SHOOTING, MORE MUSEUMS and FINALLY, SOME REST and RELAXATION

Sinclair gas stations are popular in the Midwest, but this is one of the few we saw with Dino the Brontosaurus displayed. This was Sinclair's trademark. The last time I saw Dino was when I was a little kid in Maryland. So this brought back memories. Not sure why Dino's disappeared from the stations.

On Oct. 17th, we started heading south out of Oklahoma, but not before stopping outside of Tulsa, in the town of Sand Springs. It was close to two places we wanted to see.


We stopped at a nice campground and unhooked the Ranch House for a few days.

We headed to a Cowboy Shooting Competition on the outskirts of Sand Springs. It was on the John Zink Ranch just about 15 miles from the campground. John Zink was a professional engineer, inventor and industrialist. He was known for his philanthropic efforts. The ranch is 31,000 acres and is a private recreation area and game preserve. It  has camping facilities for boy and girl scouts and shooting ranges for all types of shooting sports.

We met many nice competitors. Ralph or should I say "Lefty Rhodes", the alias he goes by in the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting, had a great day. He won his class of "gunfighter" and came in 2nd overall out of 20 plus shooters. They score by misses and total shooting time for the 6 stages. The difference from 1st and 2nd place was just over a second! That is sometimes how close the scores are.


On Monday, Oct. 20th, we drove to the town of Yale, OK. and stopped to see the childhood home of Jim Thorpe one of the greatest and versatile athletes of all time. He was one of my favorite athletes growing up. I saw his grave and monument in Jim Thorpe, PA.

He was Native American and grew up in the Sac and Fox Nation in Oklahoma. He excelled in baseball, basketball, football, track and field and won Olympic gold medals in the 1012 pentathlon and decathlon.

Unfortunately it was closed because the volunteers husband had a stroke. It is only open a few days a week and it would be another several days before it would open again.


This squirrel was very inquisitive and carried on quite a conversation with me when I was talking to it.

We continued to Pawnee, OK. to visit the Pawnee Bill Ranch. Pawnee Bill was born in 1860 and died in 1942. He was a showman and performer who specialized in the Wild West Shows. He was popular and his shows were financially successful.  He had a short partnership with Buffalo Bill.

The ranch was originally 2,000 acres but now is 500. We toured the historic ranch home with all the original furnishings. Steve Davis, a retired teacher, was our tour guide and he was awesome. His daughter, Anna is the historical interpreter of the museum and ranch. Both of them were walking encyclopedia's on the history of Pawnee Bill.

On our way out, we took a drive on a loop of the ranch to see the herd of buffalo and longhorns. Pawnee Bill saved the buffalo from extinction by keeping a herd on his ranch to preserve the breed.

The history of Pawnee Bill was a fascinating one. I enjoyed reading about him, his show and his wife, May. She performed in their show as a trick rider and an expert shot.

I would have taken photos of the museum but at the time they were having a quilt show and the beautiful quilts were draped over several saddles and museum artifacts. You were not allowed to take pictures inside of the ranch home.

We hooked up the Ranch House and headed south to the small town of Moyers, OK. population 437! We found a quiet, in the woods, along the river campground called K River Campground. It was on the Kiamichi River. It was at the end of their busy season, so with only one other camper there, we were by ourselves.

They had sites along the Kiacmichi River, but Ralph is highly allergic to mosquito's, so we parked about 200 ft. from the river banks.

Tom stopped by to introduce himself to us along with his grandson Charlie. We had a nice chat and soon Charlie brought us a huge tractor bucket scoop of nice firewood. Soon Ralph got his ax and chopped away. It wasn't long before we were enjoying a cozy fire.

We loved our 3 days here! Finally, rest and relaxation! Since leaving our winter campground in Texas last March, we have been pretty much traveling and sight seeing. This is probably the first time where we are just kicking back and chilling out. Oh it feels so good!

The time has allowed me to catch up on reading and letter writing. The only noise here is the chickens and roosters that freely run around the campsites and the occasional howling of coyotes in the middle of the night.



Each evening we invited the only other RV-er here to come over and enjoy our cozy fire. Doug lost his wife 6 years ago and he thought to himself, "I can sit at home and do nothing or I can travel". So he bought himself a motor home and hit the road. Charlie also joined us and we had a nice time evening chatting.

Oh did we need these quiet last 3 days. Retirement life sure has been busy for us! Sometimes I tease Ralph and say "Let's buy a place so we can rest!" Oh my gosh, no way! We don't want to own anything ever again! We love not being tied down.

We have a little plaque hanging up in the RV and it shows a cat that is curled up. It says, "How beautiful it is to do nothing and rest afterwards".

Stay tuned for our next Front Yard............