Woolaroc Ranch

Today we took a nice drive around this part of Oklahoma.  The first stop was the town of Hominy, OK where there were several murals painted on the side of buildings.  There were more than we took pictures of but most of them were badly weathered and not attractive.  All were of an Indian theme.

 

Then we drove to the town of Pawhuska, OK which is the nearest town to the ranch where the "Pioneer Woman" TV show is produced for the Food Network channel and is where Lee Drummand does her local shopping.  We didn't take any pictures here.

Then we drove to Bartlesville, OK and had lunch at a very good pit BBQ restaurant.  Then it was just a few miles south of town to the Woolaroc Ranch which was the ranch owned by Frank Phillips who founded the Phillips Petroleum company many years ago with his brother.  The ranch was originally called the FPR (Frank Phillips Ranch) and he named his lodge Woolaroc which stands for wood, lake, and rocks.  Later the whole ranch was known by that name.  He stocked his ranch with many exotic animals as well as longhorns and built a museum to house his many collections of art, western lore, and his Colt gun collection along with a Winchester gun collection on loan from others.  Here is where we took many, many pictures and I will post a few with this blurb and more later.  The museum was massive and wonderful.  We enjoyed this visit very much.

tonight's cook

With the wood that I was able to find I started another fire this afternoon and then took care of the turkey dogs in time for supper.  The fire almost started itself as there was a coal about the  size of a walnut that was still smoldering from last evening.  I put a piece of cereal box cardboard on top of it and it scorched a hole through but just wasn't hot enough to ignite.  With a couple of matches and some small twigs we were off with this evening's fire.

Here are some pictures

 The tool of choice

 the fire is just right

 tonight's chef at work

quiet day at the lake

It's been a very quiet day here in the campground.  There have been perhaps a half dozed campers come in for the weekend of fishing but all has been quiet.  Even the breeze has calmed down and the lake is like a perfect mirror.  I managed to scavenger up some more downed limbs so will light up a campfire again this evening and Jo found some hot-dogs in the freezer so that just might be supper.

We have plans for a road trip tomorrow around the area so there should be pictures to post in tomorrow's blurb.

Skiatook

Our campsite is on the banks of the Skiatook lake which was primarily created to provide water for the town of Skiatook, OK.  The Indian lore story is that just prior to the settlement of westward folks to this area there was a tornado that passed through.  As the local Indians met the settlers they told about what they called "the Ski-A-Took" so that became the name of the village.

We are having great weather and it's been good to just sit out in the shade and enjoy.  The campfire this afternoon isn't working as good as yesterday and it will depend if we can find some dry, seasoned firewood near here whether or not we have any other fire while we are here.

birthday campfire

I know that the flames don't show in this picture but we did have a nice campfire this afternoon and into the evening.  I had picked up some sticks of firewood from the last campground where others had left a few by their fire pits.  Luckily one of the pieces was a chunk of red cedar which I was able to shave off several slivers for starter kindling.  We started it mid afternoon and then went back out after dinner to enjoy it some more and Jo even roasted some marshmallows.

It's been a great birthday for me.

Happy Birthday to me

I plan to enjoy our quiet location with a relaxing day.  Here are a few pictures of our campsite that I promised yesterday.

a couple of views from our picnic table

 the driveway entrance to our site

 and the exit

 our covered table and fire pit area

with an open area for our satellite dish

I'm reminded of a song

Way down yonder in the Indian Nation, I rode my pony on the reservation ......

This morning we left the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations and found safe passage through the Seminole Nation and the Sac & Fox Nation to finally arrive in the middle of the Osage Reservation.  We are here for the next week with not a lot of plans except for some relaxing camping.  We have a great view out our front door and I'll get some pictures tomorrow.  We're on the banks of the Skiatook Lake that is real low due to the dry weather lately.  Here at mid week the campground is mostly empty but perhaps folks will come to enjoy for the weekend.

Here at this site we have a good strong Cell signal and a superb strong 4G Lte data signal for a fast computer connection, Yea!

casual day ...

... with a bit of shopping.  This morning we drove into Ardmore for a little shopping spree.  When we returned to the campground we found it mostly empty after the weekend flurry of activity.  I think there are perhaps two other RVs now here with us.  The weather has sure been just perfect with clear skies and little to no wind plus the temperatures are just right.  Tomorrow we plan to just relax and get ready for our relocation on Wednesday.

more of Chickasaw National Recreation Area

This afternoon we drove back to Sulphur and stopped at a couple of pull-offs in this large RA.  One was near a small herd of bison and the other was at a spring spouting up through a hole in a rock.  The one bison picture is of a few that were taking their afternoon siesta.

We also followed some signs to the "Little Niagara Falls" but the dry weather had the creek all dried up and no water was flowing.

Gene Autry

This morning we went to Gene Autry, Oklahoma and toured the Gene Autry Museum.  Gene never really lived here but at some time he bought a ranch near here and hired some local folks to run and operate it for him.  He came often to visit and the folks here named the little town after him.  The museum was mostly movie posters for Gene as well as many other singing cowboy actors.  They also had lots of dime store collectables with his name or image on them including cap guns and holsters, lunch boxes, comic books, tricycles, bicycles, and plastic guitars.  The life sized horse that looks like his horse, Champion, has one of his saddles on it.

I will post our pictures tomorrow when we can go into the town of Sulphur for a better/faster internet connection.

The Gene Autry, OK post office

 The museum

what connections we have

We do have the three network over-the-air television stations which is good.  We do not have voice cell phone signals and my phone goes out-of-battery quickly trying to search for a tower so I keep it turned completely off.  I did drive into Sulphur, OK this afternoon to check our voice mail and answer a call that was there.  Yesterday I tried to get our satellite set up so we could get Dish Network television but apparently had a tree branch in the way and was not successful but today I moved it about 3 feet and now we have that television connection.  This internet connection seems to be the best in the evenings where I get one bar of 3G signal that comes and goes so my connection even at that time is slower than dial-up but am glad to have even that much so I can keep this blog up to date.

The weather has been great but a bit warm the past couple of days.  It's forecast to cool down into the 70s for the rest of our stay here with lows in the upper 40s to low 50s which will be great.  We are here until next Wednesday when we move to just north of Tulsa.

in the wilds

Here are a few pictures from around our campsite.

the view from our front door

 Our campsite

 just a few steps away

 

We do have over-the-air television of the three networks but it is not strong, comes and goes.  I think that I can find a place for our satellite dish and will try to get that hooked up tomorrow.  I did drive into Sulphur, OK this afternoon and found a WM supercenter so did get re-stocked on a few items.

This campground has filled up today with families, both rv's and tents, and I assume it is for the weekend and expect that Sunday afternoon there will be a grand exodus.  There has been a lot of bank fishermen in the cove right in front of us but we haven't seen any stringers of fish being taken away.

very week signal

Their web site was correct as we don't have hardly any cell phone signal here in camp.  I did get an email on my phone this afternoon so if anyone needs to get in touch with us first try the cell but if that doesn't work then send an email.  We will get into Ardmore at least a couple of times while we are here and I can send and receive calls, post a blog message, or send/receive emails from there where the signal will be good and can respond to missed calls.  I do have a faint data signal this evening that wasn't there this afternoon so hope to get this message out.

We have a beautiful site with a great view of an arm of the lake out our front door.  The site isn't very level and our jacks are extended to the max on the front but it is level enough inside to work.  When we do get into town I will post a picture of our campsite.

travel'n

On the road again for our October outing.  It was a drizzle of rain this morning as we were loading the final items after breakfast and we used the wipers all the way to Lebanon where the sprinkles stopped.  We had a brief visit with Wilma and then was on our way to Joplin.  By the time we made it to Joplin around 2:00 the sky was clear and the clouds all gone.

The extended forecast for our location near Ardmore, OK this next week looks like all sunny days with highs in the low to mid 70s and lows of upper 40s to low 50s, we like those numbers.  The web-site for our campground this next week says "no cell service" but our provider coverage map shows that we should be okay.  If it doesn't work or is too weak you may not hear from us until the following Wednesday when we relocate to a site near Tulsa.