a lone buffalo hanging around the campsite and grazing nearby. He spends most of his time around the public restrooms, but he has been roaming around the campgrounds as well. He does not seem to be bothered by people. Of course, people tend to go out of their way to walk around the buffalo’s personal space.

We drove to the top of Mt Scott, which is located on the eastern edge of the Refuge. It is one of Oklahoma's most prominent mountains, rising 2,464 feet above sea level. On our way to the top of Mt Scott, we were surprised to see two skateboarders coming down the hill with their buddies in a car behind video taping them! One of them threw his arms up and with a big grin, yelled “WooHoo!” as he passed by us. On our way back down the hill, we saw the guys getting ready for another run. We found a good stopping point on the side of the road and waited for them. You can see the daredevils’ pictures along with many others in our album Wichita Mountain NWR.

Our granddaughter, Bryanna, spent Thursday night with us after her last day of school. We took her for a bike ride around the campground the first evening, pointing out deer and a buffalo along the way. We sat around a fire later and ate barbequed hot dogs and S’mores. While sitting around the fire, we heard crashing in the underbrush. We were surprised to see a lone buffalo running between the campsites. We were glad he did not run directly through our area. No one got hurt, but he did scare a mother with a toddler near the public restrooms. The next day, we took Bry for a hike, seeing wild turkeys, a coyote, turtles, lizards, and Canadian Geese.

On another night, Mad Max was watching the buffalo that meandered within ten feet of our rig. After the buffalo passed behind our rig, Max disappeared under the chair for hours. When he would come out, he would stare down the hallway towards the back with his worried look (wide-eyed, radar-ears, tail-wagging). It took us a while to figure out that he thought the buffalo was still back there and might be inside!

On Saturday, our daughter Misty brought our grandkids Bryanna and Violet out for barbequed hot dogs, grilled pineapple, and S’mores. We took a walk around the campground and saw quite a few deer, but no buffalo. Violet got very excited over the “big dogs”. She started to squeal until we explained the deer would run away.

Dry-camping for seven days is a new experience for us. We are not used to rationing water for more than a couple of days. We learned very quickly how to save water after running low before the third day, and refilling at the entrance to the campground. Ticks became another concern for us. Every time we planned to be outside, we coated ourselves in bug spray. Every time we came back in, we checked our clothes and ourselves. We started checking our cats as well. During one of our walks, we saw another camper checking his dog. Dan overheard the owner say to his dog, “Why do I keep finding ticks on me, but not on you?”

We will be heading towards South Dakota on Tuesday, 26 May.

McKinney Texas, MCD Innovations.

On our way to McKinney, we stopped overnight in La Grange, TX. The campground is located right on the Colorado River and only six blocks from the historic downtown area. We walked along the river path and into town. The river path was beautiful and very calming. The courthouse in the center had a couple of gargoyles perched on top.

Our new blinds and sun-blockers were installed by MCD Innovations. Each window has a solar shade, and a night shade. We did the front windshield with powered blinds, and manuals with driver and passenger front side windows, 2 large living room windows, the dining table and kitchen window. We changed to heavy side curtains in the bedroom in the past, and kept those. MCD made a front windshield valance, a valance over side passenger and driver, and a small drape over the dining table for a finished look. The blinds look great and give us so much more privacy. They roll up slowly and smoothly with a single tug. The solar blinds block heat and sun, while letting light in. You can see out easily, but folks outside cannot see inside well. Basically you see shadowy figures if backlit by lights or other windows. We have pictures of our new window coverings in MCD Duo Blinds.

We met a few of the other couples also waiting for their blinds to be installed. One couple had a very friendly and beautiful Australian Shepard – Buddy, and he is in the photo link as well.

Full hookups are provided in the parking lot at MCD, backed in against the building. We stayed over Saturday night, driving out on Sunday afternoon for a short drive. We decided to get a new propane/electric refrigerator in Denton, TX, on Monday afternoon. Our 94 Bluebird BMC still has the original Dometic RM 2807 box, with the previous owner putting a rebuilt cooling unit in at some point in the past. The Dometic Classic RM 2820 "should” be a direct replacement. As full-timers, we are ready for a long term fix with a new fridge, no repairs on the current one. We measured the aisle and the entry door, so we think they can get the old one out and new one in ok without removing the windshield, as is common on some coaches. We will know the answer in a couple of hours.

We stayed last night in the Camping World parking lot dry camping (no hookups). Tonight we will stay near Denton since the new refrigerator will not be installed until late in the afternoon. We should be in Lawton, OK by Wednesday at the latest, for a one week stay.

Change of Plans:

We canceled our trip to Padre Island National Seashore and extended our stay in Rockport by one week due to windy weather. Our plans to spend a few days camping on the beach would not have been fun if we were being sandblasted each time we left the coach. We spent the week kayaking in sheltered waters, swimming, and enjoying some local restaurants.

Sandy has been using the large patio awning to create an outdoor sewing area for her quilting projects. The spring inside the awning popped one day and we could not roll it back up automatically. You can say the awning’s old spring has sprung. So we hand rolled it (19 feet long, 7 feet wide), and tied it off at the top as a safety measure. The new spring on order arrived today and we hope to have it installed tomorrow morning before we leave the area.

We have been on-the-road for seven weeks (or almost 2 months) now. So, do we like our new lifestyle? That would be a definite Yes! We are feeling more relaxed and healthier than we have for years. We are spending more time being active indoors and out. We have had our run-ins with Mother Nature as well – furry caterpillars dropping from trees, a small invasion of ants and of course, mosquitoes. But, we have also made friends with squirrels and deer. Our new friends, the squirrels, will strategically sit in the big tree watching us through our front window. “Hey! I know you are in there. I’m hungry. Where are my peanuts (or cherry tomatoes, or grapes)?” When we open the door, there’s one of our friends sitting on the patio waiting to be fed. We were pretty sure that one of the mornings when we opened the blinds we would find a squirrel hanging onto the window ledge – “Hi there! Got any nuts?” The winter-Texans have them well trained for asking for handouts.

There are additional bird pictures from the Birding Center and the Rockport Beach area. They were added to our Kayaking and Surrounding Area folder in webshots this week. Here are few pictures of our cats enjoying their time outdoors. Grey at age 17 does well off the leash, but we stay within several feet of him. Squirrel and Dusty remain in harness with leash attached, and enjoy laying, rolling on, and eating the grass while watching for birds and squirrels. Even though they are wearing harnesses and a leash, we cannot walk them. The leash does help us keep them under control though.


For anyone wanting to know who won the sand carving contests, here is a link to the Texas SandFest 2009 Winners website. The competition was good and the winners are very deserving.

Good-bye Rockport

We finally kayaked by the Aransas Pass (Lydia Ann) Lighthouse (1855). The only access to the lighthouse is by boat. We had decided not to go deep into the Lighthouse Trails since it is easy to get turned around in the mangroves or get stuck in the mud or on the oyster beds. While we were looking at a laminated map on the water, another retiree was kayaking by and stopped to see if we needed help. He knew the area well and had been kayaking here for years. He offered to guide us through the maze of mangroves with shallow water over large oyster beds to the lighthouse and back through the channel. We had a great deal of fun and saw many birds in the mangroves and dolphins out in the channel. We never dreamed we would get so close to the lighthouse. We want to thank our volunteer guide.

Our Kayaking and Surrounding Area album includes pictures of the lighthouse and the Fulton area. We also have some great action pictures of different birds eating at the docks in Feeding Time on the Docks.

A few of our friends and family have asked about our future travel plans. The following plans are tentative - all subject to change.

We are leaving Rockport on 1 May for Padre Island National Seashore, just across the sand dunes from the open water. No hookups for the motor-home (no incoming water, power, or sewage drop). There is a sewage drop and fresh water a couple hundred yards away from the camping - just drive over to dump and refill. We have 7 large 12 volt batteries, 3 solar panels, 100 gallons of fresh water, 50 gallons each for black and grey water sewage storage, and a 10K Kilowatt generator on board. Fridge, hot water, ice maker, yep we will be roughing it with no hookups. Quiet hours (no generator) are 10 pm to 8 am. The rate is only $4 per night with our national park pass.

After Padre Island, we need to be in McKinney TX just north of Dallas May 10 thru the 15. We are having all the day night blinds and the front windshield pull curtain removed, and a nice blind system installed instead on all but the 2 bedroom windows (we already went to traditional curtains in the bedroom). We are putting in the American Duo blinds http://www.mcdinnovations.com/ . Manual on all but front windshield, power there so we can use it a sunshade while driving.

Next we will head back to Lawton OK to see the kids. Not sure how long we will stay, probably 1 week, maybe less, maybe more. After Lawton, we will take our time and head towards South Dakota for some business in our new domicile state.

EDIT:
1 May update on travels. Winds have been heavy along the seacoast. We have decided to stay 1 more week at Drifters RV resort in Rockport Texas, versus parking right next to open water with heavy winds and potential blowing sand.