Strategic planning

After the wind sort of died down yesterday morning, I left Powderly, TX, and headed for Bartlesville, OK.  I had picked out a Passport America campground that looked pretty nice on their website.  I’ve come around to making reservations at parks when I’m traveling night by night, and it’s a good thing I did in this case. 

Riverside RV Resort and Campground is packed to the gills!  A resort it’s not, and if you want to feel like a sardine packed into a can then this is the place for you.  I can almost reach out my window and touch the rigs on either side of me.  Even though I paid for two nights, I didn’t even attempt to unhook the toad.  The place is filled with utility workers, and when I arrived at two in the afternoon, there were only two vacant sites. There aren’t many choices in this neck of the woods.

The 220 mile trip to get here was fairly uneventful.  I only had to ignore Jack-in-the-Box twice.  The first time was in the middle of massive construction while driving though Tulsa.  He wanted me to take a left, while detour signs pointed right.  I followed the signs.  Then as we were exiting Tulsa, he wanted me to get off of US 75.  I knew 75 would lead me to the campground, so I ignored him.  That’s when a sign on the GPS said there was an unavoidable 11’ underpass ahead.    Since I was seeing plenty of 18 wheelers coming toward me, I kept going.  Don’t know where that underpass used to be, but it’s not there any longer.  Phew!

Being a person who prefers to use interstates to get from point A to point B while driving the rig, this has been a rather interesting route I’ve decided upon that uses US highways instead.  I did take the Indian Nation Turnpike for a good portion of the trip, and that turned out better than expected.  Yes, it’s a toll road, but not too expensive in my opinion. ($10.75 for the rig and toad)  It also had what has been for me the easiest in and out fuel station that I’ve ever encountered.  No heartburn this time, and the price of the gas was $.40/gallon cheaper than my last fill up in Louisiana! 

I had thought about visiting some places here in Bartlesville, but since I can’t unhook the toad with the way I’m wedged into the site, I passed on that idea.  I’ve already been to the Will Rogers museum several years ago, and took in more information about Will Rogers than I ever wanted to know.  So I spent the day planning out the rest of my journey to Tamarac NWR.

That’s where the strategic planning is coming in to play.  I weathered one severe spring storm in Louisiana, and according to the weather guessers I may have a window of opportunity to make a run to Minnesota before the next storm comes along.  Granted, I don’t ‘run’ too fast, but the next ten days look fairly calm weather-wise.  I’ve plotted out four more campgrounds to get there with two night stays at half of them.  Three of them I’ve been to before, so I know what to expect…no more sardine issues. 

If everything goes as planned, I could be at Tamarac a week from today.  That would be four days before my scheduled arrival, so I’ve got some wiggle room.  Now if I can just find a few more easy in and out gas stations along the way, I’ll be one happy camper.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy