Welcome to Oklahoma??

Thursday May 12, 2011

Brushy Lake State Park  Site L-1

Sallisaw, Oklahoma

We got a record start at 8:57am

on our way to Brushy Creek State Park Sallisaw Oklahoma

We were welcomed to Oklahoma

and then immediately a sign,

telling us we were

"Entering the Cherokee Nation".

My camera wouldn’t recover fast enough

to get a picture of it but as we drove,

we saw many welcome to and leaving from

various Native American Lands.

In fact, it seems like all of Oklahoma was

Indian Reservations for those who

were forced to it from all over the country.

Shortly after that point,

other folks decided they wanted the land

and so instead of holding a reservation in commmon

as was their tradition,

the policy was changed for the Native Americans

and they were given "allotments" of 160 acres each

and the rest of the former reservation

land was given to white settlers either by

lottery or in a "run".

I am ashamed that my country

has never publicly apologized for its appalling

treatment of this country's Native Peoples nor

admitted its formal policy of genocide.

We stopped by an information station to see if

they had any information on campgrounds  along I40.

These little Tee-Pees over the picnic tables

were unique.

 

Other than Next Exit, I have not found

any information by highway

and even Next Exit does not

list specific campgrounds.

I did get the newest Oklahoma highway map and

was surprised to see this quotation by Oklahoma Native

Will Rogers as the one mounted on the wall.

Not that I don't agree with him.

 And would love to have this Native American dress on display.

It didn't say which tribal dress it was and with so many various

tribes in this state, I have no idea.

We pulled into Brushy Lake around 3:30.

We drive about like we hike,

slowly with many stops.

This state park looks and feels

more like a local campground

than a State Park.

I read on line that the state was going to close it.

Lots of comments on that page were folks

lamenting its loss as it was

such a cute place;

a place they’d gone for years with their families.

And that’s pretty much what it looks like.

Very laid back.  No trails, no visitor center.

Just the lake and folks who

want to boat or fish on it.

The sites have water & electric.

Dump station is available.

All sites are $20 with a 10% discount for over age 62.

Nice price even though twice as expensive as Petit Jean

which now looks even more like an AMAZING place.

We had called ahead to make sure they would

have spaces and Doris from the office,

which is a room created within a metal equipment building,

put a reserved sign on a site she thought we’d like.

A very thoughtful thing to do.

Doris was great to work with

both on the phone and in person.

The folks here are very friendly.

I almost reconsidered our water front site

when I saw the trees and benches still under water

and heard that our campsite,

along with the others on the water

and the road into them

had been under water less than a week ago. 

I was told “things have dried out considerably”.

Look at the "lake front" bench.

 

But we took the chance and moved into Site L-1 on the water.

And then the problems began.

Today’s first problem:

According to the weatherman,
the rain had been moved from 3:00
to 6:00.  Plenty of time to get in
a grocery run.

As we drove out, I tried to pay Doris for the site.

The card was denied AGAIN.  

Same story.

I called,

got Linda in Maryland

who said

like a broken record,

“no more cards have gone out since the 27^th of April. 

But 6 more came back in on May 6^th so that stopped your card.  

But I've reset it and

they’ve all come in now

so you won’t have any more trouble.”  

RIGHT.

More time and cell phone minutes wasted

(I’m on the 450 min a month plan).

The 8^th call I’ve made and 18^th person I’ve talked to.

 Although, the last person before this did credit my

account with $100 to cover all the phone calls.

She definitely thought I was getting bumb deal,

but obviously couldn't stop it.

Problem solved "for the moment",

back in the car,

pay Doris, everything works fine

but we failed to pay attention to the time as

we drove off to the grocery.

Today’s 2^nd problem: 

While in the store 

the largest hail storm

I have EVER experienced occurred.

We were at the check out

or I would have gone to look outside sooner. 

It lasted nearly 20 minutes

and was just ending when I got to the door

and took a couple of

not so hot pictures with my phone.

Some of the “stones” were nearly golf ball size

and they were pounding down on the roof like

gun blasts.

The store manager had someone at the door

who was not letting people leave until it was over. 

Not sure if that was for insurance purposes or what.

AMAZINGLY I figured out  how to get

the pictures off of my new Droid.

Although this was my first and impromptu

use of the camera on the phone,

they are none too good.

Wish I could have been at the window earlier

and had time to figure out how to use the zoom

Those hail balls were WAY bigger than

they look here

 

My car was outside during the hail storm

and I haven’t inspected it for damage

since when we got back to Winnona and 

I opened the door with groceries in my arms,

it was clear, that because of the heat,

 we had forgotten to close the windows

and everything was sopping wet.

 

The couch, the dinette,

the bathroom floor,

the chairs,

AND problem #3 

David’s laptop was sitting by an open window.

Although case was closed, it had gotten rained on.

And when it was dried off, it didn't work.

GREAT day so far.

Todays 4th Problem.

(I thought they came in 3s??)

Blogger was down.

So I couldn’t spend my evening hours of more rain

doing another couple of catch up blogs.

Carrie emailed  to say that she wasn’t able to comment

on the blog.

What’s going on here?

I checked to see what was up

and found that my entire

Hot Springs National Park post

and all its many many pictures

which took me hours to do

and on which folks had already commented is

Gone………

Just

Disappeared.

Well it’s been one of

THOSE

days  at this point.

David worked on drying out his laptop

so hopefully he can get it running again.

But so far, no luck.

Thank goodness mine wasn’t near the window.

(at least no problem #5 in one day)

Rain and thunder continued on into the night. 

It makes good sleeping as long as the hail is finished. 

Hope it’s not enough rain to raise the lake up to us again. 

Guess we’ll assess that and the hail damage tomorrow in the day light.

We’re expecting this small campground

to be filled to the brim tomorrow and Saturday nights. 

 

We are doing a down day here tomorrow

and moving on to Red Rock Canyon State Park 220 miles away

on Saturday in an effort to make up some time. 

There really isn’t much to do here

but perhaps kayak the lake. 

So it's a great place for a Down Day.

 But the folks are friendly like Doris

and Katarina

(boy I hope i got her name right

I didn't write it down and she was SO nice)

She knows the park and area well

and warned me this morning

BEFORE the repeat credit card fiasco,

about the upcoming rain

and possible storm.

This was why we headed out early

to be back by 6:00.

Not much good if you get

waylaid and don't check the time.

No rain tomorrow.

Maybe we’ll go back to town

and look for a Laundromat.  

Had we been smart enough

to consider all errands that needed doing

we would have waited until tomorrow to go in

and may well have avoided all weather related problems,

as it doesn’t look like there was hail here at the campground,

just a LOT of rain.

Live and learn is definitely the story here.

Don't try to do so much on a travel day is

my take home message! 

Even IF you get there early.

J