It was a long and busy day. I finally spent some time at the library and did my taxes. I should just get them done earlier in the tax season instead of waiting till April. We also got all our prescriptions medications taken care of at the local Walmart. A few phone calls to my doctor and a few trips back to the pharmacy while wandering around Walmart until we were finally able to head out. We decided to stay at a Cracker Barrel in this same town as the library. We got a couple of Cracker Barrel gift cards for our birthday and were so happy to be using them. We love Cracker Barrel.
It’s still unusual hot here in this area. Nighttime heat is not a Van Dwellers friend. Tomorrow we will head to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Looks like a few storms are heading our way so we will keep an eye on them.
The next three days were spent in various casinos in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is like a mini Vegas. There’s tons of Indian Land and lots of casinos. The first one we went to was The Hardrock. It was great. Lots of rock and roll paraphernalia like most Hard Rocks Casinos. They gave us some free play and also bought us Lunch the next day. The area where the RV’s stay overnight was a nice big lot not too far of a walk and very safe. The next day we went to the River Spirit Casino on the north side of Tulsa. This was a very busy parking lot and they don’t cater to RV,s. They don’t even allow RV overnight parking so we had to stealth park in their normal lot. Basically had to make the van appear that no one was staying inside. Normally we wouldn’t stay at a casino like this but we had bought tickets to see Penn and Teller in their show room. They were awesome.
Security was all over the parking lot. I guess I prefer more security than less but it does keep one eye open when trying to sleep because you are expecting that knock from Security to kick you out of the lot. They never knocked but even if they did we wouldn’t have answered the door anyway. Next day we were planning on staying in a State Park in the Ozarks but the weather has got us a little concerned with flooding, wind and tornado warnings so we decided it would be better to stay out of the woods and safer to be in a concrete parking lot so we went to the Downstream Casino in Quapaw, OK. This one actually has full hook ups I. The rear lot for free as long as you get a players card. Also they have lots of truck spaces and regular spots if you don’t need the hookups. We decided we didn’t really need to take up a spot with the hookups. I guess cause it’s Easter weekend, there are a lot of RV’s here taking advantage of the free hookups so we just took a regular spot with all the trucks behind us. Greg has been on a roll lately with his big bonus wins on the slots. I’m slowly making my money back that I lost at the Hard Rock. They have a buffet here at this casino which we will try out tomorrow. We were gonna do the buffet today but I don’t eat meat on Fridays during lent so I wouldn’t enjoy it as much so we decided to do the lunch buffet instead tomorrow.
Once we got into bed, the thunderstorms and hail started. It was so crazy!!!
We survived the storms and then had a nice buffet brunch and then hit the road. We reserved spot 228 at Big Spring Campground in Missouri. We haven’t really explored this part of the country yet and are really enjoying it. It’s very green with lots of rivers and lakes and springs.
This Spring here at Big Spring is actually the laregest in THE WORLD!! thats pretty amazing. I’ll attach Gregs you tube video at the bottom of the blog.
Next day was Easter Sunday. We got an early start as the church was 90 minutes away in Piedmont. After Massapequa we picked up some dessert and headed to Jackson Missouri to spend Easter with the Perez Family. A lot of food and laughs. It was a great time.
We spent the night at The Trail Of Tears State Park Campground. We shared a site with Barbara and Frank and watched the Mississippi River flow by. It’s amazing how much debris flows on that river. Like full sized trees float by. It’s crazy.
Next day we headed south. We really wanted to see the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid in Memphis Tennessee. The biggest one in the country. It was awesome!
We had a nice lunch at Wahl Burgers. The food was great but the service was bizarre. So ridiculously slow. Just weird.
We headed back into the woods after leaving Memphis. Headed through Arkansas and stayed at a state park overlooking a lake. From there we headed towards Branson and stayed a few days at the Table Rock State Park. The weather has been iffy so we did another puzzle.
Branson is a fun touristy town. Lots of shops and shows. We were able to go exploring. One of Greg’s friends from the ships gave us some suggested places to go. One was this cool five and dime store. We stayed in there for like an hour. So much fun.
After exploring the town, we went to a Comedy Dinner Show. Another one of Greg’s friends was performing at the show. It was a really funny show and a lot of audience participation. We had such a good time.
On the way home we found this awesome giant bust of Kennedy so we stopped for a photo. It was so random.
Check out time at The Table Rock State park wasn’t until 2 pm so we kind of had a lazy morning. Our drive for the day was only 2 hours to the next campground. The roads in Missouri are so winding and hilly with no guard rails and no shoulders. It’s slow going for sure. When we did finally arrive at our next destination, it was closed. A locked gate blocking our entry into the campground. No reason why or any signs saying why. We were without cell signal so had to set up the starlink so we could find a back up plan. There was a Walmart 20 minutes away so we headed there for the night.
Next day, another 90 minute drive to our next location. The Big Spring Campground. We had the whole place to ourselves. Just us and the flies. So many flies. Hundred and hundred of regular house flies. I spent most of the day killing flies. Thankfully they were not the biting kind of flies so basically we’re just a nuisance but they really loved the inside of our van. I killed well over a hundred with a fly swatter and I have a feeling today will be the same. As I type this, there are about 20 buzzing around and those are just the left overs from the ones that escaped my killing spree last night. Other than the flies, this is a beautifully, well maintained campground. Our site is a short walk to the river and a great fishing spot. I caught three fish, Frank had some reel problems so caught nothing. Greg couldn’t care less about fishing so he caught nothing and Barbara was watching The Virgin River on Netflix so missed the fishing expedition.
Next day we headed out. Barbara and Frank headed two hours to visit and get ready for their daughter’s baby shower and Greg and I headed an hour to another beautiful Missouri State Park overlooking a beautiful lake.
Greg is going to set up the Starlink now so that I can upload the blog to the website. A couple of days late as I totally lost track of what the date was. There will be one more blog after this one at the end of the month and then I’m off from blogging for the summer. Hope you enjoyed this second to last blog and Gregs youtube video of The Big Spring.
The Van Stops Here 