Tuesday morning, we packed up from Eisenhower State Park and were in Oklahoma by 8:30am. We drove straight north through the state to Stillwater where we sought out “life size” statues of Transformers Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Thank you, Pinterest, for a fun road side tip!

From Stillwater, it was a straight shot east for about an hour and we arrived at Keystone State Park on the west side of Tulsa. Once camp was set up, we hung around the park fishing in a pond and the kids made a friend on the playground in the middle of the camping area.

Wednesday morning was overcast and chilly, but we were soon on our way into Tulsa for a day of play at their nationally recognized city park. Gathering Place made our list a couple of years ago when it started getting media attention for it size and intricacy. We went with high hopes and had our expectations exceeded. We spent SEVEN hours there. We (me included) played on everything and had an amazing lunch at one of the 2 restaurants on site. I think what we found most remarkable was that all of these designs were in someone’s brain and because of the largest private donation (465 million dollars collectively) to a public park in US history, it all came to life! I suppose I could walk y’all through minute by minute of all the cool stuff we did, but I think I’ll just drop a crap load of pictures and let yalls imagination run with it instead. I’ll start off with a map of the place. The 66.5 acres completed of the total 100 acres they plan on.

Even though we were exhausted, they still didn’t want to leave that day. I had to swear that any and every time we find ourselves remotely near Tulsa, we will always set aside time to play here.

We left Gathering Place, expecting an easy evening back at the camper. Instead, we arrived on a prescribed burn going on in the park AND MY DOG WALKING AROUND THE OUTSIDE OF THE CAMPER. Apparently, she wasn’t pleased with the length of time we were away and unzipped herself from the canvas kennel in the camper and busted through a seam of Velcro in the tent part. What the actual hell!? The ONLY reason I didn’t murder her was the fact she stayed around the camper. No one called me about her (she wears a tag with my phone number and she’s microchipped), and she didn’t disappear into the woods. That’s worth a few good girl points I guess. Needless to say… between the smoke inundating the campsites and my neurotic dog, I was a little frazzled. At 4pm, I had made my mind up and we booked a dog friendly hotel in Tulsa and received a refund for the unused night in the state park. We packed up the camper and were situated eating leftovers for dinner at a Wyndham by Hilton that I scored for $70 by 6pm.

I still can’t get over the amazing wonderland that’s been created in Tulsa, Oklahoma of all places. I can’t recommend this place enough for every kid or kid at heart. Keystone State Park, on the other hand, could do with some improving. Locking bath houses between 10pm and 6am is a joke and performing a prescribed burn without notice to guests is a joke. BUT! We came to Oklahoma for one reason and it was worth it. I was happy when we crossed the state line into Arkansas on day four.

-Lindsay