Choctaw KOA RV Resort

We decided to visit the new Choctaw Casino KOA RV Resort in Durant, Oklahoma this weekend. We took Mom and sister, Kay along with us. We are always looking for those close to home weekend type get-aways. We found this place by accident while searching the Internet. It sounded like a neat place but you can make anything sound good on paper!

We were immediately impressed when we pulled into this KOA. The sites are as advertised, "Big-Rig" friendly. The staff is friendly and helpful.

They have 75 sites that are wide with 80' long pull-through. The sites are nice level concrete pads.

They provide 50-amp service, with full hook-ups. Each site is complete with a picnic table and grill. The premium sites have cable TV hookup and free WiFi.

The sites are wide. The trees and shrubs are small because the landscaping was planted only a few weeks ago. The grass is beautiful and thick.

We stayed in a premium site this weekend. These sites have a covered picnic table. The only problem with the covered picnic table is it gets in the way of either the slides or the awning. Other than that it was a great site.

The office is a 10,000 square feet building which features a large meeting room and full kitchen. The building also has an arcade room, a nice large laundry room, beautiful shower and restrooms and computer area. At the rear of the building is where you will find a heated salt water pool with a large area with plenty of loungers and picnic tables. There is a small playground area, a large fire pit with rock benches and dog park. They also have on-site propane sales. Guest of the KOA also have access to the casino hotel wellness center which has free weights, sauna and jacuzzi.

The heated salt water pool and pool area is nice. The only problem we found was heating the pool when the temperature outside was 100. We like to get into the pool to cool off and it was not possible with the pool water being so warm.

The laundry room was large and had plenty of washers and driers.

The restroom and shower area is beautiful. It won't be often that I will describe a public restroom as beautiful. This is the exception to the rule. That have included vanity areas with bar stools. A separate sink area and a separate restroom and shower area. Each shower stall has a curtained dressing area that allows you a place to dress outside of the wet shower. This is always a nice added touch.

The office building has a nice lobby with a beautiful floor to ceiling rock fireplace and comfortable leather chairs. Over the fireplace hangs a large plasma T.V.

The casino provides free shuttle bus service that will pick you up at your site and deliver you to the casino door. The shuttle runs about every hour. This also provides a bit of security as well.

The tall building you see in the background is where the casino is located. If the weather had been cooler we would have walked.

The guest of the KOA have privileges at the large pool at the casino hotel. The Oasis Tropical Swimming Pool & Spa has a slide, 4 jacuzzis, 4 pools flowing into one, 6 cabanas, massage service poolside. The deepest part of the pool is 5 feet. They had an inflatable movie screen where movies are shown. It is a beautiful pool with lots of lush landscaping. We spent a few hours playing in the pool. Unlike the pool at the KOA, this water was cool.

Our four legged kids really enjoyed the K9 dog park. This fenced in area is located behind the pool. It is equipped with doggie park equipment and water basins. There are also plenty of trees that will shade this area well when they mature.

We will definitely be returning and recommending this RV park to our friends. They are newly opened and still have a few bugs to work out. We are looking forward to our return trip, when the weather is cooler!

New Floor

If you remember I mentioned a while back that we were planning on removing the carpet in the fifth wheel and putting down allure flooring or something like it. Well, I am proud to announce that we now have a new floor.

We have a catering business and have been busy doing our last few catering jobs so we haven't really had the time to spend a lot of time on looking at flooring. So this past week we had some sample pieces of different styles and colors of flooring to help us with our decision. After much discussion we finally decided to go with a vinyl floor that looks like a slate.
We bought the supplies we needed and prepared to spent the weekend on our hands and knees to get the new floor in.

First thing we had to do is remove the carpet. This was a chore because the carpet was stapled to the floor along the edges. There must have been at least five staples to every inch of carpet. That was a job just getting the carpet up without getting a staple through the finger, which I did by the way!!!!

Once that was done and we began to peel back the carpet and padding you can imagine our excitement when we realized the floor was already covered with vinyl. You heard correct!

We spent a couple of hours removing all the staples. then we swept and mopped the floor. It really looks good and we saved about a hundred dollars!!!!

Roof Cleaning

We take pride in the appearance of our truck and trailer. We do our best to keep it clean. We make every effort to wax them at least once a year. We have recently noticed that some black streaks have developed along the sides and are quickly becoming darker. This is a strong indication that the roof is very dirty and must be cleaned. Even though the fifth wheel is only a couple of years old and it spends most of it's time in a garage the roof does get dirty.

I know that the roof of your RV has to be cleaned at least once a year. But the thought of climbing up on the roof and scrubbing on your hands and knees just doesn't get me that excited! Well, excited or not it has to be done. I am not afraid of heights. I am however afraid of ladders. I do not like climbing up or descending down ladders. To top it off the ladder on the fifth wheel is narrow. This makes it difficult to slide down between the rails of the ladder. I am much wider then the rails. It's not just me though, I believe most people are wider then this ladder. I just have a fear that the ladder will become disconnected from the trailer and I will fall and the sudden stop will be painful!

This is my first attempt at RV roof cleaning. Because it is summer and the temperature is already near the century mark we decided to wait until late in the evening to start.

We waited until late in the evening for the temperature to lower and roof to cool off before I started this chore.

Finally, It was time to take this bull by the horns. I climbed the ladder armed with the water hose spray nozzle, scrub brush and rubber roof cleaner. Once on the roof I slide around on my rear while I scrubbed the roof. I sprayed the entire roof to loosen the dirt and then sprayed the cleaner in a small area about 3x3 then scrubbed with the brush. It was a noticeable instant difference. It took about an hour to clean the entire roof. I might have waited a little too late in the day, it started to get dark as I was getting finished.

Now the real fun starts. I am soaked from head to toe and I needed to climb back down the narrow ladder. I tried sliding down between the rails. I am just too wide. I tried going down on my belly but the top step was out of reach, and I tried going down backwards, that didn't work either. No way I was going to be able to get down that ladder. Dawn was on the ground asking how she could help me. She knows I struggle with the ladder thing. She is afraid of heights so she is very sympathetic to my dilemma. After thinking about it long and hard I asked her to get the extension ladder from the garage for me. This is a real chore because the ladder is so long and heavy. She was able to get it set up and I climbed down it instead.

By the way we used Full Timer's Choice Rubber Roof Cleaner & Conditioner. You can find it at WalMart. It was not expensive and easy to use.

I believe this roof cleaning chore is something I will need to repeat about ever six months. An hour and a little elbow grease made a tremendous difference. The roof is now a bright white. This should stop the black streak problem for now.

Tomorrow we will put in some and a lot more elbow grease to remove the black streaks from the sides. I know from past experience that it will be a time consuming chore. Once the black streaks are removed we will give it a good washing and finally a coat of wax. That should last about six month and we will repeat the process again.