Costa Rica Vacation

Off the Beaten Path - Costa Rica Kay and I recently spent a week in the Central American country of Costa Rica. Per our usual travel arraignments, we "winged it" on this trip. Our only reservations were our airline flights and a car rental reservation. We had a general idea of where we wanted to visit, but no firm hotel reservations or places to visit. Like is often the case, the first night "in country" we were questioning this decision. We had yet to learn the laid back "Costa Rica way". Nothing happens very fast here. The language barrier wasn't all that difficult, since quite a few Costa … Continue reading...

Off the Beaten Path – Skeleton Creek Ranch, Enid

Kay and I were driving in our Jeep north of Enid, Oklahoma and saw a sign that pointed to "Skeleton Creek Ranch". Thinking this was some type of cool dude ranch or something, we followed the signs to see something. Eventually one small sign pointed down a cow path in an empty field. Huh? We looked around and could see no "ranch" in site, so turned down the cow path. It looked like it was going towards and oil field tank, but then another little sign with just an arrow pointed down an even smaller cow path. Double humm. Now the going got a bit rough in our Jeep but never requiring 4WD - just … Continue reading...

Oldest Known Grave in Oklahoma

Gravestone for Sophia Pitchlynn has the oldest known gravestone in Oklahoma.

If you are ever in far southeastern Oklahoma, say around Tom (you know where Tom, Oklahoma is at, right? No? Idabel? Go to Idabel and keep going) be sure and stop by and see the oldest known grave in Oklahoma at the Garland Cemetery. It is a rural, very remote cemetery that requires driving down a gravel driveway to find, but when you get there you can see the oldest known birthdate on a gravestone in Oklahoma. Below is the inscription from the Oklahoma Historical Society marker: Small cemetery nearby contains graves of Choctaw chief Samuel Garland (1862 – 64) and family members including … Continue reading...

Fort Gibson to Hulbert – Off the Beaten Path

Kay and I love to find out-of-the-way roads and places. A little known yet awesome route in eastern Oklahoma goes from Fort Gibson, north along the Neosho River and Fort Gibson Lake, to the small town of Hulbert. This all paved road takes you right by historic Fort Gibson, where you can see how soldiers lived in the 1800's. Be sure and take pictures at the Fort Gibson Dam. You can download these GPS coordinates and upload them right into your GPS and then follow the tracks yourself. … Continue reading...

Off the Beaten Path – Marshall, OK

Just a short hours drive north of Oklahoma City is the small town of Marshall, Oklahoma. Not quite a ghost town, it is a once thriving, but now mostly forgotten community in northern Logan County. Marshall began when the Unassigned Lands were opened for settlement in 1889. Sylvan Rice, from Marshalltown, Iowa, opened the first post office in 1890 and named the new town after his Hawkeye hometown. The town boomed with the opening of the nearby Cherokee Strip to settlement. Eventually the railroad came to town, spurring even more growth. Kay and I found this small town on one of our wandering … Continue reading...

Abandoned School

Kay and I love to travel dirt roads. We normally drive these on our dual sport bikes, but occasionally we take our Jeep. This time because of the cold weather we were in our Jeep Wrangler, just tooling along for an afternoon ride north of Crescent, and ran across this interesting, burned down school house. Being the intrepid explorers we are, I asked Kay “want to jump the fence and explore?” After 30+ years of marriage, I knew her answer before I asked the question. “SURE!” We hopped the fence and wandered through the old school yard and remains of this school. The walls were still standing … Continue reading...

Stringtown to McGee Creek and Antlers

If you a re traveling to far southeast Oklahoma and want to “get off the beaten path” try traveling the mostly paved road between Stringtown and Antlers via the McGee Creek Reservoir. This road is not well known and certainly not well marked on a GPS or state map. But it is 90% paved, although the pavement is in rough shape in some places and coated with gravel in others. Why take this road? Are there any outstanding locations to investigate, ghost towns to explore, or epic scenes to behold? Nope. Just an interesting road through the back country of Oklahoma. Follow my GPS route and wind your … Continue reading...

Mangum Rattlesnake Roundup

I woke up on a Sunday morning and unexpectedly had the day free. What to do that costs very little and is fun? Mangum Rattlesnake Roundup! I have heard about this festival for many years and saw in the newspaper the previous day that it was going on this very weekend. Free day, 40 mpg BMW motorcycle, and rattlesnakes. Let's go! Unfortunately Kay wasn't able to go with me for this trip. I hit the superslab out of OKC. My GPS said to follow I-40 way out west, then turn south. But what fun was that? I have been to Mangum many times, both in my airplane and by car, so this time I cut … Continue reading...

Cloud Chief – Oklahoma Ghost Town

Cloud Chief - Oklahoma Ghost Town Cruising down Oklahoma State Highway 152 in western Oklahoma on my BMW enduro bike, a dot popped up on my Garmin GPS indicating one of my earlier marked Oklahoma ghost towns was nearby.  I was on my way to the annual Mangum Rattlesnake Roundup but decided to make the slight detour and explore this long lost Oklahoma ghost town myself. As I rolled into former town I first noticed the historical marker placed along the road by the Oklahoma Historical Society.  I love these granite markers. They provide a near permanent record of the history of the location. … Continue reading...

Catfish Fence

Cruising down a dirt road in north central Oklahoma near Cushing, Kay and I ran across a macabre site of dozens of dried catfish carcases staked out on fence posts like some third world voodoo ceremony. It seems a proud fisherman liked to show off his catfish prizes not with taxidermy mounts on the wall, but instead by hanging the dried up witch doctor style heads, and in some cases bodies, on the county road fence. Wonder if he ate the fish? Google Map GPS Coordinates: N35 54.905 W96 44.950 View Off the Beaten Path in a larger map … Continue reading...