Every once in a while, though, I get suckered by the Oklahoma tourism folks into thinking there must be something more to the state than that. Perhaps I just haven't been looking closely enough to see its charms. A couple of weeks ago I decided to give Oklahoma another chance.
My family has been doing a lot of camping this summer, so we decided to make a return trip to Snider's Campground in Grove, Oklahoma. Snider's Campground is a lovely, little, no-frills, lakeside campground that I raved about in a blog around this time last year. For $10 a night penny-pinching campers can get a shady, lakeside spot with an electric hookup. There isn't a playground or wi-fi or boat slip rentals like some of the campground resorts in the area, but one can swim and fish all day and putter around the town of Grove which is located just over the Honey Creek Bridge.
Snider's Campground is a great little place, so we were happy to return for a two night stay. Unfortunately, our happiness was not to last. All hopes were lost in the heat. We rolled through Grove on our way to camp passing a sign that flashed an excessive heat warning for the area. With the heat index soaring to 110 degrees, it didn't take long for everyone to get cranky while setting up camp.
Did I mention we are TENT CAMPERS?
I was desperately trying to stay positive and keep the family's spirits up, but an oncoming migraine was making that increasingly difficult. Long story short, I was incapacitated for the rest of Friday evening trying to fight off my headache and nausea. Not even a dip in the lake helped because the water was like warm bathwater. My British husband, who is used to being drenched but not from his own skin, was withering before my eyes. My kids were bored because it was too hot to do anything besides count the beads of sweat as they rolled down your back, and, as mentioned, not even a swim could cool you down. How were we going to make it through another full day?
I awoke Saturday refreshed from my case of heat exhaustion and with a plan. To beat the midday heat, we decided to explore the Grand Lake area with a drive around the lake. After camp breakfast and a swim we took off on our little adventure. I had picked up some free tourist literature the day before, and had scouted out some promising sites.
We drove north of Grove and then started our loop around the lake. First, we overshot our turn because there wasn't a sign designating the road. We would have ended up in Kansas if my tourist map hadn't shown the convenience store located at the intersection.
Our first destination was Monkey Island. Let me set a few things straight here. Monkey Island is actually a small peninsula...and there are no monkeys. Monkey Island businesses advertise themselves locally like crazy as the "hot spot" on the lake. I was expecting a strip of restaurants and clubs and shops, something rivaling, I don't know...Padre Island. We drove down the long strip of land that is Monkey Island, and outside of a couple of bars that we passed, the area seemed to consist of only private resorts and golf clubs. Strike one.
Undaunted by the complaints from the back seat, we took off for our next stop, the nature center at Bernice State Park. We almost drove past the park. 1) We weren't expecting the park to be located right on the highway. 2) The park sign was so close to the entrance of the park that one has to slam on the brakes to make the turn. Okay, Bernice State Park was cramped, crowded, dirty, and looked like it was flooded. Our spirits lifted, however, when we found the nature center. A few seconds later my heart broke at the sight of my children peering wistfully inside the building, their little noses pressed against the glass doors, as they stood just below a sign on the door that read, "Closed to make an emergency trip to the vet. Be back soon." Strike two.
Promising more adventure down the road, I ushered everyone back to the car and gave my husband directions to the next town on the map. We drove completely around Grand Lake. Most of the little burgs we traveled through have, in my mind, merged into one big, trashy trailer park. I'm sure I'm going to offend someone by saying that, but it's true.
The one bright spot on the map was Langley, where we finally stopped for a late lunch at Pensacola Pizza and Pasta.
This place was great - good food, nice atmosphere, clean, cool (in both senses of the word). While in Langley we also checked out the Pensacola Dam, the "world's largest multiple arch dam." We tumbled out of the car into the scorching heat, so I could take a few photos. As I was snapping away, the door to the visitor's center opened, and one of the attendants beckoned us inside to watch a ten minute video about the lake. She also offered us a free tour of the dam, but we declined after being told it was probably 109 degrees in the workings of the dam. We did, however, take her up on her offer of ice water. We watched the movie, loaded up on more tourist brochures and then started the trek back to Grove.Our trip around the lake took us about five hours. In those five hours I noticed a few things. I noticed that Oklahoma roads have the worst signage. Either signs are missing, non-existent in the first place, or are only posted in one direction so you have to look behind you to see if you've passed the road you were looking for in the first place. I noticed that Oklahoma falsely advertises to tourists. Half of the stuff in the tourist brochures I couldn't find. Of course, this could be due to the signage issue as stated above. Finally, I noticed that, outside of Grove, the Grand Lake area is underdeveloped. The lake is great, but seems to be a rather untapped resource. Clean it up and build it up, and, to steal a phrase,"they will come" - the "they" being tourists with stacks of cash who are interested in something besides casinos.
I'm not giving up on Oklahoma just yet, though. There's got to be something more out there. If anyone knows of anything, I'm open for suggestions!
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