TULSA, OKLAHOMA September 29-October 1, 2012

View from our campsite at Oologah Lake

I know when I had thought of Kansas, Oklahoma and even Arkansas I had a picture of flat, open spaces with few trees, just rolling plains for as far as the eye could see.  Well, that maybe true for parts of those states but definitely not true for the region we've been exploring, the south eastern corner of Kansas, into northeastern Oklahoma and east into Arkansas.  When we first stopped at a Visitor Center in Kansas she mentioned this area as the green and forested part of Kansas. I'm so happy we chose out route based on that.

Then as we drove through southern Kansas we were trying to decide which way to go from there when I got an email from my dear friend, Carolyn Park. She mentioned that she would be traveling to Tulsa, OK to visit her Aunt Loraine for her 100th birthday!  Well, with us being so close to Oklahoma we made that our next destination and a chance to see Carolyn and meet her amazing aunt.

We chose another Corps of Engineers Park at Oolagah Lake, just 25 miles north of Tulsa.



 The campground was gorgeous and set along a small cove of the lake.  Trees, bluffs of limestone and a beautiful lake.

Once we had set up everything we went to tour Will Rogers' home only 2 miles away. It's a post-Civil War home where he was born in 1879. 

When we drove up we could see a wedding taking place in the yard. We quietly walked through the house and barn, what a wonderful setting! We learned that there was also a Will Rogers Museum in the nearby town of Claremore, OK but it was too late in the day to visit.  We picked up our groceries and headed back for a campfire and dinner.

Sunday was Museum Day in Tulsa for us.  We planned to arrive at the Philbrook Museum for brunch but  as we were driving into town I picked up my phone and saw that a bee was attached which totally freaked me.  Being inside the car with a yellowjacket that close...I did all the wrong things and got stung before the bee got out. A most painful sting ever! Instant swelling and pulsing pain, PK pulled over at a McDonalds to get a cup of ice water to relieve the pain which helped, but gotta say...I think I've learned to try to stay calm, not scream and let the bee find its way out. It took about 3 days before that painful finger felt normal again.

We did get to the Philbrook just as brunch began and were able to get a lovely table. Then it was time to tour this amazing 1926 villa on 23 acres built by oilman Waite Phillips. It was as stunning as the collection of art it held.

After only living in the home for 10 years Waite Phillips surprised the community with the announcement of his gift of the 72-room mansion and surrounding 23 acre as of grounds as an art center for the city of Tulsa.  With an audio tour we walked the rooms and enjoyed the art then headed outside for a walk in the gardens, always where I'd love to stay.

We still had time to scoot across town to visit another wonderful Tulsa museum, The Gilcrease Museum 

with its fantastic collection of American art, located on the University of Tulsa campus. It included Native American art and artifacts as well as documents and maps. We had just missed a special exhibition of George Washington but did have a chance to see work by Thomas Moran and other painters and sculptors of art of the American west. Beyond the museum there are gardens also on the museum's 460 acres. We walked around the original home and gardens of the Tulsa oilman, Thomas Gilcrease, who had gathered this incredible collection before leaving as the museum closed.

Monday was our visit to meet Carolyn, Aunt Loraine and Carolyn's brother, Ronald.

What a wonderful and amazing woman is Loraine! At 2 weeks shy of her 100th birthday she is a lively conversationist who cracked us up with her jokes! I had totally forgotten that Loraine DOES NOT CELEBRATE her birthday nor does she tell anyone her age. To me, a 100 year old lovely lady needs a bouquet of balloons!  But as I got out of the car with the birthday balloons Carolyn and Loraine signaled NO...and then I remembered...so I tucked the balloons back into the car before going inside. Too funny!

We chatted for about an hour and I loved it all. Oh, to have her secret of such a bright and happy life at this age. She showed us jewelry she'd made and told us stories of Carolyn's childhood with a amazing details, even the fact that her grandparents had once owned a home in the valley where Lake Oologah and our campground now stood.

Once Ron arrived we went out for lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant before saying our good byes.  How lucky we were to meet Ron and Aunt Loraine and catch a couple hours visit with Carolyn so unexectedly!

Our last museum visit for Tulsa was back to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum near our campground.  Just as we got there a tour bus was leaving and inside the door was a Will Rogers look alike who had taken the large group on a visit of the museum.  He chatted with us for a bit and let me take this photo.  He was a perfect Will Rogers in every way.

The museum had paintings, news articles, films and collections of saddles and memorabilia.  We had such a wonderful time reading his quotes and learning about his life.  What a character and spirit!

Will Rogers Memorial Museum

Some of his quotes from the 1920s and 1930s...seem timely for today:
*We shouldn't elect a President.  We should elect a magician.
*The difference between our rich and poor grows greater every year. Our distribution of wealth is getting more uneven all the time. A man can make a million and he is on every page in the morning. But it never tells you who gave up that million he got.  You can't get money without taking it from somebody.
*There ain't any finer folks living than a Republican that votes the Democratic ticket.
*If we could just send the same bunch of men to Washington for the good of the nation and not for political reasons, we could have the most perfect government in the world.
*There ought to be a law against anybody going to Europe until they had sent the things we have in this country.

So, with Will's words in my head...we moved on to seeing more of this amazing country, and another new state, Arkansas. But not before taking photos of our beautiful stay on Oologah Lake.

Loving our stays along the way! Our traveling life just gets better every mile we drive.