WHAT, YOU’VE NEVER SEEN ANYONE WITH NY PLATES BEFORE?
Day 170 – We were up at around 7:30 a.m., 44 degrees and already beginning to rain. We don’t think we’ll be seeing the sun for a couple of days at least. We showered & packed up to leave. The girls said, really? Again?
168 miles
Doris Campground, Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, 32 Refuge Headquarters, Indiahoma, OK 73552, (580) 429-3222, www.fws.gov/refuge/Wichita_Mountains/. This campground is actually located within the Wildlife Refuge, making it really convenient for visiting one of the best NWRs we’d ever been to. There are two separate campgrounds for groups; Doris Campground is for tents & Rvs. The campsites are different sizes and come with picnic tables & fire pits; some have electric & water hook-ups & some are no hook-ups (but there were signs up that the water was contaminated and should be boiled before using). There was a dump station. No reservations – first-come, first-served. We drove through and chose site #36, private, nicely tree’d, large, & on the River. One drawback though is that the campground roads are VERY narrow & it was difficult to get thru without scratching the RV. Also, the campsites are narrow, too, and many of the driveways are not very long for a tow car & an RV. There was lots of wildlife and they come walking right through the campsites. Because of the ideal location, we’re sure the campground gets crowded in-season. $20 per night (minus 50% senior discount) for water & electric hook-ups; $10 per night (minus 50% senior discount) for no hook-ups. We will definitely return to this Wildlife Refuge and would stay here again.
We departed at 10 a.m., 51 degrees, raining. The prescribed burn fire was still smoking and we saw one Long-Horned Cow on the way out of the Refuge.
Prescribed burn, the next day, Wichita Mountains NWR, Lawton, OK
Goodbye Texas Longhorn, Wichita Mountains NWR, Lawton, OK
The route was 49E to 115S to 62E to 44S to 7E to 35S to 70E to 1st Street to Main Street to the 377/99 to Capitol Street & follow signs to Pennington Creek City Campground in Tishomingo, OK. It was rainy and foggy the whole trip. Since we were headed south and closer to the TX border, it was again more ranches and cattle, less cotton fields.
Foggy, rainy drive
We stopped along the way for a lunch break (Subway) and arrived at our campground in Tishomingo at 2:05 p.m. The campsites were on the Pennington Creek which was quite high and moving rapidly due to the rain which was coming down heavily. We picked at site with full hook-ups. There were 15 sites; only two were occupied. When Rob went to pay for our site, he was told “Blake Shelton was from around here”. (I guess it’s their claim to fame. For those who don’t know, Blake Shelton is a popular country singer who is one of the judges on The Voice.) We were told that his mother owns the local antique store and that we could get Blake Shelton memorabilia at the local bar on Main Street, “Ole Reds”. We were also told that our site didn’t have electric hook-ups at this time. We paid a lower rate ($15 per night) and stayed where we were. There were no site numbers.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
People kept driving by, through the Park, and slowing down to stare at us in our campsite. What, do we have two heads? Has no one ever camped in an RV here before? You’ve never seen anyone from NY before? Hey, we’re not that different! Anyway, it continued to rain steadily into the evening. The high today was 68 degrees, very humid and lots of rain. We hope the rain lightens up for our visit to the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge tomorrow.