The 382 mile drive from the San Antonio KOA (blog post) to Durant, Oklahoma was made longer and even more tedious than usual by rain and crazy driving. Traffic was heavy in parts, especially Dallas. One good thing though – we only saw a single accident and it was in the final cleanup phase. This beats the last time I drove this same route where it wasn’t really raining and I saw three accidents being cleared. Both trips were on Saturdays.

We saw the Choctaw Casino well in advance of the turn off of US-69 toward the Durant/Choctaw Casino KOA. The casino isn’t particularly large compared to Las Vegas casinos but it was the tallest and most lit up building we had seen since passing through the Dallas metroplex. At the first turn to get off the highway, we pulled into the Choctaw gas station to fill the truck and the Jeep. I was totally surprised while filling the nearly empty truck gas tank when I got 44 gallons of fuel for $132 without the pump stopping the transaction at the $100 (or $70) mark.

While pumping gas I noticed the billboards advertising coming acts for the Choctaw Grand Theater.  Even though Durant is in rural Oklahoma, they are getting good acts to come and perform there.  I recognized the acts.  I asked Linda if she wanted to go and see Reba McEntire on November 24.  It didn’t fit our travel plans.  Rats!

It was still raining as Linda checked us into the office. While I waited for her, I had time to admire the park. Level concrete RV pads. Immaculate golf course grass in between. Trees that will be nice someday. Few puddles to walk through.

After we checked in, parked the rig in our campsite and setup electric and water, Linda and I walked over to the office to check out the showers. Walking into the men’s room, I was stunned by the clean, bright and fancy washroom.

The showers were also nice. I would have liked somewhere to sit in the ante-room and more hooks on the wall to hang things like towels and washcloths. What may not be clear from the pictures is how clean everything was. The cleanest and nicest campground washroom ever. EVER!

Then we looked at the laundry room. Oh yeah. We could wash some clothes in here.

We went out to eat to Naifeh’s Steak House Grill & Bar. We showed up at 4:00 PM just as they were opening for dinner. They had a lovely mellow vibe. The waitstaff was especially attentive without being intrusive. It was Saturday night and they were offering Prime Rib, one of my pre-heart disease favorites. I needed something with less cholesterol and fat so I ordered the Filet Mignon with grilled vegetables (zucchini) and a dinner salad. Then I asked the waiter to bring me horseradish for my filet. He replied, “creamed or ground?” I got the straight horseradish. That goes so well with good beef.

I savored the filet dipped in horseradish. This so reminded me of Prime Rib goodness that I didn’t feel deprived. It’s funny. I’ve lived in Texas for years and while the beef is good, for some reason, I keep being reminded that the best tasting steaks are found in rural Oklahoma restaurants. Who knew?

After dinner, the waiter asked if we wanted desert. We hesitated for a moment or two and then asked what was available. We had sea salt and caramel ice cream. Living large.

Later that evening, I walked the dogs one last time. It was raining pretty hard as we made our way over to the dog park. Since the dog park didn’t offer shelter from the rain, the dogs didn’t want to hang out very long. There are really two separate dog parks side by side. Someone must be picking up the poop daily because there wasn’t much poop laying around. Even the dog parks are clean here.

Together we walked the dogs at 5:30 in the morning. We could see the casino all lit up pretty.

The park office was lit up nicely as well.

After showering in the park washrooms, we went back to the camper to eat breakfast. Then we made ready to get on the road. We walked the dogs one more time before hitting the road.

One of our dogs, Picasso, has decided he likes frogs and he seems to find frogs everywhere. Maybe they taste like chicken. Since it had been raining and a corner of the campground bordered a marsh, the marsh critters were on the move. After pulling Picasso off of a two armed crawdad, Linda turned around and saw this little shrimp menacing with a single arm. A regular one armed crustacean bandit making a futile defiant gesture. Way to go little buddy!

So began our third day of a 44 day trip.

Hope to see you on the road ahead.

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