Vicksburg, MS

We made the 250 mile trip to Vicksburg in the rain. Rain rain go away. We spent the night in the Ameristar Casino campground, I think it was full. Oh, it rained all night too. Did I mention it rained a lot?

Toad Suck Park; Conway, Arkansas

Sunday was a pretty wet day in Chicken Creek. Five of our friends left for TX KS and CA. We spent the afternoon eating leftover smoked brisket and other goodies around the campfire until the rains arrived. Monday morning we slept in waiting for the rains to stop then we packed up, said our goodbyes & pulled out about 11am. It rained most of the way here and we arrived at Toad Suck about 2:30. The Arkansas River is about 30 feet behind us and in one picture you can see the bridge & dam. Sure hope the dam holds all this rain! Too bad it's not nice out, this is a pretty place. We did have fun finding it, no signs. We first drove into the administration building, then the dam & locks park & then a Shell station to get directions. We had to go under a low bridge that, of course, has no clearance sign. Judy reminds me this is part of the adventure, I called it something else.

Busy busy busy @ the Chicken Creek Classic

Wednesday & Thursday were overcast, rainy & chilly. We cut up a downed tree on Wes' property property and hauled in back in our truck. We have had two campfires burning for 3 or 4 days & evenings now. We went to Tahlequah Friday afternoon in a truck convoy and had GREAT pizza at Sam and Ellas Chicken Palace.

Today was a beautiful 65 and sunny day. Wes and his band of merry men (I wasn't one of them!) were outside at 5am firing up the smoker for 2 briskets & 4 sides of ribs. They smoked all day until we ate at 5pm. Wes takes his smoking very serious, glad he does as it's VERY good! There are 11 1/2 HitchHikers here, the 1/2 is Larry, a sheriff from Texas who drove 500 miles to be here; he hasn't yet taken delivery of his new home, he retires no later than next March & hits the road. We are having a great time with our fellow HitchHiker friends from across the USA as they head for their wintering sites in CA, AZ, TX & us in AL.

Chicken Creek Classic; Cookson, OK

We arrived at 11:15 this morning in the Chicken Creek Corps of Engineers park on Tenkiller Lake. I'm glad it was only 107 miles up & down hills into the wind, we averaged 7.3 mpg, a new record low towing. We were the fourth couple to arrive and we are expecting another 6 or 8 couples. This is our third time here. The trees are really turning colors down here and you can see it in the pictures. he cell phones and Internet access is working well but we are under a very large oak tree that is giving our TV satellite dish fits, maybe I can get Judy on the roof tomorrow to trim some limbs? The weather today has been great, all sunshine, mid 70s and a nice breeze so we all sat outside this afternoon chatting.

Cowboy Church

We went to a Cowboy Church this morning at the Flying Cow Arena. It's a very large pole building, 3/4 of it is a dirt floor arena. One corner had folding chairs and picnic tables set up in front of a large fireplace with a wood fire going. Also in the corner was a 4 cowboy band playing gospel music. That part of the building was on a cement floor but with the doors open we had a couple dogs wandering around during the loose & casual Southern Baptist service. I did say casual and loose didn't I? The service was 1 1/2 hours but they had tons of rolls and coffee & tea all the time. Brother Clint's sermon was were he laid down the law.....no one bad mouths his new church, you don't like it go away, the congregation's job was to visit with & bring in new members. There were 150 to 200 people in attendance. Oh, at the end we were all invited to go outside when Brother Clint was baptizing by immersion a new member....in the horse trough. We had to watch for cow & pies in the parking lot. Quite interesting.

Happy Birthday Judy!!!!!

Today is a big day for Judy. She went to Curves in the morning then had a manicure & pedicure, with a spider and a web on each thumb. We had a nice BBQ lunch at the Rib Crib did some grocery shopping and in the evening we went to see "Dracula, the Musical Farce" put on by a local players group in a small (54 seat) theater. We had front row seats and were just about on the stage. We really enjoyed it & Boris stole the play.

Of course we had a birthday cake.

Coleman Therater & Motorcycle Museum; Miami, OK

Today we drove to Miami (pronounced Miami-ah) Oklahoma and spent over an hour touring the Coleman Theater. It opened in 1929 and was built by a well digger who discovered lead & zinc, bought the land & mineral rights and was making $1M a month. He married a gal 30 years younger & she tired of taking the train to New York City to see a play or famous performers so hubby built her a theater & brought the shows to her. The guide had lots of interesting stories.

We then checked out a bike museum that had several beautifully restored British bikes, a stock 1917 Harley & the dirt bike hanging from the ceiling was Steve McQueen's favorite. Good little museum.

My complaining about the weather in yesterday's blog brought out the sun for a few hours today.