The Road To...

Hi y'all...

I have a lot of catching up to do!  Wow!  A lot has happened in the past year and I have been remiss with my blogging...

We have had a few changes in our lives.  Here's a hint:

As always, it has been exciting!  :)  We don't call ourselves "The Murphy's" for nothing!

Gman had already headed out...

I was all set to travel.

The Mother Ship was all cleaned and closed up and ready to travel.  More on the cleaning thing later...

Rocky was ready to travel and the dogs and I were staying in him until it was time to go since the Mother Ship was all closed up and ready to go when our driver was ready to move her later.

I got up on the day I was going to head out and...

Snow and Ice and Freezing rain all the way down I-35 from Kansas City to Wichita in Kansas.

Now, let me just say this was not in Dec, or Jan, or Feb or even March.  No, this was April.

April 23rd to be exact!

So, I stayed an extra day.  I had a Doctor's appt on April 24th in Wichita, but hey!  He can wait right?

The next day I took off for Wichita, Kansas.  All went smoothly and we arrived safely--but man was it cold! You know, I had a new pedicure and had not had the chance to show off my toes at all!  Grrrrrr...or maybe Brrrrrrrr....

The next day I picked up Gman at the airport so that he could visit his doctors, we could see a bunch of our friends and then we hung around so that we could see our son.  We just LOVE seeing and visiting with our son.  He is such a great guy--hard to believe he is ours!  :)

Went to Sumo--A Kobe style steak house--with friends...Great time!

Taken with my cell phone--sorry!

I was scheduled to leave Wichita on the 30th to arrive in Austin, TX on May 1.

But...

Can you believe it?????  SNOW!!!!!  Yes, snow was supposed to head into the Wichita area clear down through OK on the night of the 30th, but I had a doctor's appointment in the morning.  I went to the doctor, had lunch with a friend and then got on the road.  I looked at the weather forecasts and determined that I needed to get to Ardmore, OK in order to be south of the snow that was coming in.

I got just north of Ardmore and spent the night at a place called Arbuckle Adventures, a little bohemian campground that is a bit off of the beaten path.  I was actually headed for another campground when I was waved down by the owner of that campground to be told that they were full but if I wanted a pull through I might try the place across the bridge and to the right.

I pulled in and was surprised to see red clay roads (okay, Oklahoma has a LOT of red clay!) that were not exactly smooth.  I was met by the host, a very nice man with gray hair that was in a braid running down his back past his waist.  As we talked, he told me he was 77 years old.  I seriously would not have put him more than 55 or 60!  Such a nice man!

Just pull into any place on the grass and hook up to whatever I needed--water, electric, sewer or any or all of it.  $25.  Wow!  Not bad!  But pull in on the grass????  Unbelievably, once I pulled in, it was completely level and I didn't have to do anything to it!  You guys who travel in campers know what I am talking about!  You have a hard time finding level spots--even when they are not just grass!!!!!!

The showers are in that cute building on the right.

I was told that the restrooms and showers were open and you simply could not run out of hot water!  The shower buildings looked brand new and in great shape!  The grounds run along the creek and there is a nice open shelter there as well.  It really is lovely, quiet and I will stay there again.

Look at the size of that open shelter!  You could have quite a party in there.  Oh and the square thing between the shelter and bath house is a huge fire pit!  The pipes running around the pit are tall enough to sit on.  NICE!

The next morning the dogs and I hopped in the truck and took off before any stray snow reached us...

I stopped in Ardmore at the Flying J.  I filled the tank and went in to the potty.  Coming out, I saw a low tire.  I checked it out and it was definitely low, but they had an air machine so I pulled over to a parking space to check the tire to be sure it didn't have a nail or something and by the time I pulled to a parking spot, it was completely flat.  Baaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh....

Called AAA to come and change the tire--about 45 minutes later a guy with sleeves torn out (envision Larry the Cable Guy Shirt here) pulled up in an older vehicle.  He said he was called by AAA but needed to go get his truck--it would take just a short time.  Okay.  I am sitting at Flying J so I decide to get some breakfast while I am waiting.  He chugs up in a really old Dodge Ram--I mean really old--and used a LOT.  But, he took care of the tire in quick order, put the spare on and we looked at the tire to see that there was a gash in it going across the tread--not in the sidewall.  Strange.  From the size of the gash, it had to have happened at Flying J because it would not have held air any time at all if it happened on the highway.

So, tire change done, the dogs and I headed south once again...