Day 20 Route 66

We went over to the Firelake Casino this morning to have breakfast and to check out of their campground after six nights of free camping. We are finally leaving–I think.

Fist stop was at the casino’s gas station where we bought 17 gallons of diesel for $56.26. Using our casino player’s card we paid $3.299 per gallon. They had a window washing tool with a trucker length handle so Dave was able to wash our windshield without having to stretch; that was nice.

Then we went East instead of West to go to a highway rest area Steve had told us about to use the dump there. The one at the casino was up on a curb making gravity not our friend. We had used that one the day we arrived here but Dave was reluctant to try it again. He was right to be reluctant. At the rest area he confirmed that things had not completely emptied previously which now resulted in a minor mess. It’s not pleasant to have to clean up those messes.

Then we went to WalMart to restock our groceries. They didn’t have everything we wanted but at least our cupboards are less bare than they were.

Finally we headed north towards Chandler, Oklahoma, where we left route 66 nearly a week ago. The road we took went through Meeker, which is where Steve and Carol just sold their house. It already felt like home to us going by places they had pointed out only a couple of days ago.

The wind gusts today are stronger than I like so I’m glad we don’t plan to go far today. We rounded one curve just as we came to the top of a hill where there was a break in the trees and nearly got blown off the road. Dave reassured me it would be better when we turned west since then it would be a head wind. How reassuring.

The dirt around here is rust red. I’m so glad the water in the RV park didn’t taste as rusty as the ground looks. My Dad’s water tastes like that which is why we didn’t fill our tank at his house. We wouldn’t have been able to stay here so long if we couldn’t fill our fresh water tank here. We are still doing that twice a week. Dave has a plan for installing a sight level that will give us a real reading on our fresh water level but he’s not yet ready to cut into our plumbing line to try it.  In the meantime, we fill more often than we probably need to rather than take the chance of running out while taking a shower. I’ve been there; done that; Dave doesn’t want to do it.

Finally we, once again, headed west on Route 66 stopping to take pictures of the Seaba Station and Arcadia’s round barn.  This barn is not hexagonal or anything–it’s truly round.  The theory is the farmer who built it believed tornadoes would slide by while leaving it standing.  It must have worked.

We had a very late lunch at Pops which sells five hundred flavors of soda pop in bottles. I had strawberry which made me feel about ten years old. I also had a grilled cheese sandwich but that didn’t make me feel as young since it had three types of cheese plus tomato slices on it making it a more adult grilled cheese than we had when I was a kid.

Now we are camped on the shore of Lake Arcadia at Central State Park. In spite of it’s name this is not a state park; I think it must be located in the center of the state. It is a Core of Engineers park which means my Access America card got us a really good price on a site with an electrical hookup right on the shore of the lake.

We plan to have a peaceful evening.

TTYL,

Linda