Our stop in that area allowed for getting together again with both of Denisa's sisters, and some of our nieces and nephews. This is our last time in Oklahoma for a while, so we savored our time with family. That also included a morning with our youngest son and his wife. We have gotten to see their golden retriever grow from a puppy into an adolescent. Even though he tries to sit on their laps, he is already too big to be a lap-dog.
We also went with them to the Paseo Art Festival. We can't buy any of the beautiful pieces of art, but Denisa was content with her purchases--a frozen chocolate covered banana, some kettle corn, and tacos. That's delicious art!
So we headed north in the motor home a day later than planned to avoid the bad weather. This is the official beginning of our trip towards Canada for the summer. We had to take a picture as we drove the motor home across another state line into Kansas.
We took a picture of the next sign on the interstate too. Kansas only gives travelers four miles of free driving before they start charging a toll. Normally we would take the smaller free roads on our way across a state. But this time we drove right past that "last free exit" sign and headed north on the toll road.
That's because, just like Oklahoma, Kansas has been enduring the spring floods. We had planned to stop at Elk Lake State Park, but it is closed due to flooding and all their camp sites are under water. This picture was taken beside the Kansas turnpike. This isn't a lake, this is a flooded field that won't be harvested this summer.
A week ago, even this section of the turnpike was under water and traffic had to be diverted. So we decided to pay the tolls, as we feared that many of the smaller roads would still be impassible. Finding ourselves in the middle of a flooded detour is not on our bucket list of activities we want to do in our motor home.
This is a costly decision, as we picked up our turnpike ticket as we entered the southern border of Kansas and headed to the northern edge. We have four axles because we are towing our car, so our trip across Kansas to our next camp site was $26.00.
We had made reservations at Hillsdale State Park, the closest camping to our older son's home in Lenexa, Kansas. But we happened to check the state park web site to find that they were also closed due to flooding. Now we were struggling to find a place for our one-week stay. We were glad to find that Clinton Lake State Park was high and dry and had first-come-first-served camp sites. All that moisture means the bright green fields within the park are lovely.
Normally, we would take a picture of the lake in a place like Clinton LAKE state park. But with all the boat ramps flooded and the beaches and the marina closed, we can't get to a view of the water within the park. This is the best view we have seen as the lake is creeping into the naturally wooded edges that surround the water.
Our decision to stay an extra day in Oklahoma proved to be a good one. A mile-wide EF-4 tornado was on the ground for almost 32 miles in this area the night before we arrived. Mark found this summary of the tornado, as the red line indicates its hour-long path that it was on the ground. The western edge is just south of Clinton Lake where we are camped now.
Later, they determined from the debris field that a second tornado also started on the north side of the lake very close to our campground. We saw evidence of the fierce wind that shredded trees here. The camp host at the state park told us they lost 20 trees in our campground. We were glad to miss that spectacle! Again we ask, "Is this the worst spring weather season ever!?!"
The next morning we went in search of a view of Clinton Lake. We took this picture from the Overlook Park near the Corp of Engineers information center a few miles down the road.
Because everything is so muddy here, we were glad to also find a concrete walking trail to get some exercise.
But our walk wasn't long, since the flooded lake is over the trail. This fisherman was enjoying having a concrete surface to stand on to do some fishing since all the ramps and docks are flooded.
But all this water has also made for an extended spring wildflower season that we are enjoying at the lake.
These butterflies and enjoying the garden flowers at the lookout point, and Denisa was enjoying the butterflies.
We made the long drive around this big lake to take a look at the campground on the south side. We are staying at a state park on the north side, and this was the view from the Corp of Engineer campground on the south side. Roads are closed, all the boat ramps are under water, the docks are covered, and the lake is now right up to the parking lot that is normally high and dry.
Clinton Lake is a relatively young lake, formed in 1975 when the dam was built. This interesting piece of artwork at the Corp of Engineers park is a symbol of the underground railroad towns in this valley used by slaves escaping the south. The gold rings represent the little towns that were on the map before the lake was.
With all the flooding, we probably won't be doing any of the usual lake activities while we are camping here at Clinton Lake. But we are enjoying the beautiful blue skies on this day as we are hoping that the worst spring weather season is finally over.
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