Our night in Conway, AR was nice & quiet…..the RV park definitely didn’t have all the bells and whistles we’ve grown accustomed to, but the owners were so nice……even telling us since we didn’t get in until 7:00 pm last night, we were paid up until 7:00 pm tonight if we wanted to stay. The usual check out time at a park is 11:00 am regardless of how late you get in.
But….we had places to go so we rolled out of the park around 9:30 this morning. It was foggy when we got up, but the fog had lifted by the time we left and it was a beautiful morning.
Morning in Conway, AR
We headed towards Oklahoma City, but on the way decided to check out a town called Fort Smith in Arkansas.
Ken is a huge John Wayne fan, and has watched True Grit dozens of times. In that movie, reference is made to Fort Smith and Judge Parker, who was known as “The Hanging Judge”.
Visiting Fort Smith and learning its history was very interesting. Most fascinating to me though was what I found out about Judge Parker.
He served for twenty-one years on the bench, and though he was hard on killers and rapists, he was also a very fair man. He actually favored the abolition of the death penalty, but strictly adhered to the letter of the law.
Judge Parker’s Courtroom
Over the years, he sentenced 160 men to death, but only 79 were actually hanged. Some died in jail or where pardoned.
The jail was known as “Hell on the Border Jail”. It was in the basement of the federal courthouse. It had no light except what came from the underground windows and no outside ventilation. In 1885, one hundred and nine men were confined there.
Ken walking in the original “Hell on the Border Jail”
Dick laying down on the jail floor
After touring Fort Smith, we gave the dogs a little break. The park by the visitors center was full of squirrels…Shelby acted like a young dog again when she saw them…..it was great to see her get so excited.
Squirrel watching
Of course, there’s nothing like hanging (excuse the pun) out in jail to make you hungry…..next stop was lunch!
We spotted a brewery in a beautiful old building on our way to the jail, so we went back to check it out.
The brewery did not disappoint. We had a fun waitress, the beer was good and the food was tasty & plentiful (yes….I got a salad….lol).
We left Fort Smith around 3:00 pm for the ride to Oklahoma City. While enroute, we got in touch with Ken’s cousin who lives in Woodward, OK and made plans to see him tomorrow night. He opened his own surveying company a while back and has been doing really well….it will be fun to get caught up with him.
We got to the KOA Campground in East Oklahoma City around 7:00 pm. The ride here was easy-peasy. We have a couple of very handsome English spaniel neighbors.
Dick and I went down to do the laundry. It’s such a pretty evening here that we just hung out on the porch in front of the laundry room, waiting for the clothes to get done.
The park is very pretty and has a super friendly kitty hanging around who appears to be a permanent resident.
Resident Kitty
It was a nice day of traveling and learning….always a good combo.
Tomorrow we’ll be headed to Oklahoma City for the day, and then on to Woodward to visit Ken’s cousins, Janice & Mike.
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