On The Road Again

Friday morning we said goodbye to Fayetteville and once again set off on the road. The night before I had a hard time getting to sleep because I was so excited about our departure. I was really looking forward to being on the road again, and the freedom and the possibilities that come with that. We had packed everything up and had gotten the travel trailer and truck all set to go the night before, so when morning rolled around, all we had to do was eat breakfast and do a last detail cleaning of the guest room we’d stayed in. Once we climbed into the truck and were on the road, it felt like we had never paused our travels. How is it possible that we keep switching life styles and it always feels like nothing’s really changed?

Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge

So we had our second boondocking experience! Before leaving OKC, we did some quick research on the internet on casinos near the Wichita Mountain Wildlife refuge and found several that offered free RV parking. I called them up, and it turned out that the Comanche Nation Casino offered not only free RV parking, but free electricity, as well as an opportunity to get fresh water and dump! SCORE! We arrived on Sunday evening, got situated and made dinner.

Sky, using our attachable grill to make dinner!

Our First Boondocking Experience and Oklahoma City

One of the ways we are hoping to make this trip last as long as possible is to do what’s called boondocking. Boondocking is dry camping, meaning no water or electrical hook-ups, and is usually free. Some examples of boondocking locations are Wal-Mart parking lots, casinos, hospitals, Bureau of Land Management and some Federal land dispersed camping spots. Another type is church parking lots, and we decided to give this one a go in OKC. We picked a park we wanted to be near, then looked for churches nearby using Google Maps. OKC's First Church of Nazarene had a great location, so we gave them a call. We said we were coming through town with our travel trailer, would they mind if we stayed a couple of nights in their parking lot? The answer was “Sure! No problem, see you soon”. THAT WAS EASY! Here is a pic of our parking spot, see if you can find Lucy:

Tulsa, OK and Route 66

Our second day in Tulsa started out with a slow breakfast at the RV park, then Sky decided to try out the Turkey Mountain mountain biking since we were nearby (read his review of those trails here). Afterwards, we had our first go at dumping the grey/black water tanks. Before leaving town, we’d been watching You Tube videos on how to do this properly (yeah, you know it, wouldn't want to mess this up..). We even purchased heavy duty rubber gloves. Turned out, the hose that came with the trailer was broken; we had to make do with some duct tape. Overall, the whole process wasn't so bad, we need to buy a new hose though.

Turkey Mountain Biking

While staying at an RV Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma I decided to give a nearby mountain biking trail a try. Here is my write-up on that trail and the experience I had there.

I will first preface this post with the fact that I did very little research on this mountain biking trail. This certainly hindered me on the ride. Also, what little I did read, rated this trail system as difficult, but well-marked. I would agree with the difficult part, but not so much with the well-market.

To get to the Turkey Mountain main trail head  I would suggest accessing the park on the South or Southwest side and following the power lines in. Unfortunately, I didn't know this beforehand and tried to ride up on some single track on the East, Northeast side, to little avail. See the pic below for more detail, but it involved two very strenuous hike-a-bike sessions, each lasting about 10 minutes!

First Day on the Road!

It’s hard to believe, but the day is finally here! Today we finally hitched up the travel trailer to the truck and set off on our adventure around the United States! Since this was our first day we decided to take it easy and picked Tulsa, Oklahoma as our first destination. We made it to Tulsa in under three hours with no hiccups. 

Right before we hit the road!