November 5, 2018

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Thackerville, Oklahoma

The sun is finally shining this morning, its T-Shirt weather.  After breakfast we leave the Flying J to head over to the Walmart for our daily food supplies and a place to park that is near the bicycle trail along the river.  The wind is blowing today as we make our way over to connect with the cycle path along the river. The path is paved and winds up and down both sides of the river for 14 miles. While I have started out fresh and hardy, by the end of the first side of the river, I’m starting to slow down.  We have a head wind on the other side, so short breaks are in order for me, Chris doesn’t seem to be affected by the wind.  But Chris is a seasoned cyclist and I’m not.  By the time we make it back to the Walmart parking lot, I’m exhausted making me realize that I still need more time to get back into shape.

Bikes back on the rack, we are on our way for the short trip to the Winstar Casino Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma about 2 miles from the Texas border.  On the way we decide to pull into a scenic outlook for a look and cup of tea.  I wasn’t impressed with the scenic outlook as all you can see is the start of the valley in the distance and lots of windmills.

When we finally pull into the Winstar RV Park, I notice it’s clean and spacious.  We decide to spend two nights as the first night is free with our casino club card, since we haven’t stayed in the park before.  With the free buffet breakfast on Wednesday morning, the $20 we are paying for two nights, complete with electricity, water and free Wi-Fi is well worth it.

We do a short walk in the evening to the Casino, which is an impressive one, with buildings and insides made to look like cities of other countries, like London, Madrid, Rome, Vienna, Paris, Cairo, Beijing, and Rio.  One round walking through the casino, no we didn’t play, just meandering through the different cities and then called it a night.

November 6, 2018

Winstar Casino – Thackerville, Oklahoma

No driving today, but we get up at our usual time of 6:30 am to put the coffee on. I sign into the internet so I can get my blog put up and post the link on Facebook for all those who want to follow along.

After breakfast we take the bikes for a ride down a paved road along the golf course that runs into a few houses in among the trees.  It’s quiet, a nice reprieve from all the traffic on the highway after the miles we have done.  It looks like there were some housing development lots out towards the end of it, but no construction or for sale signs anywhere.  One of the monthly RV’ers said that the Casino had bought up the land, I’m assuming because they didn’t want any houses close to the Casino lands.  As we walk back to the truck, it’s starting to rain and we fall asleep to the sound of rain on the roof of the truck.

Back to the truck for lunch and to sit in the sun working on our tans, it doesn’t take long for me to feel the redness of the sun on my face.  Another bike ride starting in the same direction and ending back out along another small back-road around the casino puts another 7.4 miles on rounding out our cycle for the day to 16 miles.  Time for a shower, dinner and another walk around the inside of the casino, this time I put $20 in and take the $20 out.  We found out the free senior breakfast has changed its rules, you need to accumulate 40 points on your card each.  Not worth putting in the money to accumulate for a $15.99 buffet, especially if you lose it all.

Coming back from our ride we set out the chairs to gather a few rays of sun and work on our tans, I did get a little red, but had time to talk with all the other rv’ers who were really interested in our little Mack Fire Truck conversion.

November 7, 2018

Thackerville, Oklahoma to Schulenburg, Texas

Breakfast done, we pack up, empty the water tank, fill up with diesel and air for the tires and we are on our way.  It’s a little later about 9:45 by the time we get on the highway heading for our next Walmart stop for our daily food supply.  The sky is once again grey, I saw that there was a low pressure system extending it’s way down to the gulf, so it appears we will have more grey sky's and rain for a little longer.

We scoot around Fort Worth with no delays and stop in Hillsboro, Texas Walmart store, for supplies, lunch and tea.  Chris spies a Tractor Supply store so he walks over there to get some sturdier wire as we are having an issue with the 12 volt water pump for the sink in the RV.

We head down the Texas 71 planning a stopover night at the Pilot in Schulenburg, Texas.  There is one road work delay that was maybe five minutes, and two horses further down the road that decided they didn’t want to be fenced in anymore, that was backing up traffic.  Two cowboys who were in the mix of stopped vehicles took their horses out of the trailer with lassos in hand sent them back up where they belonged in short order.  Once they loaded their horses back on the trailer we were off.

We arrived in Schulenburg to 28 Celsius weather, made dinner, uploaded the post, and settle in for the night.  Tomorrow we will be at our destination.

November 8, 2018

Schulenburg, Texas to Magnolia Beach, Texas

Today is a short drive with a stop at the Walmart in Victoria, Texas.  Dinner for the next few days, and we are on our way.  We finally make our destination and park on the beach, the sun is shining, there is a little wind and it’s warm.  But I know from watching the TV at the Winstar RV Park office that a low pressure is making its way down to the gulf.

There are a number of campers and some vans parked along the stretch of beach.  Some campers have fishing poles in the water and our next door neighbor has a Lobster cage as well.

We decide to pull the bikes off and survey the area cycling first to the washrooms and showers to check them out.  There are 4 shower doors but they are all locked, we will learn later that perhaps they will not be opened until the New Year when the rest of the campers arrive.  Cycling onward we come to a plague with the history of the area.  It appears that German migration in the early 1800’s and camels brought in from Africa to use as pack camels were a thing.  We head back to the truck to pull the chairs out and get some rays of the sun before dinner.

The wind has picked up and that low pressure system has moved in dropping the temperatures with it.  I had a dream the night before we left on our journey that ocean water was up to the window on the side I sleep on. Needless to say, I am eyeing the tide line till around 2:00 am until I’m convinced that the tide will not rise any further even with the white cap waves.  I finally fall asleep to lightening and waves pounding the shore.