An outing with the Birds

Our local (Oklahoma) RV club is known as the Birds of a Feather. The name originally was chosen years ago when a group of owners of a certain brand of RV banded together to form an Oklahoma chapter of that manufacturer's national club. We joined the club in 1996 after we had purchased our first motor home, a used coach made by that manufacturer. Since then that company has fallen on hard times and has been sold more than once. There is no longer a dealer in Oklahoma who sells that brand. We have since dropped our affiliation with the national brand club and are now just a club for RV owners.

Our club meets one weekend per month during the months of March through June and September through November of each year. The members take turns serving as "host" for the meet and this past weekend was our turn as host. We had our gathering at the Arbuckle RV Resort in Sulphur in south-central Oklahoma. To get everything set up we decided to go down ahead of everyone else so we headed out last Wednesday. As has been part of our routine lately we had a strong wind to drive in. This time it was coming directly out of the south so we had to drive directly into it almost the whole way.

The bulk of the other coaches started arriving on Thursday afternoon. During that time we had gone to scout out a place for the group to go out to eat on Friday night. (We usually enjoy a local eatery on Friday night and then have a pot luck dinner on Saturday night each month.) One of the places we checked out was an out of this world bar-b-que place in Davis. This is a very small place and it was obvious they would not be able to handle having 16 people show up on a Friday evening. Since we were there we decided to have lunch. We knew from previous visits there that they served some of the best BBQ ever made. They also don't skimp on their servings. We did find a place for the group to eat on Friday. Just east of Davis, at Interstate 35, the Treasure Valley Casino, owned by the Chickasaw Nation, has a seafood buffet each Friday. We had the group there when they opened at 5:00pm for a good meal.

Sulphur, Oklahoma, was home to Platt National Park, the only national park Oklahoma was ever able to brag about. Unfortunately, some years ago the federal government downgraded it from national park status. Today it is the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. It still has the campgrounds and other amenities from it's national park days. Years ago the area had an abundance of sulphur springs. The people from the Chickasaw Indian nation felt these waters produced medicinal benefits. The springs also gave the entire area a distinct sulphur odor. Today there are very few springs remaining but there is still a faint odor of sulphur in the air.

On Saturday Joanne and I decided to go explore the recreation area. We did find a place at one of the highest points where you can overlook area and get a view of the town of Sulphur down below. The park also has a small herd of Buffalo. Just west of the park, across the road from the Arbuckle RV Resort, the Chickasaw Nation is building a very large cultural center and museum. This construction has been going on for over two years and it does not look like it will be completed anytime soon. They have put in a nice, wide paved road into their area which was a real boon to the RV park.

Saturday evening was our scheduled pot luck dinner in the Rally Room at the RV park. Joanne had planned an Easter celebration as the theme for the dinner. She baked a great ham and also provided the bread. The other seven couples brought dishes to compliment the ham. After a great dinner, with most of us eating more than we needed, several in the group entertained themselves with a game of cards. Sunday morning was time for everyone to load up and head for home. During the four days there we had experienced several different types of weather but Friday and Saturday had brought warm and sunny days, although a bit windy. Saturday night a front had moved in so Sunday morning met us as very cold with high winds. As is our luck the wind had moved around and was now coming from the north. We got to spend the two hour drive heading straight into it again. Regardless, everyone seemed to have a good time and we look forward to our next venture out with the Birds.