I won’t try to cover all of the attractions in Fort Smith. There’s a bunch. When I got home from my trip around Oklahoma I remarked to a friend that it would be horrible if the most interesting thing I found on my Oklahoma trip was Fort Smith, Arkansas. But Fort Smith is heavily tied to the state of Oklahoma by history. It was the site of law enforcement for the Indian Territory for a period of time from between the civil war and Oklahoma statehood. There are books written on the subject. Continue reading →

I was looking for the Ft Smith visitor’s center and guess what I found? A brothel. Sweet. Yes, it really was a working brothel and yes, it really is the visitor’s center. Just not during the same time period. Apparently it was a working brothel during the early 1900′s. It fell into disrepair in the 1960′s. It is said to be the only bordello listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There is an excellent write-up of it here. If you get a chance, be sure and visit. They offer an excellent tour.

The picture really doesn’t do it justice. When I saw it I wondered what it was. I pondered for a while and then I realized that it was an outdoor amphitheater. It was a big one, too. There is a hill on the left where people can sit. The building is actually bigger than it looks in the picture. I was trying to capture part of the hill and I couldn’t zoom and get the hill as well. I couldn’t get into the actual area. The shot you see here was taken through a fence. Continue reading →

I took this picture for my children. When they were little we used to take the motorhome and go camping. Their absolutely favorite place was Jellystone Park. I liked to as well. It’s nice to see your kids having a great time in a place that’s for kids. Jellystone had what they needed. There are still a few scattered around the U.S. This one is in Eufaula, OK. It’s the only one left in Oklahoma. I hope my children remember the place. If they don’t, maybe it was me that had all the fun there.

This is a classic sight in small town Oklahoma. At the main intersection in town, the one with the stop light, there should be a building with a date on it that’s sometime around the early 1900′s. This will be the original bank building in town. There’s no telling what it is now, but it’s probably not a bank, if it’s used at all within the last fifty years. Some of them are and some of them aren’t in use. I was so impressed with Eufaula that when I drove through town I parked the car, got the bike out of the back and went riding around the town. The coolest thing about Eufaula is that Lake Eufaula, a lake that’s big enough to have about 600 miles of shoreline, comes right up into town. You can pull out of the Sonic and have your $30,000 bass boat into the lake all in the space of 15 minutes. How cool is that?

I stopped by Blue Ribbon Downs while I was in Sallisaw. My wife and I had been there previously to watch horse racing back in the days when the track was open. It was Oklahoma’s oldest racing facility and first pari-mutuel race track when it opened for betting. Today the track is closed. I read that the closing caused some hardships for the community of Sallisaw, especially in terms of tax revenues. I’m always a little sad when communities loose sources that keep them healthy.

I’m traveling around in my car. I’m not staying in motels, or at least I don’t plan on staying in any. I’ve got my tent. I’ve got pillows and a blanket if I want to sleep in my car. I’m trying to meet some new Couchsurfing friends. I have some people I plan on seeing and I hope they will put me up. In theory, no motels. Is that good or bad? At this point, I’m not sure. It’s still early. Continue reading →