Just Checkin' in

by John Inman

So many folks asked us to write a blog about our first extended RV trip after Cynthia’s retirement. OK, “so many folks” was actually two – Chuck and Jim. Of course, I will email this same thing to our kids, Karen, Tammi and Michael, but this is for all the Heavener bloggers who may or may not be interested.

First of all, we planned on leaving about 8 a.m. last Tuesday morning. We “finally” got on the road around 12:30 after having to fix a few things. We have to give a great deal of credit to Bobby at Nick’s Trailer Hitches for getting us on the road, and that’s all I’ll say about that. Anyway, we made it as far as Broken Bow, OK. Broken Bow? Yep, just about 3 or 3 1/2 hours up the road. We found a real nice little RV park, and Cynthia fixed a nice steak and baked potato supper. That, naturally, was the best thing to happen up to that point. We slept in the next morning, called Aunt Mable and told her we were on our way and not to expect us for a while. We drove as far as Smithville and decided to stop for lunch. It’s a good thing, too, because it started raining, or pouring, a few minutes later. Who would walk in but a couple of friends from Heavener – Don Frost and Lester Rowland? They said they were in the process of moving Betty Jean Ward, Herbert’s daughter, from Paris, TX back to Heavener. Thus, our trip to Heavener had “officially” begun. Stopping at a one-store town like Smithville (population, maybe 300 at best) and running on to someone from Heavener that neither of us had seen in a couple years was too weird. We finally made it to Heavener, went by to pick up Mable and went on to our destination at Long Lake Resort.

Long Lake Resort Is near Poteau (anyone from Heavener knows where Poteau is) and it’s a very nice, clean, well-maintained little place. I’ve thought all this time it was on the Poteau River, but it’s situated along Long Lake. The resort itself has just a few RV spots, a few duplexes and a few really nice isolated cabins. This time of the year, just after Labor Day, is not very busy. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. We took Mable back home and spent a nice quite evening in our RV. Cynthia took Mable to Ft. Smith the next day, but I stayed behind and watched ESPN’s Sports Center after taking a nice quiet relaxing nap. I thought to myself, “What a way to spend a vacation.” The next day, we went in to Poteau to eat at Western Sizzlin. There we ran into Bill and Sue Edmonds (Bill lived next door on 2nd Street) and an old high school friend, Tim Wise, whom I hadn’t seen since high school in 1965.

As the week wore on, we really began to love Long Lake Resort, its quietness and relaxation and convenience to both Heavener and Poteau. Cynthia says the gentle rain on the roof of the RV made for wonderful sleeping weather! We saw Mable a few more times, and on Tuesday went to eat at Warehouse Willie’s, a place Chuck told us about. Great place to eat, but big thick rib-eye steaks at $15.50 aren’t exactly my cup of tea. I had a great burger and Cynthia had the steak-filled baked potato. She had steak left over. Neither of us could have eaten the entire rib-eye dinner. Cynthia found a t-shirt in a little shop down the street that should elicit a comment from Kathy Bain Dunn and maybe even my friend George in Texas. Maybe I’ll picture it in a blog someday!

We broke camp on Wednesday and drove to Sallisaw to visit my cousin, the next stop on our journey.

Disregard Chuck's name at the bottom of this blog....it was easier to send it to him for up-loading, since we didn't have Internet access at Long Lake Resort. We'll get this figured out before next time, maybe.