
Oklahoma and the Cherokee Casino

We drove all day today, through Missouri into Oklahoma trying to make up a day for an extra day we plan in Santa Fe. Parts of Missouri are beautiful but it is the land of millions of billboards. Tonight, we’ll stay at the Tulsa NE/Cherokee Casino/Will Rogers Downs KOA campground.
Apparently, Will Rogers was a native son of this area and is buried nearby. He was a huge star in the 1920’s and 30’s and beyond. “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects” and “I’m not a member of an organized party, I’m a Democrat” were two of his famous witticisms that seem especially apt nowadays.

Tonight’s dinner was at the bar at the Casino run by the Cherokees. The staff was very nice there, but like most casinos I’ve visited the clientele was very sad-looking, very old, handicapped, obese, unhealthy looking, most of them were heavy smokers. We had a great conversation with the pretty, young Cherokee bartender. She wants to travel and have her young son experience the benefits of traveling across the country and the world.
It was fascinating to be parked right next to the racetrack. We were able to watch the horses working out on the track the next morning, although we had missed the last race of the previous evening.



Hailing from Massachusetts, where there are some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, it was also a little startling to see the “No Weapons” signs posted on the door to the KOA campground. It would never had occurred to me that a campground catering to families would have to post a sign barring weapons from their property.
It’s very, very windy here with low humidity, very dry.
All throughout the night we heard sounds of small animals underneath the RV. When we woke we found chipmunk-like holes in the ground around us. Were they prairie dogs? Who knows? We’d welcome any comments from those who are more knowledgeable than us.


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