October 9 - Claremore, OK to Carthage, MO

Barb - We used the Will Rogers Turnpike/I-44 today to do our relatively short drive to Carthage. We have stayed in the RV park outside of Carthage previously and it is nice (but everything has been very wet here due to the 4 to 6 inch rains in the area on Thursday). After we put the RV in place, we had lunch in town and then went to the George Washington Carver Historical Site in nearby Diamond. We have also been here before but they have added many square feet of space to their visitors' center/museum. The new part is very student-friendly and has a scenic balcony overlooking the historical land areas. The sumac is quite colorful here and in Oklahoma - reds and purples. I tried to take a couple of pictures but doubt that I can win the Weather Channel's fall photo contest - but look at my luck last night at the Cherokee Casino!

Ed - We heard the rain all night in Claremore - don't know what the total was there, but it had to be at least 4 inches. Many creeks and streams were really out of their banks and filling the storm drains from our down-the-interstate viewpoint. I-44 was fairly scenic with changing tree colors.
The Carver Museum is very well-done with sophisticated, yet simple exhibits. Kids would have fun viewing the plant samples under the Wentzscope (think that's the name), trying to write in Carver's style, identifying bird and animal sounds, etc. That was all in the new addition, along with a nice small auditorium where we viewed the movie about GW Carver. Since we live close to the Harvester Golf Course (some of the streets are named after him), plus knowing his ties to Simpson College and ISU, we have some connections to his history.
Ike had a great time running amongst the trees at the Carver site (on his leash of course) - he is probably ready for running his 5 acres at home!
We have decided that we are missing an RVers party across the road from the RV park at a private residence. Two or three parties of folks have gone over there - two RVs there - a couple of smokers are going - we could just show up with the chicken we were going to cook anyway and pretend we know someone!