A Foray Into The Hills of Oklahoma

After spending a week in the car lot, I need to do something. I'm so tired of just sitting around – time to do the tourist thang.

Saturday, I head over into Oklahoma – I'm only a couple of miles from the border, so it isn't that long of a journey. I drive about an hour and a half to Tahlequah which is the Cherokee National Capitol. There was a lot of interesting things about this place, but they became very near and dear to my heart when they told me that they were dog-friendly – not just the grounds, but Miko could come into the museum also. How cool is that? Or as my mechanic in the car lot where I am living now said to me – 'Cooler than a pocket on a shirt'. The museum itself told the story of the Trail of Tears, where the Cherokee and many other First Nation tribes were driven off their land in the eastern United States and forced to travel to Oklahoma 'Indian Territory'. It is one of the saddest stories of our nation's history. I wandered over to the Cherokee village which they have built. It is representative of a typical Cherokee village in the early 1700's. I took the tour which was fascinating as they talked a lot about the Cherokee culture and how they lived.

Miko in the museum

A Cherokee winter house made out of clay and river reeds

Major take-aways – the Cherokee were a Mater-lineal group where all property and children belonged to the women. They were not nomadic and built villages with stockade walls. Education was highly valued and they were often more literate than their white neighbors. There have been many notable Cherokee but Andrew Hartley Payne captured my imagination. He was the winner of the International Trans-Continental Footrace in 1928. He ran 3,423.5 mile route from Los Angeles to New York City from March or 1928 until May of 1928. Just a little over two months it took him to run across the United States. Amazing. There were so many amazing facts – I highly recommend checking out Tahlequah and the Cherokee National Museum. Alas, they have partnered with the National Park Service, but their Junior Ranger program has not been completely set up yet, so no Junior Ranger for me.

Sunday was a lovely day, temperatures were in the low sixties. Miko and I wandered over to Oklahoma again to go to Natural Falls State Park, home of one of the tallest waterfalls in Oklahoma. My first waterfall of the year – how wonderful it this? Everything is pretty brown - I suppose that is to be expected with it being January and all.  I think Miko really had a good time – she has been sort of cooped up at the car lot for the last week and it was really nice to get out and do some hiking. I spent quite a bit of time at the bottom of the falls, just sitting and becoming one with nature. I've always wanted to use that 'becoming one with nature' in a sentence about me.

This park had multiple different ways to view the falls - high, low and in between

I was just so thrilled to see green in the month of January I had to take this picture

I also did a bit of shopping, replenishing some supplies.  I bought a beaded placemat to hang on my wall - I think it is pretty.  So far I have not really put any personal touches in the RV.  It's a start.

Don't Fence Me In

I've been on the road for almost a week now and haven't made a lot of progress, both in my travels and my blogging. What can I say – I've been busy. I'm making up for it with this blog. It is going to be super text heavy.

It was difficult getting out of town this winter. Let's start with the car crash in the beginning of January which totaled my beloved Mini Cooper. Of a lesser note, it also fractured a couple of bones in my hand, not bad enough that I needed a cast, but bad enough that I should wear a brace for the next few weeks. I'm thinking that I sure would not want to be a car owned by me – it seems every two years some major hurt happens to a car owned by me.

After running around furiously (I have a time table to follow – like get out of Minnesota before I freeze), I end up buying a Ford Focus – same car that caught on fire a couple of years ago, except this is a manual instead of an automatic. I have to get the tow bar and supplemental braking system installed so I can tow it behind the RV.

I left on a Saturday, which was important because there was a major snow storm predicted on Sunday and ended up in Osceola Iowa at Lakeside Casino where I always stay my first night on the road. This was of note because I think it was one of the few times that I stayed there and there wasn't a blizzard or high wind warnings out. I woke up to an extremely dense fog, got gas and headed out.

Past Kansas City, near a town in Missouri called Nevada (said Ne-vay-da) all of a sudden I notice the RV coolant indicator heating up. It is climbing higher and higher. Just as it reached the red zone and the 'Reduced Engine Performance' light came on, I pulled over and shut the engine off. Roads in Missouri are usually not built with much of a shoulder. Those semis going by were really rocking the RV. I turned the engine back on, it was a normal temperature and started off again. This time the temperature climbed much faster. Time to call Roadside Assistance. They had a couple of guys come out ( think guys that looked like they belonged in Duck Dynasty) and they put four gallons of coolant in. They could not see any leaks and thought the wind had just blown the coolant out. Sounded a little fishy, but what do I know?

Proceeded on down the road, into a torrential rain storm. Got a little lost and finally got to the park I was staying at and settled in for the night. Have I mentioned that Miko seems to have developed a new nervous trigger (besides her travel in the RV phobia) which is rain storms. Lovely, soothing rain on the roof sets her all a-tremble. The next morning, I looked at my coolant and it looked low so I put another two gallons in. At this point I figured I needed to get this looked at, but I'm in the middle of Nowhere, Missouri.

I get as far as Arkansas, engine is heating up again. I pull over into a hotel parking lot and start making phone calls. First I call RV places but they tell me that they can't work on it because it is an engine problem, they only work on RV stuff. I then call Ford dealers because I have a Ford engine. Nope, they can't work on it because I'm too big for their bays. I find a place called Truck Service of Arkansas and give them a call. Yes – they can work on it. Yay!!!! I pull in, get in line (they are first come, first serve). After about an hour, they tell me – Nope, we can't work on your rig – you are a gas engine, we only work on diesel engines. What am I supposed to do now?

I call and call and finally find a guy who takes pity on me. Bless his heart. Joe actually said when I told him my story, as an exclamation – 'Oh Good Gravy' How can you not like somebody like that? I end up at Crain's Buick/GMC dealer – nicest people ever. After they diagnosed the problem – cracked radiator - They dealt with my extended warranty people which helped a lot. The warranty paid for a couple of nights in a hotel, so Miko and I stayed at La Quinta. First room's sink would not drain, the second room's ceiling would drip when the guy upstairs took a shower.

Crain ordered a new radiator which took a day to get here and then when they opened the box, it turned out the radiator was all bent up. So they had to order another one. At this point the RV is up on blocks. I spent last night in the RV, behind the locked fence with the three rows of barb wire up on top. It actually wasn't too bad, I guess I felt pretty secure here. If I can't get out, I figure no nefarious creatures can get in. They think they will have the radiator replaced today, but I'm not so hopeful. We shall see.

Update: Radiator is in (YAY!!!), but they have found that something called a Transmission Coolant Housing unit that is cracked. They have ordered the part from Memphis but it will not be here before next Tuesday. So I guess I am living in the car lot until next Tuesday at the earliest. These guys at Crain though have been so wonderful to me. They have me hooked up to electricity, they have filled my tanks with water – they have given me a key to the gate – I cannot say enough about how great their customer service has been. Although I don't quite understand why they haven't ordered a name plate on my chair in the customer lounge – I mean I've been sitting in that chair for almost a week. :-)

My nightly view - can't see the barb wire, but it is there