Durant/Choctaw Casino KOA, Durant
Thursday, 30 July through Sunday, 2 August 2020
I spent most of these 4 days on my computer - 3 of them doing catch-up on the blog and today orienting myself to Oklahoma.
I think the east has the mountains, the central part has the population centers, and the west has the plains. It's probably no coincidence that most of the state campgrounds are in the east, and to ease my reentry into constant travel and campground living, I've decided to spend the first week or so in the east.
I now have reservations made for the next week at 4 campgrounds and the Tulsa KOA, hoping I can get a wifi signal there. I'm assuming I won't be able to pick up a signal at the state campgrounds, which likely means staying more than a weekend in Tulsa to do blog posts and plan the next week. And after all, there are things in Tulsa I'd like to see besides the campground, which actually isn't even in Tulsa but instead is in Claremore, north of town.
The list of places to see that I'd made up a couple of years ago when I was planning this trip assumed I'd be coming in from Kansas, which was my original plan. Now that I've come in from Texas and plan to go next to Colorado, I'm having to rearrange everything on my list, which isn't actually as easy as it sounds. In fact, I started getting a little frazzled trying to do it and just gave up. I can rearrange as I go along.
The Oklahoma state campgrounds have a reservation system unlike any I've encountered before and it took me ages to figure it out, but I've got it now - as long as I can remember how to do it by next weekend when I'll need to make more reservations.
The KOA I've been in for the last 5 days is pretty nice. Its real drawback is the large number of Canada geese that are resident here. Actually, they're not a problem but their poop absolutely is - it's everywhere and I have to watch Dexter like a hawk when we're out for walks to keep him from eating it. So very disgusting.
I had this campground figured wrong: folks very probably spend time at the casino, but I think the majority stop here because it's on US-75 (aka US-69) which comes straight up from Dallas and heads up almost to Joplin and hooks up with I-44. It's the road I took last April when I started the hiatus. And it's not a toll road, which likely makes it more popular.
I figured this out when many in the campground over the weekend spent time in the swimming pool, with their kids in the playground, with their dogs in the dog park, or cooking out on the grill and drinking beer. One of my neighbors was towing a jet ski and took it out yesterday. So these folks are here for a variety of recreation that may or may not be connected with the casino. Still, everybody disappeared in the afternoons, which gave the dogs and me a chance for decent walks without worrying about running into dogs.
Oklahoma is second only to Alaska in both number and percentage of Natives in the population. Which makes sense when you remember how these folks got run out of their lands in the 1800s and shuttled over here to what was then called Indian Territory. I hope to stop at some of the tribal museums, though I've already seen some be closed due to the virus.
I'm very sorry to say the Oklahoma Welcome Centers are also closed due to the coronavirus. Sensible and reasonable of course, but inconvenient for me, since I could really use some tourist material. Even a pamphlet with the state campgrounds in it would help - I much prefer reading stuff like that on paper to reading it online. On paper, the information stays put and is much easier to search for. Online you have to figure out the idiosyncratic system that got set up to, allegedly, help folks find information. Trying to think like a computer aficionado gives me a headache. Oh well. I sure don't want anyone (including me) catching that ghastly virus just because I don't get along with computer algorithms.
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