Thursday, December 16

TRAVEL DAY

From: Salt Plains State Park, OK – Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge.

To: Beaver Dunes State Park, OK.

Day 66 – We got up at 7:30 a.m. It was 31 degrees, sunny, with no wind, YAAA! Not in a big hurry, we hung around and departed after dumping tanks and doing trash at 10:45 a.m. By that time it was 44 degrees and sunny, and thank goodness, no wind. The White Pelicans were gathered at the base of the dam in all of their glory. Meanwhile, Java was happily posing on the heating pad before she found out we’d be traveling again.

We really didn’t want to leave here; it was really a nice place to camp, but the winds had settled down, so we thought we’d take that opportunity to move on. We drove for 3 hours and 5 minutes with stops for gas in the RV and for lunch at a pull-over on Route 64, arriving at our campground at 1:50 p.m.

The drive consisted of totally straight roads, level flat land at first, on a two-lane highway. There were few towns, all of them small. We stopped for gas in Alva, enjoying the quirky signs in this town. We went from completely flat lands to small rolling hills and back again, which gave a little personality and variety to the straight-as-far-as-you-can-see highway. All the while we were traveling west a little below the Kansas/Oklahoma border, on the OK panhandle, heading towards Texas.

Our one-night stopover was at Beaver Dunes State Park, a small campground off Route 64 heading south towards Beaver, OK. There was no one here, as usual, as we drove through the RV section of the State Park, Hackberry Bend Campground. We picked campsite #2 (out of 7 campsites) and set up camp, paying via the envelope left at the iron ranger. One night for $25.00, electric and water hook-ups. There is a separate campground which is in the “dunes” section of the Park, specifically for ATVr’s. We did not drive there and don’t know if anyone was camped in that area. At our campground, there was a small lake and stream dedicated for fishing. Later in the afternoon, geese and ducks flew in, noisily for the night. We enjoyed the quiet and solitude. Tomorrow we drive to our destination in Texas.

For more detailed information about Beaver Dunes State Park, click here.