Topeka

We left Oklahoma this morning continuing our trek to Wisconsin. You couldn't ask for a better day to travel. There was no traffic and the weather was beautiful. Today's travels takes us to Topeka, Kansas for the night where we checked into the Capital City RV Park. This wouldn't be a bad location to visit Topeka if the sites were level. When I got the rig level the right rear tires were 4" off the ground. While here we visited with a cousin for dinner. If you like Mexican food El Agave Mexican Restaurant at 2222 SW Washburn is very good and there was no line to stand in on a Saturday evening. Tomorrow morning our trek north will continue taking us into Iowa for the night. We only have 652 miles to go but we can't get checked into our summer campground until Tuesday May 1st.

Everybody Loves a Circus

Yesterday we attended a circus with my sister Lovina, daughter Evon, 2 granddaughters Kristella and McKenzie, and our daughter's boyfriend's 2 children when the Carson & Barnes Circus came to Seminole, Oklahoma. Everything was wet and muddy as a thunderstorm pasted through before they set up the Big Top. Oklahoma's red clay mud was everywhere. Before the circus we visited with my Uncle Junior and Aunt Virgina and my cousin Ron and his wife Judy all from Seminole.

89'er Days

At high noon on April 22, 1889, the first of 5 land runs began that opened the Oklahoma Indian Territory to the settlement of unassigned lands to white settlers. Some 50,000 people lined up upon the banks of the Canadian River which now is the small town of Lexington, Oklahoma. Yesterday the Town of Lexington celebrated this event with their annual 89'er Day Festival. It's been years since I last attended the 89'er Days so Barb and I took our 2 granddaughters Kristella and McKenzie to share in the festivities. The city closed off some of the streets and they had carnival rides and bands and street dancing. There were carnival food vendors, an auto and bike show, a parade, and gun fight reenactments in front of the bank. While there we hooked up with friends that we hadn't seen for awhile.


Afterwards we took a trip to Bricktown in Oklahoma City to see a movie and a walk along the Riverwalk. To end the day we had a Vietnamese dinner at The Lido Restaurant in the Pasio district of Oklahoma City.

Made it to Oklahoma

Well after driving 255 miles yesterday we finely made it to Oklahoma. We were going to leave Canton, TX on Sunday but after our friends came in from Presidio, TX on Saturday we decided to stay 3 more days before leaving for Oklahoma. Our daughter's boyfriend has some property on the out skirts of Norman where he put in an electrical hookup next to his barn. After I got the satellite dishes up this morning we headed into Oklahoma City for a Vietnamese lunch and then a movie with our 7 year old granddaughter. We plan on staying here for at least a week or longer.

Today marked the 12th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing that happened on this day on April 19th, 2005. I remember the day very well because I was just a couple of miles away when it happened.

This weekend we plan on attending the 89're day festivities in Lexington, OK. The 89're day festivities is a reenactment and celebration of the Oklahoma Land Run that started there in Lexington in 1889. The state is also celebrating it's centennial all this month after becoming the 46th state to join the Union in 1907.

Stormy Weather

Late night here in Canton we survived our first severe storm of the year as severe thunderstorms and tornados ripped through Texas. We watched The Weather Channel and a local Dallas TV channel as the storms built up starting west of the Fort Worth area. I also tracked the storms over the Internet connected to weather radar and satellite sites. There were reports of winds in excess of 100 miles per hour and 3 inch hail. I went out and staked down our satellite antennas expecting high winds to hit us. As the storms progressed east the counties to the west of us came under tornado warnings then around 7pm last night the county that we are in came under a tornado warning as Doppler radar indicated possible tornados in the northern part of the county. Then as the squall line came upon us we lost our satellite TV and Internet reception. I set here waiting for the high winds and hail but all we got was a little bit of wind and a brief period of heavy rain. The blunt of the storm damage occurred some 40 miles from here as tornados passed through the Dallas area.

Our boat partners that we have been waiting for has finely left Presidio, TX and we are expecting them here sometime this afternoon. We are still planning on leaving here tomorrow morning heading to Norman, Oklahoma to visit our daughter and 2 granddaughters there for a week before heading north to Wisconsin.

Weather here in Canton today is overcast and windy. The high is forecast to be around 57◦.

Back in TEXAS

We got on the road late morning yesterday not knowing for sure where we were going to stop for the night. As the day progressed so did the miles. Barb got a little sleepy after we stopped for lunch so we pulled into a rest stop for an hour and a half where she was able to get a little shuteye. After that we both wanted to keep going when we seen that are next destination was just a couple of more hours down the road. At around 7:30 pm we pulled into the Canton I-20 RV Park in Wills Point, (Canton) TX where we will spend the next week.

This morning after I got us and turned the TV on to get a little local news all I got was Easter programming and Spanish stations. Not being Christian therefore not caring for the Easter programming I tuned into one on the Spanish stations until I went out and set-up both the TV satellite and the Internet satellite dishes.

Swinging Bridges

We left Alabama this morning continuing our way to Oklahoma then up to Wisconsin. We were going to stop in Hattiesburg, Mississippi but it was still early in the day so we opted to continue to Jackson, Mississippi where we are staying for a day or two at the Swinging Bridge RV Resort. The spaces are large and wide compared to most RV parks. The interior roads are gravel but the sites are level with concrete pads. There are lots of tall pine trees and the park has two good sized fishing ponds. There is a swimming pool here but it hasn't been opened yet for the year. The park sits far enough off of Interstate 55 so there is very little road noise.

On to Alabama

We left the Rainbow Springs State Park campground today and continued out trip towards Oklahoma. Barbie wanted to get out of Florida so our next stop after nearly 400 miles of driving is at the Styx River Resort in Robertsdale, AL. The Styx River Resort is a Coast to Coast affiliated park so our overnight fees were only $8 a day and since we wanted to be able to plug into 50 amp service we paid an additional $2. The park is located about half way between Mobile, AL and Pensacola, FL on I-10. We'll spend 2 nights here then its off to Hattiesburg, MS.

Rainbow Springs State Park

We finely left Brandon, FL today after long goodbyes to the family and headed 106 miles north to Rainbow Springs State Park outside of Dunnellon, FL to visit our friends Scott and Lori Baker. We first meet the Baker's 3 winters ago as they were work camping at Loma Paloma RV Park in Presidio, TX. The following winter they had to leave early and we took their place for the rest of that season.

Archaeological evidence indicates that people have been using this spring for nearly 10,000 years. Rainbow Springs is Florida's fourth largest spring pumping 600 million gallons of water daily and severs as the headwater to the pristing Rainbow River. Operated for four decades as an attraction, the property was acquired by the State Park Service in 1990 and is slowly being allowed to revert to its natural state. Beautiful floral gardens surround the spring, and the area is immensely popular in the spring when the azaleas are in bloom. The state also acquired Rainbow Springs State Campground, located nearby, which was formerly privately owned. From the campground, you can tube or canoe the crystalline waters of Rainbow River, or fish for largemouth bass and other freshwater species.