Our RV Adventures

We pulled out of the Pauls Valley City Lake Park about 8:15 with Jan following me in the truck. Our final destination was the Springhill COE Park about 220 miles away in Barling, AR, just south of Fort Smith.

But our first stop was about 6 miles away at the Comfort Inn on I-35 to meet our co-in-laws for breakfast. Sonja does the breakfast at the hotel and had invited us to stop by. We got there about 8:30 and were surprised to find how extensive it was. We’ve stay at a number of hotels recently, including other Comfort Inn’s and this one is the best so far, with a much better selection.

After saying our good-byes, we were back on the road about 9:30 for another short trip right up the road to the Wal-Mart to get diesel. At $2.48 it was the cheapest I’d seen in the area, and since I was down to about half a tank, it seemed like a good idea.

We had a great time here in Pauls Valley getting to spend some time with Sonja and Lendel, and hope we can get back through here soon. And the City Lake Park turned out to be a really nice place. I mean where can you get a view like this for $13 a night for 50 amp FHU.

Very nice.

Originally we had  planned to just take I-35 into OKC and then I-40 east. But after checking the route with some locals, I decided to take 19 over to US177 and then north to I-40 saving about 25 miles. And it turned out to be a really good idea. The road was great with only 3 stop signs the entire 30 miles, just rolling through the beautiful countryside.

We pulled in the Springhill COE Campground about 2:45, with the easiest check-in we’ve ever had. I told the lady my name, and said we had a reservation for 3 days for site #B3. She said yes, handed me a map, and we were done.

We quickly found our site and got set up. We were happy to see that this one is just about as nice as our site at Pauls Valley.

Tomorrow’s probably a goof-off day, although we may do a movie. We’ll see.

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Thought for the Day:

“Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.” –
The Boston Post in 1865

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Today was a partial goof-off day for us, at least up until we headed out about 2pm. Sonja had to work today, so we weren’t meeting up until 4pm for dinner.

Our first stop was a place in downtown Pauls Valley that we’ve passed a number of times and were curious about, The Toy & Action Figure Museum. Located in a fairly plain storefront, I’m not sure what we were expecting to find inside, but it certainly wasn’t what we found.

Entering the lobby was a pleasant surprise, bright and cheerful, with a nice layout of souvenirs for sale.

But after paying our $8 (for both of us) admission, we walked through the arch and it became one of those OMG moments

It was almost more than we could take in. Everywhere you look there was toys and more toys, lining the walls, hanging from the ceiling, and standing against the walls.

The first diorama details an imaginary adult toy collector’s bedroom.

According to the description, he must live with his parents to be able to afford all this.

Kevin Stark, the museum’s owner says that they tear down this exhibit once a year, rearranging things as they add new items and remove others. It takes about a week.

Two more neat displays detail all the DC and Marvel characters ever published. It’s hard to believe there are so many.

Another neat display is this one of superhero underwear.

My first thought was that Sheldon would be really jealous, but then I figured he probably already has the entire set. They used to be sold at Target, but now they’re collector’s items and worth some money. Don’t know if that’s for used or new ones.

They have displays of pretty much every genre doll and action figure around, even the Simpson’s

And of course where would you find the Batman display, but in the BatCave. The displays are arranged in a timeline starting with the Adam West TV version and progressing through the several movie incarnations.

They also have a number of large dioramas with the action figure’s action figure, G.I. Joe.

But one of the kid’s favorite areas is this playroom with plenty of toys, and even better, superhero costumes of all sizes that they can dress up in and have their picture taken.

Really neat.

We ended up spending more than an hour here, making the circuit through the place three times, and each time I saw stuff I hadn’t seen before. And for everything I’ve shown here, there’s probably 10 times more to see.

But finally tearing myself away, our next stop was the AT&SF (Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe depot, and old 1951.

Built in 1907 by Baldwin, this 2-8-0 locomotive made its first run on the Santa Fe less than one month after Oklahoma became a state, traveling over 1.2 million miles, finally being retired in 1954 after 47 years in service, losing out to old age and diesels.

The AT&SF depot, the 2nd one in town, was built in 1905 after the 1st one was outgrown.

It was refurbished in the 1990’s and now houses a museum full of both train and Pauls Valley memorabilia.

The lady that showed me around the depot said she’d had two buses of young kids this morning and it showed. I think she was just looking for some adult conversation, because when I mentioned that I had left Jan in the truck and needed to go, she kept showing me more stuff, always preceding it with “Just one more thing.”

But I finally got away in time for us to meet Sonja and Lendel at Punkin’s BBQ and Catfish, another local favorite.

While Jan ordered the Catfish,

I figured with a place called Punkin’s BBQ AND Catfish, I had to try some of both, and they had just the Combo for it.

But I didn’t quite expect it to be this extensive. It all really delicious, and big enough so I had plenty to take home. Both really good.

Tomorrow we leave here and move about 250 miles to the Springhill COE park south of Fort Smith, AR where we’ll stay for several days.

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Thought for the Day:

Some mornings it just doesn’t seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps. – Emo Phillips

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