Camping at the Pecan Ranch

We spent an extra night at Aux Arc Campground because it was so comfortable there. With our big storage tanks, we can stay more than a week in a campground without sewer hook-ups, so we can take advantage of many of the government parks without full hook-ups. We would recommend any full-timers to choose a rig with sizable storage tanks so they can take advantage of great campgrounds like Aux Arc.

It's also one of those parks with an unusually late check-out time. That allows weekenders to stay until 3:00 on a Sunday afternoon, instead of having to pack up by noon. We took advantage of that late time so we could attend church in Ozark, and still visit with neighbors from the campground. But we rolled out right at 3:00 with the sun already low in the sky. Back on I-40, it wasn't long before we crossed the Oklahoma border. The state line pictures are blurry because the sun was right behind the sign, and was reflecting off the windshield.

We have driven the car back to Oklahoma a couple times, but this is the first time the motor home has been here since we left right after Thanksgiving a year ago. The last few miles of our journey was on a dirt road, with dust swirling around us. As we looked in the rear camera, we could barely make out the outline of the car shrouded in dust.

We began wishing that we had left the campground earlier when we realized we would be arriving at our destination after dark. Parking and hooking up the motor home was a little harder in the dark, and we had to wait until the next morning to take our first pictures of our new camping site.

We are so excited to spend the next few days at Mark's brother's place in eastern Oklahoma. When Lucky and Lizzie were building the house, they had a first-rate cement camping site added with full hook-ups. They parked a travel trailer here to oversee some of the building. Before they poured the concrete, they asked the length of our motor home to make sure it would fit us too. So we have everything we need to stay very comfortably here.

Lucky and Lizzie have made this into a fun place for their grandchildren. In the summer there is a slip-n-slide, bouncy toy, play house, and stock tank swimming pool. There are also riding toys. Denisa got to take the new go-cart out for a test spin. This is a great place to drive around the trees and over the bridges!

There is a disc golf course and a swing set. It's like a resort for grandchildren! We hope the kids don't mind that we are currently parked on the basketball court. We also got to ride the zipline. Denisa was getting flight instructions from the king of the zipline--Lucky.

Then she zipped down from her perch.

They assured us that there was no weight limit on the zipline, so Mark took it for a ride as well.

There is an old pecan orchard on this property, and they have done a lot of work to get the trees trimmed and the area groomed up. It looks great now, and was a beautiful place to take a morning walk.

As Mark was snapping pictures, it looks like Denisa is reverently walking through the trees with her head bowed. Actually, she's reverently looking on the ground for pecans. There are over 200 pecan trees on the property, and we did some easter-egg-like hunting to find a few pecans. 

It was another tough year for growing nuts, so they were few and far between. Because the pecans are so small, it might be a test of patience getting them out of the shells.

The trees are still predominately green here, with just a touch of light red from a vine that was crawling up this tree. When we discovered that this vine was poison ivy, we suddenly didn't think it was nearly as attractive. That's what they had to chop out of many of their pecan trees. If you look carefully, you can see a thick vine attached firmly to the trunk. Before this, we thought that poison ivy only grew on short plants close to the ground. Mark will have to rethink his tree climbing hobby now that he knows he has to watch for poison ivy up there as well.

We have had lots of fun playing with the toys and hiking the pecan grove. But the best part of visiting the ranch here was that Lucky and Lizzie were visiting as well. We enjoyed spending time with them for a couple of nice days on the pecan ranch.