WINTER GETAWAY 2026 - Platter Flats COE in Oklahoma before the Heat Dome Hits!

Now that we are traveling a little more in a westward direction across northern Texas and southern Oklahoma border, things are looking a little more "Western".

We are seeing the cattle out grazing on the open prairie, and things are looking more like the movie sets that you see of Out West in Texas. LOL. It's very tranquil and peaceful as we look at the countryside. We try to drive on the back roads as much as possible and avoid the interstates. Things are greening up, and I bet that those cattle are enjoying the fresh green new spring grass.

We went a bit north of the border of Texas into Oklahoma. There's a large lake there called Lake Texoma. We found a Corps of Engineer Park called Platter Flats. It was a beautiful day with blue sky and wonderful temperatures. The "Heat Dome" had not yet come to this area, but it was on it's way. The weather forecaster said there would be a heavy duty windstorm ahead of it at the edge of the front. But we had a day or so to maybe relax before it started.

We drove in and looked at the available sites that were listed online at Recreation.gov. We found a really nice site that was level and had a gorgeous view down over a small bay of the huge lake and the boat landing area. Again, we had a nice green grassy lawn for Nick to play on with his fetching toys on the long hundred foot rope.

The only problem was a really messy campsite right across the road. The people looked to be in the process of packing up so we decided to park anyhow and get set up ourselves before finalizing our official reservation online. We watched them packing up and throwing things in the back of their truck. They had quite a disaster left behind as they finally pulled out their trailer.

We aren't talking average camping gear, this was piles and piles of stuff that maybe they were kicked out of an apartment or something somewhere and were living in the campground? Not sure.

But the big problem was they had two dogs that were barking furiously all of the while while they were throwing things in their truck. It looked like tempers were flaring between the husband and the wife and the young teenage son. So the dogs were feeding off that negative energy and just going nuts. There was a beautiful German Shepherd tied to a tree. He was barking pretty ferociously and looked a little scary to be honest. He was lunging and dashing from side to side on his short rope. There was a beagle type dog howling and bellowing tied up to the truck. We thought this was going to be a little crazy???

But then, as they left in the truck with the second batch of junk, they took the beagle with them. And the German Shepherd just sat right down and was so pleasant. He was looking around, quiet and calm, and watching everything around him with great interest. He looked to be a beautiful well-trained dog when his people weren't around! 

As we finished setting up our things, he watched us quietly and didn't even make a noise when we had Nick outside. He just laid there and watched us, while tied to the tree. How strange is that? 

We watched their truck come back and hook up their trailer and pull it away. But did it leave the park? No no no. It went across the lake from us to the other side and pulled in over there and unhooked. So they were just moving from one site to another. They came back for two more loads of all of their gear, and the dog. Once everything was gone off of their site, it became quiet again. Here is where they moved to:

So now we went online and we actually paid for our campsite for two nights. We weren't sure about the upcoming storm forecast for the next night. But for now we would really enjoy this nice campsite now that the neighborhood kind of "got quieter".

It was going to be a little warm for the afternoon, so we thought we would cook outside. I bring along my Insta-pot and we hooked it up outside and set it on our little folding table. I popped in a pork tenderloin roast and added some Andria's basting steak sauce over the top of it. I set it to slow cook for a couple hours on the slow cooker mode.

We sat out in our lawn chairs enjoying the peace and quiet. It was getting a little warm so we took a nap with the air conditioning on. Later we peeled carrots and potatoes and added them to the Insta-pot and cranked it up as a pressure cooker mode for 15 minutes.  Yummmmmmm it smelled wonderful and made for a delicious dinner.

Someone thinks he needs to go outside and see what smells so good in that crock pot! 

It sure was!

We were quite happy with this campground, the only drawback is the water has not yet been turned on for the season. Neither were the flush toilets or the shower building open. Only outhouses were available. So we would have to be a little more careful with our water consumption. 

At most Army Corps of Engineers Parks, water spigots are located at each site near the power posts. For some reason this one had not yet had water started up for the season. It was plenty warm enough. Perhaps there was a problem within the parks water lines. There was potable water available at the entrance by the dump station. 

But we had come with a full tank so we were okay. If we run short, we have two collapsible 2.5 gallon carrying tanks that we can use to add to our freshwater tank on the motorhome.

We had the door open and this friendly little bird hopped on our door frame and sang us a little song. 

This really turned out to be a nice camping spot. The sites were far enough apart that you really weren't next to each other but some of the sounds did carry across the bowl type terrain of the water in front of us. We could still hear the messy neighbor's dogs barking off in the distance. I feel sorry for the folks in the sites surrounding them on the other side of the bay.

By evening, the temperature had cooled off a little bit and we were outside relaxing. I would venture to say we've spent more time relaxing on this trip than we have on any other. Although we have had to dodge some storms during the last week or so, this was going to be a pretty nice place for at least one to two nights. But we knew the "Heat Dome" was coming and the storms ahead of it were going to be pretty windy.

We had our campfire wood that Steve had cut up back at Lake Hugo. It was a beautiful calm evening so we decided to start up our campfire. Relaxing back in the green grass with our chairs and having a flickering campfire to watch is the epitome of camping.

Just look at those beautiful mesmerizing flames. I knew that we needed to have a couple campfires during this trip, and this was actually the first one so far.

The sun was setting, creating beautiful pink and purple streaks across the sky. Looking out at the horizon over our flickering campfire was just completely relaxing and the picture of contentment.

Pretty soon the sky was bursting into more intense colors of bright oranges and deep pinks. I walked over past a couple other campsites to snap this view on the western horizon. Some of the other campsites were now filling up and soon the campground would be completely filled for the weekend.

What can be more fitting than having some tasty s'mores around the campfire in the evening...

We watch a YouTube channel called My Wild Holm 

https://youtube.com/@mywildholm?si=uKwmBPuknP-Xo-HS

The wife, Melodie, showed these really delicious graham crackers called Schar. They are actually in the gluten-free department, and can even be found at Walmart. We aren't gluten-free eaters, but they were raving so much about the flavor, texture and taste of these crackers, we just had to try some.

They are lightweight and a bit crumbly, so you have to be careful when you squish together the s'more. But they are delicious!  They are a nice alternative to traditional graham crackers. They almost have a grainy taste but yet are a texture similar to a graham cracker crust on a cheesecake pie. That is about the best that I can describe them.

The next day, we were running a little low on water. We both taken showers plus doing dishes, flushing the toilet, and filtering water for our water bottles as well as Nick's dish. Steve thought maybe we could benefit by having an extra five gallons put into our freshwater tank. The nearest water faucet was way over by the dump station, but he carried the collapsible water jugs back to our site and I helped him pour them into the fresh water tank. Now we were set for one more night.

Oh boy, What a night it was! The wind started kicking up. We were warned they would be 30 to 40 miles an hour with gusts even at 50! We were getting blasted and hammered but at least it was mostly from the front of the motorhome. That part is made to face into the wind as you drive down the highway. But it was really whining and howling all night long. 

We felt really sorry for our neighbors that had joined us in the next site over that evening. They were a family with three kids in this tall teepee type tent. They were just getting blasted and hammered as well. It was billowing and flopping all around them. In the morning they said they were packing up and heading home even though they were rented for one more night. I can see why.

So here it comes, the front before the dreaded "Heat Dome" that was going to lay siege over the entire Southwest for a week or more. Just look at these temperatures!

There is no way that our rooftop air conditioner can keep up with this. The area up over the bunk is dark painted fiberglass and has less insulation in it than the rest of the ceiling. Even if you get the interior of the motorhome to cool down somewhat with the air conditioning, the moment you turn it off, the heat radiates back inwards from the heated up exterior. 

It's like sitting in a dark car parked in a parking lot in the sunshine on a hot day. 

No thank you. 

It's time to head North!!! 

83 miles traveled today 

1,393 miles traveled so far

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