Tulsa, Oklahoma

There were some severe storms overnight from about 2-4am. Asa woke up and Kristin offered for us to come in. Nole and Asa went in. Cal and I weren’t too worried and the girls were asleep so the 4 of us stayed in the camper. I slept great after the worriers left 😉

The mess the rain caused and the disturbance overnight caused us to have a slower morning than we wanted. The original plan was for Nole and I to get the camper hooked up before taking he and Cal to the airport. We only got it partially packed up before it was time to leave. We left the three other kids with Kristin and I said goodbye to Cal and Nole at the “kiss and fly”. Then I headed back to Kristin’s and finished packing up and attaching the camper alone.

Jeff and Kristin’s driveway has a steep apron area and I didn’t want any witnesses if I was going to damage the camper getting it out of the driveway. I got it out without a single scrape and although I truly wanted to lay in the air conditioning at their house all day to recover from the effort, I told the kids it was time to go.

We drove about a half hour north of Jeff and Kristin’s house to our first Route 66 stop today, Pop’s 66. They sell hundreds of flavors of soda in glass bottles including some “interesting” flavors like “Bacon” and “Sweet Corn”. The kids picked out some flavors. We may try some here but we plan to take some flavors home to let Nole and Cal sample.

We got lunch at Pop’s and filled up on gas. A true one stop shop!

We are staying at a Boondockers Welcome (BW) site tonight with electric and water. Most that offer electric ask for $5-10 toward the utilities. I realized too late that we are running a little low on cash money and I don’t have my debit card with me. I have checks though so I will probably find a way to cash a check somewhere.

We unhooked the camper and set up. Asa was a big help. Even with the air on high in the camper the heat was oppressive. There is an excessive heat warning in effect today. Once we got things set up a bit, we went to Gathering Place–a community park in Tulsa. This land was donated and community businesses sponsored the development of it. There are interesting playgrounds and splash pad areas along with gardens, sports areas, a cafe, and more.

Some of the playgrounds are designed to accommodate teens and adults and I saw tons of teens playing here. It was nice to see a place where they can play.

The kids loved the Gathering Place so much that I almost had to drag them away. Esme and Asa said they really wanted to go back tomorrow and see some more of the playgrounds. We decided to discuss it after dinner and make a plan for tomorrow. We are expected in Joplin, Missouri tomorrow around 7 at our next BW place.

For dinner we had Esme’s request, chicken and noodles. She eats them together and likes to put spaghetti sauce on it. We didn’t have any spaghetti sauce but we had “Pizza Squeeze” (pizza sauce in a bottle) and she was nervous that she wasn’t going to like it but she did. Maybe even a new favorite??

We all focused on cooling off after dinner. Thanks to staying at the park so late, the air conditi Cooking inside heats things up like crazy. I might look into a Coleman stove for next year. We have a grill we can cook on outside but a stove would eliminate the need to cook inside unless the weather is bad. Or we can just stick with meat and cold sides!

Our host came to visit and brought cucumbers from her garden for us. Then we played games and discussed our plan for tomorrow. We came up with a plan we think will work but it is a very tight schedule.