Tushka, Oklahoma

Today we drove from Miami, Oklahoma, to Tushka, Oklahoma, on our way south to Mansfield, Texas. Most of the trip was on US 69, a route that is mainly limited access, so we made pretty good time. When we got to Tushka, the RV park we were planning to stay at turned out not to be where the address in the listing said it was. Fortunately a phone call got us directions to the actual location, less than a mile away.

It's one of the more unusual places for an RV park--actually a collection of RV sites--at a drive-thru beverage/convenience store called Tiger Town.

It's a fine place to spend the night, but definitely not somewhere we'd want to spend much longer. Read more!

Lake of the Ozarks to the Quapaw Casino

We've been watching this heron for a while. It's always stationed well out into the lake, but on a sandbar. The fishing must be good there. Once we saw two herons together here.

Ken got a photo of this critter in our campsite, just before it got alarmed and ran away, finally pulling completely into its shell when he got too close.

We made a complete change of scenery today. It was a long drive from Lake of the Ozarks State Park to Miami, Oklahoma, where we stayed at one of the smallest, least pretentious casinos we've ever seen. The really nice thing is that the Quapaw Casino offers campsites with full hookups, free for the first three days and only $10 a night afterwards.

The casino is just a rather utilitarian one story metal building. We walked through, seeing very few patrons at the many slot machines and no one at the four gaming tables. We did learn that "Quapaw" is pronounced "O Gah Pah," which we would never have guessed. The free campsites are very nice, and the trains were not too near and not too frequent.

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Hiking at Lake of the Ozarks State Park

Today we packed a lunch and set out to hike the Fawn’s Ridge and White Oak Trails, connected by White Connector #1.  We ended up hiking 5.8 miles. We hiked some extra distance because we were uncertain about our position, so we ended up doing part of the Fawn’s Ridge Trail twice.

We ate lunch at a picnic table near the stables, and a cute little stray cat came begging. We didn’t have anything to give her, but I cut one of the coke bottles down to leave her some water. She didn’t seem interested, but maybe she came back to it later.

We briefly heard a woodpecker, but didn’t see any deer or squirrels on this outing. We heard a few birds but didn’t see any. Ken saw a butterfly. The hike was mainly through some rather dry woodland, but with some beautiful scenes.

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Van Wert Bike Ride

On our way south yesterday, as we were getting near to the campground, we spotted a trail crossing on US 224. Today we decided to explore that trail, which turned out to be the Van Wert County Bike Trail.

We rode to the western terminus of the trail.

Then we turned around and headed east, to the other end of the trail: Smiley Park in Van Wert. That's where we found this whimsical butterfly garden.

We left Smiley Park and rode on into downtown Van Wert, which is where we say this county courthouse.

On our way back west, we found the county library, which immediately caught our attention. It looks like a castle! It's on the National Register of Historic Places. When it was opened in 1901, it was the first county library in the United States.

Our ride today was almost 14 miles, a good workout and an interesting exploration.

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Heading South

We're on the move again after taking time off for a month. We have an appointment in Ohio City Monday morning for some electrical work. The shop there recommended Timber Woods Camping Resort in Van Wert, so that's where we are for tonight and tomorrow night.

We're in a pull thru, and despite all the trees we had no issues with low limbs. The trees here are well behaved and don't put out limbs until they've reached a good height.
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Battle Creek Adventures

We went to Battle Creek today to celebrate my birthday. First we went to Malia Mediterranean Bistro for a delicious lunch, We started with  melanzana and sausage linguini and ended with with chocolate decadence.

After a brief stop at a nearby thrift shop called St. Philipp's Tiger Room, we went to the Historic Bridge Park. We strolled around looking at the five restored metal truss bridges from the late 1800s to the early 1900s that have been restored and relocated to the park. The eventual plan is to restore a total of fifteen bridges.

The park is on the banks of the scenic Kalamazoo River. It has an accessible kayak and canoe launch called an E-Z Launch. It has an ingenious transfer system and is the first one of its kind we have seen.

We also hiked a short stretch of the North Country National Scenic Trail, which stretches from New York to North Dakota. When it's completed it will be the longest continuous hiking trail in the United States.

On our way home, we stopped at Target and found an emergency preparedness fair going on in the parking lot. Many agencies had tables and were giving away little goodies, like a whistle for your emergency preparedness kit. The Michigan State Police Aviation Unit had a drone on display, but they didn't demo it. We also saw a bomb handling robot and an autonomous submersible. It looked like a torpedo, but is used for underwater search. Its owner/handler was very happy to describe its operation to us.

This police car caught our eye. It says "Choose your ride." The taxi ride costs about $20, and the ride in the police car (after being arrested for drunk driving) costs $10,000. Something to think about.

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Tekonsha Labor Day City Wide Yard Sales

We were up at 7:00 a.m. today and heading over to nearby Tekonsha, Michigan, for the city-wide Labor Day yard sales. We stopped at the TA truck stop to fill up on blue DEF and then turned south on Main Street. Wow! Huge sales everywhere. And people were everywhere, some walking, some riding golf carts, some driving, and even some in patio chairs on a flat trailer. Whole families with toddlers strolled down the middle of the streets. Tekonsha is definitely a slice of small town America.

Some of the sales were definitely dealers, with large tents set up in open spaces, but others were more eclectic. Some folks had just a few things in their driveways and garages. We found some benefit sales for church missions and local causes.

Nearly everything you can imagine was offered for sale, including all kinds of John Deere tractors, a Harley motorcycle, scooters, tons of clothing, produce from the garden, and lots of miscellany. Many people had coolers full of bottled water and pop on ice, and a couple of food trucks offered hot dogs and such.

We walked around from sale to sale, sometimes returning to the truck and moving on a bit.. It was hard to remember which sales we had been to, and one time we were a bit uncertain where we had left the truck.

We saw enormous quantities of things we didn't need, but we found some treasures amidst the trash. Ken found a compact, lightweight tripod, which he will be able to carry easily hiking or biking. He also picked up a copy of Bill Clinton's My Life. I found lots of miscellany, including a brand new one-quart Takeya Flash Chill Tea Maker. What really attracted me was the tall tea infuser, which I think will work well in our Corning Ware teapot, which remind me that I also found a new Corning Ware teapot.

Of course the real value of the day is the fun of the treasure hunt. We had so much fun that it was suppertime by the time we got back home, so it was a good thing that we had leftover chili and cornbread to go with the salads Ken made yesterday.

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