Oklahoma.....

One of our last stops before heading home was to visit Ronna’s niece and sister in Broken Bow Oklahoma.

We stayed a week at a campground in Hochatown which was settled by the Choctaw Indians in the early 1830; it’s now a large tourist area.

Broken Bow, the center of Oklahoma timber production, was named by the Dierks brothers, pioneer lumbermen, for their original home of Broken Bow, Nebraska. The Broken Bow post office was established in 1911.

While most of our time was spent with family, we did have a chance to visit the Ouachita National Forest that lies in the western portion of Arkansas and portions of eastern Oklahoma. It’s the oldest National Forest in the southern United States and the only National Forest in Oklahoma. The forest encompasses 1,784,457 acres, including most of the scenic Ouachita Mountains. Ouachita is the French spelling of the Indian word Washita, which means "good hunting grounds."

Our other stop was Beavers Bend State Park. It’s a 1,300 acres park located within the Ouachita National Forest and is approximately 10.5 miles north of Broken Bow. It was established in 1937 and contains Broken Bow Lake.

Broken Bow Lake is a 14,000 acre reservoir located on Mountain Fork River. It’s one of the largest lakes within the state of Oklahoma, and a popular tourist destination for locals and visitors from neighboring Texas and Arkansas.

Welcome center at Ouachita National Forest

View of Broken Bow Lake 

Broken Bow Lake spillway

Broken Bow Lake dam

Paddle boat rentals in state park

State park rental cabin

Views along Mountain Fork River

We arrived home on April 20^th and have been busy with spring cleanup since. There are a few outings planned for this summer, an RV rally in Ludington Michigan, another in the Ozark Mountains and another near Springfield IL. We will also be taking the camper to Ronna’s family reunion in Wisconsin.

Dallas.......

The morning of April 7^th found us on the road to Dallas TX to visit Dealey Plaza, the 6^th floor museum and visit with Dave’s nephew Brian and family.  We stayed at Bluebonnet Ridge RV in Terrell TX, about 30 miles outside of Dallas.  Saturday evening we had dinner with Brian and his crew, we were hoping to grill at the park, but the weather was not conducive to sitting outside around the campfire, so we met them at Applebee’s.  It was good to catch up with family and have an enjoyable dinner.

Sunday we drove into Dallas to tour the museum and walk around Dealey Plaza.  Cameras are not allowed in the Museum, so the outside photos were taken with my cellphone. The self-guided audio tour primarily deals with Kennedy’s presidency, the fateful trip to Dallas, and the investigation after.  It has a lot of interesting artifacts such as all the cameras that took the only photos of the assassination, the suit that one of the Detectives were wearing when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby and the autopsy report of President Kennedy.  Several videos were available which went into depth of what was shown in various exhibits.

Viewing the recreation of Oswald’s sniper’s nest where the shots were fired from on the 6^th floor the book depository, then standing on the “grassy knoll” and seeing the X’s on the roadway where the shots struck President Kennedy and Governor Connally brought history to life.

You can read more about the museum here:

https://www.jfk.org/   

After this very interesting and worthwhile experience it was back to the camper for dinner and preparing for our departure in the morning to head out to Oklahoma!

Route of motorcade

Reflecting pool across from book depository building

View from "grassy knoll" looking toward reflecting pool

View from railroad overpass. Person in roadway is standing where 2nd shot struck presidential vehicle

"Grassy knoll" to left of roadway. Looking toward book depository 

Red circle shows "X" on roadway where 2nd shot struck presidential vehicle. Book depository in background.

Germantown Colony........

April 5^th found us spending 2 nights near Minden, Louisiana at the Beaver Dam campground in the Caney Lakes Recreation Area of the Kisatchie National Forest, the only National Forest in Louisiana. Its 604,000 acres are spread over five Ranger Districts from central to north Louisiana.

We had a nice campsite on Caney Lake, but severe thunderstorms and tornado watches kept us from exploring the forest. We were, however, able to visit the “Germantown Colony and Museum”.

Here is a quote from the web:

“The Germantown Colony was founded by a group of Germans who originally belonged to the utopian Harmony Society but took issue with the society’s demand for celibacy. So a fraction of members led by their charismatic leader, Bernhard Müller aka the “Count de Leon,” splintered off and went to form their own slice of religious paradise.”

You can read more about Count de Leon and the history of the colony here:

http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/germantown-utopian-colony

If you look closely at the cabins you will notice there isn't any "chinking" between the logs. These spaces were covered from the inside with boards on leather hinges. During the hot Louisiana summers these boards could be lifted up to allow circulation. Most of the leather hinges have rotted away long ago and the boards are now nailed in place.

Campsite on  Caney Lake 

View of museum from colony

Our guide and painting of Count de Leon

Museum 

Museum 

Museum

Museum 

View of colony from museum building

The original well is lined with field stones and still has water

Inside the home of Countess de Leon

Exterior of Countess de Leon house

Communal kitchen

Communal kitchen

Communal kitchen

Bell for calling the faithful 

Typical rope strung bed

Blacksmith shop

Many of the people form the colony were born in Germany

Paul B. Johnson State Park.....

I’m a bit behind on my blog updates as we are currently in Broken Bow Oklahoma. But I’ll bring you up to date, one step at a time.

We left Punta Gorda Florida on March 31, spending 1 night at Payne’s Prairie State Park in Micanopy Florida and 2 nights at Alliance Hill RV Park in the Florida Panhandle (both of these locations were covered in previous updates this past January).

On April 3^rd we arrived at Paul B. Johnson State Park near Hattiesburg Mississippi for 2 nights. This is a beautiful park and we had a beautiful lake front campsite on Lake Geiger. The park lies in the Mississippi Pine Belt, so called for the abundance of Long Leaf Pine trees in the area, and is named after the forty-sixth governor of Mississippi. The park has both camping and cabin rentals.

Geiger Lake, once known as Lake Shelby, was constructed during the mid-1940s using German prisoner of war labor by POW’s housed at nearby Camp Shelby.

The brightly colored duck in one of the following photos is a Muscovy duck, which seemed to be everywhere. They must be used to people feeding them as they quickly approach when we exited the camper. The red fleshy parts around the face on Muscovy ducks are called caruncles. They're also called a face mask. Caruncles help Muscovites keep their feathers clean when they dabble in mud.

Park Entrance 

Spillway crossing on the way to the campground. That's a carved bear on the right.

Campsite

View from one side of campsite

View from rear of campsite

View from other side of campsite

One of the cabins available for rent

Closer look at carved bear which are found throughout the park

Turtles 

Muscovy duck

Alligators!!!!

This will be our last update before leaving Punta Gorda tomorrow morning. Our trip will take us north to the Florida Panhandle and into Mississippi, then west through Louisiana and into Texas. There we will visit my nephew Brian and his family and take a side trip to Dealey Plaza where Kennedy was assassinated.

From there we will head north into Oklahoma and spend a week visiting Ronna’s sister and niece. Then its east through Arkansas and back home to Illinois; should take about 3 weeks.

We thought it was appropriate to end our Florida posts with some pictures of the Florida alligators. We took a ride to the nearby Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center where we got some great shots of alligators in the wild. We were actually able to get within 15 or 20 feet of a few!

Visitor's center

Walkway in the preserve

Got within 15 feet of this one

In one of the many ponds

A close-up

Looking straight at him