Feeling Welcome in Oklahoma--Arkansas not so much

After the birthday festivities were over, we decided to stick around Grove, Oklahoma, for a few more days. We really like our water and electric site on the lake at Honey Creek State Park! Every site was filled and the place was a zoo during the weekend. But during the middle of the week we almost had the entire place to ourselves. Now that our social time is over, it should be very easy to isolate here.

Before they left town, our son's family came by to tell us good-bye. Carter is ready to go with us on our next trip--as long as she gets to drive.

We had one more chance to play "steekers" before they had to leave. We're not sure how many hours Carter played with this reusable sticker set, but it was a great investment when we added it to the "Gram bag" of goodies.

As soon as they left, we started another two weeks of isolation. We were planning to head out towards northern Arkansas. We had found an area with a beautiful lake and great hiking that we have never explored. So we started looking for a good campsite for a week or two. That's when we discovered that we are no longer welcome in Arkansas. All the great Corp of Engineer campgrounds around Beaver Lake are closed, and the governor has restricted camping spots in private and state campgrounds to Arkansas residents only. So we changed our plans, and have decided to stay in Oklahoma, where we feel welcome. Besides, our campground here at Honey Creek has its own lighthouse, and Denisa is very fond of lighthouses.

Besides that, Denisa is still trying to get a picture of the fox that wandered into our site the other day. We have also grown accustomed to the woodpecker that is trying to drill holes in the lightpost that we can see through our living room window. We like seeing his shiny red head while he works.

So our new plan of action is to explore the Oklahoma state parks in this northeast quadrant. We lived on the west side of the state for over 50 years, and we didn't even know that most of these parks existed. In our start at exploring all these parks, we drove over to Bernice State Park. We walked the nature trail, with its nicely shaded asphalt surface.

The half-mile nature trail took us to two different observation towers. This one let us observe the Grand Lake O' the Cherokees from a new angle.

We also observed a scissortail flycatcher posing on a post for us. Several days ago we posted a blurry picture of Oklahoma's state bird, so we were glad to get a clearer close-up today at a state park.

When the bird flew, we finally got a picture (albeit blurry) of those split tail feathers that confirmed it was a scissortail.

We also checked out the lake-view camping sites at Bernice State Park. Just like at our park, it would be easy to get an open site in the middle of the week this time of year. But we're guessing that the weekend was pretty crazy here, just like at Honey Creek. Oklahoma has a good on-line reservation system, and you are required to reserve and pay for your site before you arrive at the park.

We're glad to see that there are no fees to make a reservation. We've always disliked the national reservation system, where the fees can be almost as much as a single night's camping cost. Oklahoma has opened up their state park campgrounds and bathrooms, and we have seen RVs from many different states using the day-use and camping areas. After not feeling welcomed in Arkansas, we're glad that Oklahoma has given us a welcomed haven while we are once again isolating during the pandemic.