WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - We Were Safe From Storms in Oklahoma... But WISCONSIN Wasn't!

We left the stormy weather at the south end of Hugo Lake by Kiamichi Park.  We just couldn't take those high winds anymore plus we were underneath some dangerous looking trees.  The storm gusts coming across Texas and Oklahoma were originally straight from the south. During the night they were due to swing around and come from the north. That type of upheaval really means we shouldn't be parked under any trees anywhere.

But being right out in the open has its dangers too. The winds were battering us so badly at Kiamichi that we were scared our slide toppers we're going to rip right off the motorhome.  We did pull in the one slide with the living room loveseat, to help protect that. But the rear slide is also our bed and it's pretty hard to sleep on a folded up queen size mattress when there's two of us and a dog! LOL

We were glad that we pulled into Rattan Landing up on the North side above Hugo Lake. This campground is still part of the Corps of Engineers system, but is located a little further north of the lake on the Kiamichi River instead. 

We found nice beautiful clear open sites along the river. We had our choice of any one of them because there wasn't anybody else in the campground.

We went online to pay for our site, but because our America the Beautiful Senior Access Pass was already tied up with the previous reservation, we did have to pay full price here for the night.  So instead of the discounted $9 rate, we had to pay the full $18. On top of that, we were already still paying for the site over at Kiamichi which is another $9 we had already paid. We will wait to see if they contact us back about a refund due to weather conditions. (On edit - they didn't)

Most of the sites along the river were level and many were pull-through. We were happy to have the wide open space around us and no overhanging trees.

The river was down this grassy embankment. It was running a little high, due to all the rain from the day or two before. But the birds were singing and it was lovely sitting here in the sunshine and soaking it all in.  It was still windy, with some pretty heavy gusts. But at least we felt safer here than at the previous place.

While I started cooking dinner, Nick was all confused why we had moved again. So we had to take him outside so he could sniff sniff sniff and explore the new area.  That is the most entertaining thing for a dog to be able to do when traveling. At each stop, getting out to sniff new things is pretty exciting!

While we were all curled up and safe from the storms at this particular time of the day, we tuned in to the various weather channels showing what was going on back at home. We knew that the blizzard was hitting the Midwest, and we could see things on our security cameras that were definitely more exciting than the wind we were suffering with down in Texas and Oklahoma.

LOOK AT OUR BACKYARD!

We were watching record-breaking snows blasting wisconsin. Our home received 30 inches of snow over a period of two days.

I have more videos of the storm on my YouTube link below at the end of the blog. 

Of course the schools were closed, as well as almost every business and grocery store and gas station in our small town. It was the same all throughout Wisconsin. Basically, Wisconsin was CLOSED. Except for the essential workers, everyone was told to stay home and stay inside. Even the snow plows were getting stuck, and the big front end loaders and skid loaders couldn't get them out. 

The next morning, our neighbors took this photo of our house from their front porch. Because it was blowing so much, the wind was drifting and pushing up the snow in huge drifts on our roof and front porch. Unbelievable!

The snow was plastered tight to the front of our garage on the doors and even on the siding. There was a huge drift 3-4 ft deep directly across the entire driveway. It was going to take quite some work for us to be able to get that stuff moved. 

The snow was plastered tight all around the house from every direction. The danger is that it can cover over the exhaust and intake pipes for our gas furnace. Although we had the thermostat set down about 50°, the furnace still needs to operate safely to keep our water lines and toilets etc. from freezing.  We have the water shut off at the main valve, but there is still danger of freezing the pipes even without pressure. Our wonderful neighbor to the south of us went over and dug away around our pipes repeatedly throughout the storm to keep them clear. Each time he would text us and ask us to kick up our furnace on the Wi-Fi connection to be sure it was still operating. Technology is really handy!!!

On the other side of our house is a natural gas meter. The utilities company put out warnings to be sure to remove all snow from around the gas meter because there is a small vented valve that needs to be clear. 

So our other neighbor on the other side went over and cleared that area around the gas meter for us. It was buried underneath all the snow right where this arrow is pointing!

We have such wonderful neighbors! 

Here is one of them, whom shall remain nameless, but gave me permission to put his photo in this blog. He was going in and out of his house in shifts to try to keep ahead of the storm with his snow blower. His efforts were pretty futile and it took him many hours just to try to keep his driveway open.

Our kids and grandkids over on the east side of the state near Lake Michigan were totally snowed in. Fortunately, their power never went out. They heat their home with a wood stove and they were quite cozy, regardless. Even if it had gone out, they were prepared. It took them two days of shoveling to even get anywhere near getting out their truck. And then another day to try and shovel out their car. This had been totally buried and they hand shoveled all of it away to get around the car.  Plus they have a long long driveway to get out to their little country road that wasn't even plowed yet either.

Our other kids and grandkids here in town went to work trying to clear the sidewalk and the driveway around their house. You can see 9-year-old Claire, the snow is up to her shoulder!!!  The kids had fun though, there was no school for two days and they could burn up their energy by getting outside and helping with the snow removal.

Here is our son-in-law, trying to even make the smallest dent in the drifted snow in front of their home.  He tried to get to work down in Green Bay, and had to turn around at the edge of town and come right back. The highways were closed! So he might as well just get back to trying to clear up some of snow around his own home.

While we were dodging these horrible storms in the south, they were busy back at home battling the snow. At first we breathed a sigh of relief, but then we started checking out the upcoming weather for us in Texas and Oklahoma... Rut roh!

The HEAT DOME was coming! 

And it looked like it was going to get worse and worse and worse...

Only 31 miles traveled today 

1,310 miles so far

WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - MORE Storms! Hugo Lake COE in Oklahoma

Before I start this blog, I just wanted to give another shout out to our granddaughter Whitney. She is 10 years old and has been reading our blogs and watching our YouTube channel for this entire trip. I just get a hoot out of this email she sent me:

And she finished it up with a couple post scripts: 

What a silly little goose. Thank you so much Whitney!

Okay, back to the blog. When we last left you, we were exiting Pat Mayes Lake and searching for somewhere that we could get out of the path of some of these storms.  It just seemed like every other day there was a wave of huge horrendous thunderstorms coming across from the southwest. 

We managed to find our way into Hugo Lake, just over the Texas border into Oklahoma.  The actual name of the campground is Kiamichi,  and it's part of the Army Corps of Engineers system. It is normally $18 a night with electric and water, but with our America the Beautiful Senior Access Pass, it's only $9 a night.

We reserved the campsite for seven nights in a row.  $63 for a whole week, some people pay that for just one night! But... now we wish we hadn't reserved for 7 nights. 

The park has a lot of beautiful nice level concrete campsites, each with a picnic table, fire pit and charcoal grill. Most of the part was shut down and only one loop in one area was open. But there were only two other campers in there, located way up at the beginning of the loop. Looks perfect!

Nick checked our site over while Steve was getting ready to back up the motorhome. It got the sniff test. He approved. There was a large grassy area where he could play with his fetch toy while on the end of his 100 foot long orange rope.

Steve got us all backed in and set up into place. It's so easy and nice and level and perfect. We didn't see any piles of ant mounds anywhere, so we didn't even have to think about insect prevention like we did in some of the Southern areas.

We figured that if the winds came blasting in from the north we would be somewhat protected on the southern edge of this little peninsula.  (Or so we thought!!!)

As we looked up in the trees we noticed these big clumps of green leafy mounds. But the rest of the tree is not budded out or leafed out in any way. So I did a little Googling:

Mistletoe – Mistletoe is a common, native parasitic plant in Oklahoma, often appearing as green, bushy clumps in deciduous trees during winter. As Oklahoma's official state floral emblem, it grows by penetrating tree branches to steal water and nutrients. While it can weaken trees and make them susceptible to stress,7, 14}, healthy trees can often tolerate minor infestations. 

Key Facts About Mistletoe in Oklahoma

Appearance: Green, leathery-leaved, ball-shaped shrubs found in the canopy of trees, especially during winter when trees are dormant.

Native Status: It is native to Oklahoma, with species like Phoradendron tomentosum and Phoradendron leucarpum commonly found.

Host Trees: It affects various hardwood trees, including oaks, elms, and maples.

Spread: Birds, such as cedar waxwings, consume the sticky white berries and deposit seeds on other branches, spreading the parasite.

Impact on Trees: It is a parasitic plant that can weaken trees, reduce growth, and make them more susceptible to drought or disease. However, a healthy tree can often withstand small amounts.

Removal: Simply breaking it off usually results in regrowth. The only effective removal method is pruning the infected branch 1–2 feet below the mistletoe attachment point.

So it sounds like it's pretty darn hard to get rid of!

We did find some deadfall branches that were just laying in the middle of the loop. Steve hauled them over and we used our little electric chainsaw to cut them up. If the winds died down, we might be able to have a campfire! He piled them up underneath the motorhome to keep them out of any potential rain coming our way.

This sure was a pretty cute place, and a very peaceful campsite. There isn't a lot going on in this area of the state so early in the season. But I bet the middle of summer this is quite busy.

We spent two nights here, relaxing and not doing a lot. But the second night we had such a downpour of rain that the waters of the reservoir went up between two and three feet!  We could see it along the shorelines where the water was now overflowing the banks. We were up pretty high, but still, it makes you nervous. 

We thought all of the storms were done.

The sun was shining and we decided to set out upon a bike ride and explore the rest of the park. 

Most of it was gated off to vehicle traffic. But with the e-bikes we could pedal around the gates and go into areas that weren't even being used this time of year. We actually went into some areas that don't even look like they were used at all --- for a long long time.

Off we went, with little Nick in his cart. It's so peaceful to pedal along throughout the park, with the birds singing and the sun shining. We really enjoy the E bikes and getting exercise and fresh air.

We were all about 5 miles away from the camper when the wind started picking up.  That seems strange, the weather report said we were all done with the storms??  We were all the way out in the far top of the screen in the pic below. 

Suddenly the sky turned very dark and angry!!! It's like it almost happened within a minute. Things were churning around and storming and we could feel a heaviness in the air. We started pedaling back to our campsite as quick as we could go.

Whew! We made it back in time. But boy were we getting blasted by the wind. Steve was struggling to put away the bikes, and poor Nick was blowing away in the breeze at the end of his leash. I got him stowed into the motorhome and we secured everything else that could possibly have blown away.

Once we got inside, we fired up our Starlink and took a look at the radar. Oh boy, look what was coming tonight! We are the "Orange Dot". 

What should we do? We were pretty exposed out on this point. We had seen the rising waters from the last rainfall overnight as well as big white caps coming in across the cove. The waves were splashing and the wind was blowing.

We were getting battered from the side and it was really tearing at our slide topper awnings. The whole motorhome was shaking in the wind.

So we decided the most prudent thing was to pull up stakes, pull in the slides, and head on to a more protected area. We found two other campgrounds around the same lake that were also part of the Corps of Engineer System. So we took off and headed to one to see if we could find a more sheltered campsite. 

We didn't do too well at that one, it was pretty wide open. So we drove on to another one up on the North side of the lake called Rattan Landing. There we were able to pull in and find a secure spot away from the worst of the storm before it hits.

 

I went online to try and transfer our reservation. It would not allow me to remove our reservation from the Kiamichi Park on Hugo Lake and change it to the Rattan Landing, even though they're all part of the same flowage.  Finally I called the help desk at Corp of Engineers through Recreation.gov. The lady there told me that unfortunately, the Kiamichi Park is run by vendors, and it's up to their discretion of their park manager whether or not to release us from our reservation. She did put in a request saying it was "weather related".  But she said we would have to wait until they contacted us back whether or not we could get a refund on our reservation. (They never did)

The problem is... In the meantime our America the Beautiful Senior Access Pass number is tied up with that reservation for five more nights. That means we cannot use that discount pass on any other campsites for five nights. Bugger! So even though we were safe and sound at Rattan Landing, we had to pay full price. Oh well, at least we were safe!!

MEANWHILE,

 BACK IN WISCONSIN, 

WE KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON THERE!

Thisvis the You Tube video that goes along with this blog:

30 miles traveled today 

1,279 miles traveled so far

WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - Big Storms Again at Pat Mayse Lake, TX

We are enjoying this section of North East Texas. We are at Pat Mayse Corps of Engineers Park in the Northeast section of Texas near Arthur City. We have a lakeside site here for seven days.

Sadly, we woke up to cloudy gray skies and impending storms. There was a whole swath of dangerous storms that were streaming right across the entire US. We were at the very bottom edge where it was dragging across Northern Texas and Oklahoma. And we were directly in its path!!!

In the morning it wasn't too bad, although it was cloudy. I got some editing done from my little "office" in the front cockpit of the motorhome.  I like having my laptop set up at this space, and using my passenger seat as my office chair. Everything can stay out of the way if I am unloading cameras or charging up equipment.

We watched the clouds roll in all afternoon. We weren't sure if it was going to go around us or if we were in it's direct path.

The skies darkened and we were due to get hit around 5:00 p.m. with the first wave...

This was not looking too good for us.

(we are at the tip of the red arrow,

that is what was going to hit us at 2:00 a.m.)

The wind started blasting around us, and we were getting lambasted directly broadside from the winds across the lake. We were worried about the trees overhead crashing down on us in the RV as we slept.

Nick was curled up with his little reindeer toy. He was very nervous, while we were anxiously watching the storm on the Weather Channel on tv. We also tuned into Ryan Hall on YouTube to track it's progress.

There were tornado warnings in both of the counties near us and we were next in line. We had both of our phones set to loud volume in case the alarms went off from our weather apps.

About 1:00 a.m. we looked at the weather maps and it looked even worse. It was time to break camp...

We pulled up our leveler jacks and pulled in the slides. In just a few minutes we were ready to go. By quarter after 1:00, we were leaving our campsite along the shore and driving up to an open area next to the concrete shower house / bathrooms. The open space was actually the RV dump station!!!

This was all done in the dark, but I do have some of it on the video link down below at the end of this blog. We pulled in and got settled for the night. Although it was still windy, at least we were in a protected area. If the danger alarms went off on our phones notifying us of an impending tornado, we had the concrete shower building to rush into for protection.

We managed to get a couple more hours of sleep, and the storms roared overhead. By morning, things looked pretty good again!

This was a great place to hunker down overnight, we were safe and secure, as well as out from underneath any trees that could have fallen on us. We were so thankful to have this place to retreat to.

Steve said as long as we were here, we might as well dump our holding tanks. LOL. So we did just that.

By 8:30 a.m., we pulled back down into our campsite and we were all set back up again. Just in time to start making breakfast and have a cup of coffee. The day was absolutely beautiful!!!

We spoke to the host, he said he didn't hear a thing and they slept all night long. He never knew we left and never knew we came back. 

We decided to have a fruity breakfast of bananas, yogurt and granola, topped off with fresh blueberries!

Yummmmmmmm

Although it was still quite breezy, we were able to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. The world looked entirely different during the daytime hours, not nearly as scary and threatening as it was overnight.

One of Steve's inventions that I wanted to mention, was his de-flapping solution for the sides of our roll out and retractable slide toppers. They are like little awnings that protect the top portion of our slides when extended. But because they are retractable, they flap in the wind and loosen up and make a lot of noise. Also, we don't want them flapping around so much in the wind that they rip or tear. 

My ingenious husband figured out to take a thicker version pool noodle and cut a long slice entirely down one side.  Depending on how high your slide toppers are situated above your slide roof, that determines what size pool noodle to buy. We found for ours, the thicker ones were better.

Steve gets up on his step ladder and carefully threads the slit edge of the pool noodle over the edge of the fabric of the slide material. This holds it rigid so it does not flop in the breeze or tear the fabric.

He has it cut the exact length needed for the depth of our slide. That way the wind doesn't get underneath it on one edge and still tear the fabric.

What a great idea for peace of mind, and to protect our investment in the middle of a windstorm. It sure would be a hassle to try and pull in a slide with a ruined topper and have to find a dealership to try to replace it while on the road. 

We are always very careful to make sure that it is removed before we pull the bedroom slide back in again.

That evening, we were treated to the most beautiful full moon, rising up over the water. 

I just love the sparkles on the surface of the waves. Everything was calm --- we really couldn't believe the night before there was such a terrifying storm.

I got out my big camera and was able to zoom in for a close up...

The next morning, we woke up and took a glance at our phones. Rut roh!  We were due for MORE storms to roll in. These were going to be even stronger than the ones before. Yep, we are the red arrow. These storms were even predicting 6-inch hail and high winds again.

Although things looked sunny and nice, we decided we were going to move to another campsite within the park. Up over the hill and more secluded, but without too many trees around us or overhead.  We might as well get moved now before things get worse. We were the only ones in this entire section of the campground, besides the host. We talked to him about it and he said there was no problem with moving sites, and he would let the park ranger know on the reservation system. Like I said, there was nobody else there, so we could pick out the best one for our needs. Selecting the direction that the motorhome would face is the most important factor in choosing a new site.

We could now position the motorhome with the nose towards the direction of the wind. Motorhomes are made to drive 50, 60, 70 miles an hour so it can handle winds coming directly at it. It's the side winds that worry us that could push us over. 

It was a very nice site, and down to our left we could see this nice shallow cove. The host told us there were beavers in there. A mom with little beaver pups had been seen swimming around the last few days.  

The wind started picking up, and we hunkered down for the night. We played a few rounds of cribbage and kept the weather channel tuned in on our Starlink.  

We got this beautiful copper wax melt decanter from Steve's sister for christmas. It looks absolutely lovely in the evening. Look at the shadows that it reflects onto other surfaces. What a great addition in the camper. Thank you again, Wendy! It sure is beautiful.

We made it through another horrible stormy night. We were secure enough in our campsite with the nose facing the wind. We didn't need to move back up to the dump station. The storms passed over and some of them actually went around us. So it wasn't as bad as two nights before.  But there had been heavy heavy rain for hours on end. Everything was quite wet and damp in the morning.

We heard a few slap slap sounds, and looked out and managed to see Mama Beaver swimming around. We didn't see any of the pups, but we knew she was there. She would poke up her head every now and then and look around. I think she was busy gathering breakfast for her babies.

The mists floated up over the surface of the water because it was warmer than the air temperature. A cold front had come in and the temperatures had dropped quickly overnight.  I think we went from '80s down to the low 40s.

Here was Mama Beaver floating around to the right of the trunk. I didn't have my big camera at hand quick enough to zoom in close.

It was still pretty breezy in the morning and quite cold. We decided to not go back down to our campsite on the lakeshore for the last night of our reservation. We decided to just stay right where we were. 

It was breezy enough that I was able to wash up some laundry in the portable washing machine that we carry along in the shower stall. I talked about that in the previous blog or two. It sure is handy to be able to do our own laundry and not have to go seek out a grubby laundromat in some little town. I hate to waste a couple hours sitting and waiting for clothing to wash or dry at a laundromat. It's much nicer to be in our own campsite and enjoy our camping time.

Plus, everything smells so much better when dried out on the line. 

The other benefit of having tons of rain overnight is that it helped with the drought conditions in this area. There had been fire bans on since we had first come down into this section of Texas. Things were so dangerously dry...  Now we were seeing fresh green growth and even these little teeny flowers appeared to sprout up overnight from nowhere.

We had gathered up a few pieces of firewood, just in case they lifted the fire ban on the area after the rainfall. This one was very beautiful. I love nature's artistry... 

Although it was breezy and cool, we sat out in our lawn chairs and enjoyed the afternoon. Felt good to be outside after being cooped up with the cold weather and the wind.  We did a little bit of a walk with Nick, and then came back to our lawn chairs again. It was so peaceful and quiet. The host had left and there was nobody around us anywhere. Except Mama Beaver every now and then going "slap" on the water.

We want to enjoy our last night here at Pat Mayse Lake, because we know the next morning we would be moving on.  We are so thankful we made it through these two bands of storms. I know people around us and to the North had horrible weather.  Little did we know that the next hunk of weather coming through would be stretching all the way from Texas to Michigan in destroy places with tornadoes all along the way. The worst is yet to come...

Here is the YouTube that goes along with today's blog post: 

1,249 mi traveled so far