---

SO… We made it out of Arkansas!  But not too far, we were waiting on some important things in the mail so couldn’t go too far!  But!  We were officially in Oklahoma!! 

I wanted more Garden time, so we found a cute little spot to satisfy by need for pretty things!  The Papilion in Honor Heights Park in Muskogee, Oklahoma!   It was super cute, lots of art sculptures ~ which I LOVE ~ and flowers! 

      

Sad that the Butterfly House wasn’t open when we were there, but timing is everything on those things!!

Click Here to see more pics from The Papilion

---

We had a bunch of down time, but no major projects in mind, so we just went sightseeing!  We found some cool stuff!

In Tulsa, We found the World’s Largest Bottle of Hair Tonic

Click above to see more of our Hair Tonic Pics!

---

We took a day trip out to Catoosa, Oklahoma to check out a Big Blue Whale! 

We were not disappointed!  He was huge, and cute, and we could actually go inside and check it out!  Click for More Pics!

---

After a few days just hanging around the bus, cleaning, cooking, baking, just relaxing… We were ready for more adventure.  Big stuff, factory tour, something!

And what we found next was in Sepulpa, Oklahoma 🙂

Is that regular or diesel ?

The World’s Largest Gas Pump!   Now, we went on a day the museum is closed (we somehow forgot to check that ), so we were only able to see the Pump through the fence!  Bummer!Click the Pump to see our Pics

---

So, I read somewhere that in Tulsa, was the “Center of the Universe”. WHAT? I could be standing at the center of the universe. The whole dang thing? I’m in ….

BUT, I’m not sure the people who set it up got the memo, or we weren’t in the right place? Because this was not as spectacular as I had hoped. I can say I was there though, but I’d have to do some more research before I believed that I was standing in the center of THE UNIVERSE!

Echo?? What Echo?

It was also pretty cold that day! And WINDY!! So this was a quick stop! We tried to hear the echo we read about when standing in this spot, but just couldn’t! Maybe the wind??

---

And on the way home, we hit the mother load of HUGE things… I’m not sure why some towns have an abundance of this weird stuff, but we LOVE it!!! 

This was Meadow Gold District!

Click any of the pics to see what else we found in the District!

We found cute shops in the mix of all the big stuff!  The area is full of small shops, big art, murals and more!

---

Continuing our BIG things theme for the day ~ check this dude out!  He is The World’s Largest Driller! 

And HE IS HUGE!  I look like an ant on his shoe

He stands SEVENTY-FIVE FEET TALL!   I don’t think we’ve seen anything this high in the sky yet!! 

Click the Driller for more pics!

---

Done for the day ?  Not quite!  We found The World’s Largest Praying Hands in Tulsa as well!  The patina on the hands was amazing, making them look worn! 

This was simply beautiful, I’m so glad we stopped by! But finally, this was our last stop of the day!

---

So before, during and after our Big Things Stops, we visited a bunch of nurseries in the Tulsa area. Clearly, we have a bit of a plant obsession! I’ve lost count (I’ll get on that!) but we have a LOT!! 

I’m a big fan of Pothos, and Zach is a big fan of Hoyas!  

But if I’m being completely honest, I am a big fan of ALL plants! 

Here is our bounty from the day !

---

That was definitely a BUSY few days in Tulsa!  When we got home with our nursery plants, I wanted to inspect them a bit further (we’ve had issues), but our dogs weren’t having it!  The big girl (Jemma) got in my lap first, then the little guy (Louie) jumped on Jemma, then to me! 

We enjoyed our time in Tulsa, but it was time to move on! Where to? I don’t even think we knew!

Till Next Time….

Missed a few parts of the story?? Catch up here!!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

 

Love the hats we wear?  Zach makes them!  Check out his work here

Gardens, Rockhouding and More is what was in store for us ! I was super excited to get out of Arkansas!  Not because the state is anything but fabulous, we had been in Arkansas for a WHILE !

We had been in Bentonville, more specifically, for far too long.  Lots of great places to visit, and I know Zach had an absolute blast at Amped Electric Games.  But we needed to move on.  Not just from Bentonville, but from Arkansas. 

Not quite out of Arkansas…yet

But we had a few more locations to check out before we officially headed to our Winter Location (which we had no idea where that would be).  But we needed to slow down.  We needed a place to wander around, that was quiet (sorry, but Amped was, as expected, loud and energetic) .
I needed some grounding

So we stopped at the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks.

  

This was simply beautiful to walk around!  Fun stuff to look at, beautiful plants and sculptures, quiet and serene!  Just what we needed!  Even if Zach sometimes forgets to slow down!

Check out more pics from this beautiful garden here 

 

---

Friends…

Our next long term spot was Hot Springs and Mt Ida!  But we took our time getting there!  We were able to see some friends along the way!  Fellow nomads, friends, family.   Always amazing to be around kind of people! 

We saw a family we hadn’t seen in a minute, as well as another friend who we hadn’t seen in almost the same amount of time.   We spent time in our small circle before heading down to Hot Springs!

---

Rockhounding…

I had wanted to go rockhounding since I found out we would be in Arkansas!  I have no idea why this state sparked that interest, but it did!  So we headed to the popular digging site, The Ron Coleman Mine!   Not a free dig site, but a very well put together location.   We took the tour (of course 😆 ) and it was informative!  We got some digging tips, and away we went…..

We had a blast!  It was hot, and we were sitting in the beating sun for the entire time!  But so much fun, and really quite addicting!  

Check out all our pics from this location

 

We wanted to go more places, and find more gems!   We tried a few “free to dig” spots, but were met with No Trespassing signs.   We attempted Jim Coleman Mine, but that dirt was SO SO hard that we had to beat it with a shovel to even loosen a tiny bit.  So, we mostly just stuck to what we had found at Ron Coleman.  

---

We took a break from rockhounding and decided to check out Garvan Woodland Gardens!  I’m always in for a stroll around a garden! 

In checking the place out online, I realized how we could never do it in one day.  So I priced it out for 2 days for us, and it was almost as much as a Yearly Pass.  The Pass also gives you free entry into a TON of reciprocal Gardens across the United States!

 

Check out the list of participating gardens thru the  American Horticulture Department! 

So we can go and stroll for free!  And honestly, we never just go stroll, they almost always have some kind of plant shop going on..  And we are suckers for any kind of plant 🙂 

The Gardens

Now the first time we tried to walk around, I got overheated quickly and we retreated to the bus!   We chose to just wait a few days for the temps to go back down under 90°F (the day in the garden it was closer to 100°F). And since we had passes, we could actually make this choice 🙂  

When we finally got a cool day, we packed some waters and set off to check the place out.  It was amazing!  They were in the process of setting up for the Holidays, but nothing that took away from the beauty!  

Check out more pics from this beautiful garden here

---

We had all but given up on rockhounding for free, or relatively cheaply!  Until we stopped in this little store, where we asked about local digging sites.   She gave us a map of all the mining places, most cost something to get the permit needed to dig.

*You don’t actually get any kind of permit, more like a receipt, but that’s ok, we live small, we don’t need something we’d want to keep

We decided to try Crystal Vista Trailhead since it was listed as a Free Site in the National Forest, so we felt safe with the fact that we wouldn’t be trespassing!   We started the hike, with very little gear.  Water 2 small shovels A bag to collect in .   I’m so glad we packed ultra-lite! 

Ready… Set…. WHAT??

The hike UP the mountain was steep, and steady!  There were no parts of that trail that weren’t some form of incline!  And the further we went, the further we had to go!   We didn’t want to turn around only to find out that we were “that close”.  

All in all, I think the trek UP (did I mention steady incline?!) was about a mile, maybe a mile and a half.  Not long, just steeper than anticipated.  

I think we can, I think we can!

I know this doesn’t LOOK steep, but it is! And that’s what it looked like the entire trip up!

BUT…. we made it to the top!!  Then spent about 2 hours in that area digging around.  It was easy to dig in, but suddenly we had gotten picky in our “keeps”!  Could have had something to do with the fact that we had to trek back DOWN the mountain! 

 

And it’s at this point that Zach had to make an 850ish mile trip to Georgia to swap out vehicles…. Stay Tuned for that story and where we landed next!

Missed a few parts of the story?? Catch up here!!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 

Part 5 Part 6