Oklahoma Fall Gathering at Cedar Lake

 

  

The Oklahoma Fall Gathering originated as a Pop-Up camper rally at Popupportal. I had decided since I kind of had the ball rolling on this fall adventure that I would call it a gathering as to not step on anyone's toes that had always been rallying up the Okies for the previous rallies. 

The destination was voted upon and the subject went cold, or so I had thought, apparently it had been started as another topic in another thread on the forum. I discovered later when trying to relocate the topic through search. By the time I located the other thread I had already made my reservations and was settled in on a camping adventure to a place I hadn't been in the great state of Oklahoma, Cedar Lake.

Cedar Lake is located in South Eastern Oklahoma, we took the scenic route to get to the lake down the Talimena Scenic Byway, Winding Stair. Who new Oklahoma has rolling hills with forests and little hilly type mountans! Old two lane highways with logging trucks! Such a beatiful place in Oklahoma!

We made it to the Shady Grove Campground. The camp sites were shady and very spacious! Unfortunately not spacious enough for the campers who thought it was okay to send their young kids out to play before 8 AM screaming down the street, "Wake Up!" You go to get away and camp in a playground. Or so it seemed most of Friday afternoon and while we there Saturday.

For most of the day Saturday we decided to take a drive and do some site seeing along the Talihina Scenic drive so that I could get some pictures. We pull over to a look out point, my husband get's out and comes around to my side to get the dog from me and then I proceed to get out of the car.

I look down and about 3 inches from my dog is a tarantula.  That's right. Here's proof!

My husband has a great respect for these spiders so before we decided to get my pictures and return to the car he made sure the spider was back safely in the grass as to not get run over by future passerby's. 

Before getting back to the vehicle my husband spotted a rather large walking stick. I finally took my pictures of the amazing views of southeastern Oklahoma mountains.

 After I took some shots we discovered another historical site called the Three sticks. The three "sticks" stand for LAND, WOOD, and WATER. A dedication sign on the sight reads:

"In Appreciation of the Leadership in the Rapid Development of Our State Roads, Water, Recreation, Forests
"LAND --- WOOD ---WATER"
We, the Grateful Citizens of McCurtain and LeFlore Counties Contribute and Dedicate This Monument to the Following:
SENATOR ROBERT S. KERR
SENATOR MIKE MONRONEY
CONGRESSMAN CARL ALBERT
GOVERNOR RAYMOND GARY
R.G. MILLER

After our day trip of sites, we headed back to camp in hopes to meet some Okies at Potluck. It wasn't set in stone that anyone else was for sure showing since I was the only one from the group who had even made a reservation. But just in case I made sure they all new what site I had reserved and if they showed I would have plenty of Rattlesnake Beans to share! I didn't want to be unprepared. I even had prizes to give, just in case.

 So it seemed the only other breathing thing at the potluck was Bambi, our beloved Pomeranian. 

 The camp site was looking pretty empty at this point. I continued with the beans and decided to make some cornbread as well.

Dinner came and went no one came to the site and introduced themselves as being part of the group. Boy did we have a lot of beans to eat. Luckily, the following day of our departure we chose to stay another week at one of our favorite places in Oklahoma, Beaver's Bend State Park.