We left Logan, New Mexico after getting our new driver-side RV tires installed and drove 278 miles to Foss State Park in Foss, Oklahoma. If you look at the Google Map screen capture in the photos you’ll notice that it says the trip should take right at 4 hours. That’s because Google Maps assumes you’ll drive the posted speed limit on your route. But there’s no way I’m going to drive 75 miles an hour while pulling Nomad. Not unless I’m trying to outrun a hurricane, tornado or fast-approaching earthquake. I almost always keep our speed at 60-63 miles an hour at the max. So, our trip to Foss was closer to 5 hours in length adjusting for our lower speed and a fuel stop.
There are several different campgrounds in Foss State Park and Cindy chose the Buffalo Bend campground. I’m glad she did. It is tucked away on the northern side of the park and does not seem as popular as the campgrounds over on the western side, closer to the marina. There were a couple of campers near us when we arrived, but they were pretty quiet. It wasn’t until the following weekend that the campground was overrun with about 12 different RVs who were all part of a group celebrating someone’s birthday or graduation. Even they weren’t very noisy, just stupid about letting their combined 5 dogs run loose.
And when we first arrived we found the 50 amp outlet on the power pedestal was giving a “lack of ground” error message on our Electrical Management System. This device is one that many RVers recommend due to issues with power pedestals in parks not always being kept at their best. It keeps those issues from affecting the entire electrical system of an owner’s RV, which can result in hundreds or even thousands of dollars of damage to the RV. I checked the 30 amp outlet and it was good so I used my adapter and plugged in to that one. However, around 11 pm that night we lost power. I went outside and the EMS was flashing another error. I checked the 50 amp outlet and it was now showing clear so I was beginning to think my EMS had taken a hit and gone bad. We had power again until the next morning (Saturday) when it went out again.
We contacted the park and they had two maintenance men out in about 20 minutes. Turned out it was the outlet, which had an intermittent ground situation in addition to just being old and decayed. They replaced the outlet and cleaned up the wiring so that we had 50 amp power back in less than 30 minutes. A big thumbs up to the maintenance crew at Foss State Park.
Foss Reservoir was created by the completion of the Foss Reservoir Dam in 1961 at a cost of $7 million. Foss Dam is one of the world’s largest earthen dams at over 3 miles in length and a height of 142 feet. At normal levels, Foss Reservoir covers 6,800 acres and has a shoreline of 58 miles. The reservoir’s average depth is 24 feet but some areas are as much as 79 feet in depth. Foss Reservoir is surrounded by 8,000 acres of public land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Reclamation. Foss State Park, established in 1962, utilizes 2,000 acres of this federal land for public recreational purposes such as camping, swimming, fishing, boating and picnicking, as well as trail-related activities.
When Cindy booked this stay she read several reviews that talked about wild bison being in the large field near the State Park office and gift shop, so you know we had to drive over there and get a look. Unfortunately, as the young woman manning the office told us, another state agency had come in and told the park that their fencing did not meet the new standards required to hold bison. Foss State Park could either spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to install new fencing that met those standards, or the other state agency would relocate the bison to a more protected area. So relocation it was and their were no bison to see in the field.
We did, however, see a very fast and agile deer that ran across an open area on the right side of the road we were on, across the road in front of our truck and then practically flew over the old fence on the left side of the road that used to hold in the bison. It was so fast all we could do was watch as we oohed and ahhed and smiled in pleasure at the sight.
On Sunday, May 7th we drove 30 miles to Elk City, Oklahoma to see the 12:30 pm showing of Guardians of the Galaxy 3. I don’t like going to movie theaters anymore because people are inconsiderate and even downright rude. They talk and horse around like they’re sitting in their living room watching TV instead of in a public venue where everyone would like to see/hear the movie they paid for. But, especially for blockbuster superhero movies, I also don’t like to wait until they come to PPV and have to spend weeks or months trying (and usually failing) to avoid spoilers. So, sure enough there was a group of talking, noisy people right behind us and we ended up moving across the theater so we would not be so distracted by the idiots.
The rest of our stay at Foss State Park was spent hiking around the campground and down to the beach area (where Cindy thought she would be pulled down into the quicksand-like surface), reading, writing, and continuing to watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD. When the show originally aired I was not that fond of the story or most of the characters. But this second watch decades later has been much more enjoyable and provided a deeper appreciation of the ongoing plot and performances by the cast.
Cindy says it’s because I needed to watch it with her. She may be right
.Thanks for following the Wandering Wetheringtons.
