A Oklahoma Splash Pad

Hello Everyone,

We made it to Keystone State Park Oklahoma on the 18^th and spent the night. The campground wasn’t that great, small pull through spaces and the bathroom was dirty.  The good thing about the campground was that they had an interesting playground.  It was like a space, yes that’s right, space like outer space themed playground.  There were sprinklers and hoses in the area and Ben, Daniel and Anna took the hoses up to the water hook ups and turned them on.  Now don’t worry, the playground ground was rubber, so we didn’t get muddy.  When they turned on the sprinklers they got, well, I’ll let you see for yourself in the pictures!

The Daredevil at work......

Tom and Gabrielle on the swings in the water

Daniel and Anna on the swings in the water

Checotah, Okalahoma

Well, we got to Terra Starr RV in park in Checotah, Oklahoma last night around 9:00 CT. This morning we got up, did school, and Christine, Gabrielle and Anna went to the pool.  Josh, Ben and Daniel went to Lake Eufala for some fishing, where they didn't catch anything. Next to the pool is a storm shelter, many of you may not know what a storm shelter is, so I got some pictures just for you!!

The Storm Cellar with paintings on the sides

Inside the storm cellar

The other side of the cellar

Kayaks, Paddle Boats and Driving

 Hey Everyone!
Today we got up a bit later than normal, 7:40! We made breakfast, organized the outside bins of the RV and headed to the Marina to rent a Kayak and a Paddle boat.  Josh had a bad headache, so he stayed at the RV with dad.  We are headed out to Muskogee, Oklahoma (‘where the wind goes sweeping down the plains’, in Josh’s words)  where we will stay the night.    

Ben and Daniel in the paddle boat

Anna and Gabrielle in the Kayak

Hot Springs, Arkansas

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday we got up, did some school, swam at the pool, went on a nature hike in the woods and went to Hot Springs National Park.  We went to the park, but it’s not really what you would think a national park is.  Behind the famous “Bathhouse Row” is a large staircase, at the top is a paved road where you can walk to the springs after exploring  Bathhouse Row.  There are 8 bathhouses on Bathhouse Row, with only two still in operation and one of the two still operates like it did 50 years ago. The springs come out of the ground at an astonishing 143 degrees Fahrenheit! I'll put up some pictures when we have some internet connection and time, pictures take a while to load!

Ted's Bait and Tackle

Yep, that's correct, Ted's Bait and Tackle. That's where we stayed Saturday night after we realized we couldn't get to Hot Springs to camp.  We just pulled off interstate 40, saw a sign for Biscoe, Arkansas and proceeded to stay there.  Across the street from Ted's was a small church, First Assembly of God, where we decided to go to Sunday school and church Sunday morning.  The people at the church were so kind and sweet, we kept getting hugs and prayers for us to be safe on our trip. We left the church around 1 PM central time and headed to Hot Springs.  We got here to DeGray Lake Resort State Park yesterday around 4 PM central time. We set up the RV, made dinner, had s'mores, showered and went to bed.  We got up this morning around 6:40 AM (CT) and started our schoolwork. We are planning on swimming and hiking today then going to Hot Springs National Park this afternoon when Dad gets off work.

Ted's Bait and Tackle

After church talking

First Assembly of God, Biscoe Arkansas

Rickwood Caverns

Hello,

Just wanted to tell you a little about Rickwood Caverns, the state park we stayed at Friday night.  After we moved our stuff to the new RV, we went on a tour of the caverns. They were pretty neat, but Josh, Ben and Daniel would have like to explore them some more than just the guided tour we went on.  We met a nice, homeschool family from Irondale, Alabama, members of Troop 96. Here are some of our pictures! Don't forget to post some comments!

Anna Torre in the Caverns

Christine and Gabrielle in the caverns

Josh, Ben and Daniel on the staris

The Davis Family after the tour of the Caverns

The First and Second Days on the Road

Hello Everyone,

What an interesting day, Friday the 12^th of August!! We left Cumming, GA at 9:00 AM. Dad had to stop by one of his customers in Cherokee County because they were having computer issues.  It took him three hours to resolve that problem, while he was there the 6 of us went to a park about 5 minutes away. Unfortunately during this delay, we missed our meeting with my dad’s cousin, Ken Sheckler. We were going to meet him at 10:00 in Birmingham Alabama, but that didn’t work out!  We had a nice lunch of egg and tuna salad at the park and Josh and I threw the Frisbee while the others rode their bikes. At about 1:30 we got a call from dad saying he was almost done at work and we could come pick him up.  We left there and have been driving ever since.  At 5:00 (Eastern Time Zone) we crossed into Alabama.  We were going to stay Tupelo, Mississippi at the Natchez Trace RV Park last night. We weren’t going to be able to make the 10 hour drive to Hot Springs, Arkansas, so we would head there tomorrow (mind you that this is Friday). What an evening! We were at the Piggly Wiggly parking lot and tried to slide out the RV to get to our dinner.  We could not get it to slide out.  So we called Mr. Eddie Terry who loaned us the RV and he offered to bring us a new RV in the morning.  After much prayer and consideration we decided we would have Mr. Terry bring the new rig.  We found a campground at a state park on the map and proceeded to head there.  When we got there, unfortunately, the gate was padlocked. We had pulled into the small road leading to the gate and we couldn’t turn around or back up because we were pulling the van. We were in a pickle, so Josh and Dad ran into the park to see if they could find someone to help us. They were on the Ranger’s front porch when dad spotted a man, who was camping in the park, walking to the bath house.  He raced over to the man and told him our pitiful story.  He told us the code to the lock so Josh and Dad ran back to the RV and the rest of us.  We unlocked the gate and headed to the sites, when we had to get the van off of the back of the RV. We were getting the van off when the Ranger came up to us and told us that we weren’t supposed to be there and that the man should not have given us the code.  When Dad told him that our RV wasn’t working and he saw all of the 7 of us, I think he felt bad.  He let us stay at site number 7 and we went to bed. 

Yesterday morning we got up with the sun, literally, and started getting everything out of the compartments of the old RV.  We had no idea what RV Mr. Terry was bringing, so we were totally in the dark.  We had bundles of clothes, dishes, food and even cereal all over the RV.  By the time Mr. Terry got to the campground, we had all our stuff ready to move to the new vehicle.  We parked them side by side and formed a “bucket brigade” to hand the stuff from one RV to the other.  It took about 2 hours to go through the whole process, including talking!

Panorama of the driver's side of RV number 2!

The new RV, it has a slide on each side!

Panorama of Passenger side of RV number 2 !