Goodbye Oklahoma, Hello Kansas

The first week of August 2016 was lived out in Bartlesville, OK.  We enjoyed time with family and doing genealogy research in communities all around the northeast corner of the Sooner State.  We have also been researching our next place to hang out while waiting for our appointment date of August 22 with our RV's factory for doing repair to damage caused by two blow-outs.

Cyndee found a Corps of Engineers campground on Tuttle Creek Lake just outside of Manhattan, Kansas.  This promises to be a great little location.  It only has a handful of camping spots and with our senior discount the rate is just $9/day.  That's a fraction of what we have been paying.  So far the only compromise is that we will not have a sewer connection.

Manhattan, KS was less than a 4 hour drive from our location in Bartlesville, OK.

Tuttle Creek Lake looks more like a canal.

The lake has two parks on it that I am aware of.  One is a state park and is located below the dam.  It is quite large but nightly rates are higher than the Corps of Engineers park, Tuttle Creek Cove.  The COE park is up on a hill on the south shore of the lake, a few miles drive from the state park.

Two levels of camping on this loop of Tuttle Creek Cove.  This is the view out our rear-facing picture window.
This shot was taken looking due North with the dam about a mile off to the right.

Our site (#38) on Tuttle Creek Cove.

There were two loops of RV spots to choose from.  One was closer to the water and heavily wooded, the other tiered and further away from the water with only a few trees.  We picked the high spot with not a hint of trees that could block our satellite signal.  Since we were going to be here for 13 days we chose to have good TV and cell phone signals at the risk of exposure to searing sun and Kansas wind.

With the exception of having to practice extreme water conservation to make our waste tanks last 13 days, this is a great spot.  We feel remote yet the heart of town is just five miles away and we have five bars of cell phone signal.  During the week we practically have the place to ourselves and on the weekends we might get a neighbor one or two spots away.  But these lots are well spaced, it wouldn't matter if someone were next door, it would still be comfortable.

In effort to minimize the amount of water going into our tanks, we are taking advantage of a pit toilet a couple hundred yards walk down the hill from us.  It would be a trudge if not for the roadside bonus of flowering plants.  If it was your garden at home they would be weeds but out here they are wild flowers.

Manhattan, KS is the home of Kansas State University.

We are here just as the dorms are opening for the fall semester.  Our trips to Target, Walmart and Bed Bath and Beyond have been entertaining watching moms with their (mostly) freshman children.  We saw giant cart loads of bedding, shower curtains and throw pillows clogging isles everywhere.

Campus is filling with arrivals for the fall semester.

While in Manhattan John developed a strong craving for hot wings and we came across a little dive on Poyntz Ave called The Hibachi Hut.  Wow, did they have some good stuff.  This is the place to come to over and over.

Red Beans and Rice at the Hibachi Hut.

Manhattan came into being in the 1850's and Blue Mont College was established as a Methodist school in 1858 and came to be Kansas State University by 1863.  It was only the second institution in the U.S. to admit men and women equally.

The old town and college grew up together so the school has had a definite influence on the "vibe" of the business community.  It felt somewhat like the area around the University of Texas in Austin with pizza and burger joints separated by bars and nightclubs.

Our thirteen days at Tuttle Creek have been pretty laid back.  We mostly have stayed in to avoid the heat punctuated by trips into town for window shopping and sampling local culinary fare.  In fact, we have been seriously indulging in sampling of local fare for the whole summer.  We have gotten a little lazy about following our clean eating habits of the past five years and it is beginning to show.  Pants are uncomfortably tight and buttons are starting to spread on shirts.  Oh well, enough to notice but not enough to change our ways....yet.

Our days of practicing extreme water conservation are about over.  Tomorrow we will be moving to the factory in Junction City Kansas.  Home of New Horizons, the builder of our coach.  The timing worked out well as our waste tanks are both at 99% full.  One more day here and we would have had to hitch up and go to the park's dump station.  As it is now we will just hit the dump station on our way out, perfect.