I spent Memorial Day weekend as I’ve spent the last 6 or 7 of them, at Tahlequah, Oklahoma on the Illinois River, camping, rafting, kayaking, grilling and having a good time. In the daytime I soak up the sun and fresh air, at night I soak up the firelight and night air.
The Memorial Day float is definitely not a “roughing it” type campout – we stay at Diamondhead Resort campground, which has restrooms with showers, a game room, a store, live music of sorts, and even a stand out front selling Cajun food. We even have a rented room in the Diamondhead Motel so we have a shower and restroom that we don’t have to share with the other couple hundred campers at the place.
The river was low this year. Despite several days of heavy rain in recent weeks, the water level is still down because of the very dry winter. Springs feeding the river are running low, so the river is relying on rainwater runoff to have much flow at all. Still the river is worth floating, but kayaks and rafts both dragged in places.
Friday night, we set up camp. That’s not entirely true, as our friends from Houston had setup most of the camp on Wednesday night, but we did setup our tent and pay a visit to the shower.
Friday before we arrived the Dollar store sunshade blew away in a strong wind. Saturday morning, we saw an uninhabited tent rolling, still set up, across the campground driven by the wind. Fortunately, strong winds and a light sprinkling were the worst weather. Typically we get thunderstorms and on a couple of occasions tornado warnings.
Saturday we did a 6-mile kayak trip. The original plan was to do a 12-mile trip, but the outfitter was so swamped by the busiest Memorial Day weekend in several years (weather was great, as noted) that we waited from 10 AM to almost 1 PM to get our prepaid kayaks in the water. (They were utterly swamped that day – the store was packed wall to wall with people, some with reservations and some without, so that I couldn’t even get to a cooler to buy some juice.)
I prefer the sit-on-top kayaks, because I find them easier to maneuver and a little more comfortable in terms of seating. But, it was a take what you get sort of day and we got the old sit-in style. Several people in the group did two man kayaks. My daughter and I each took a one man. This was her first time in a kayak alone and only her second time in a kayak at all. The first time she was six and that adventure didn’t go particularly well. This time went much better – she handled it like a pro and wore me out keeping up with her.
Saturday night, Kevin grilled buffalo burgers that were just excellent. John and Kathy grilled asparagus with garlic and baby vidalia onions with butter, each onion in its own little foil wrap. Callie made a Greek salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, feta cheese and greek dressing. We eat better camping out than a lot of people eat in full service restaurants.
Sunday we hit the river for a 6-mile float in inflatable rafts. Because the river was so low this year we did have to break the cardinal rule and actually paddle. We spent almost an hour playing at one spot in the river, at which point we discovered that we definitely had a leaking raft. We were at another outfitters landing (Eagle Bluff) and they called our outfitter who had a new raft out to us in about 20 minutes. Still, even with paddling we barely made it in by the 7 PM deadline.
Sunday night we really roughed it. We headed into Tahlequah and ate pizza at a place called Sam ‘N Ellas. This was a thick crust pizza with so much cheese each 12″ pie was too much for two hungry people to finish. Even the 10″ pies were a challenge for the couple that had one of those.
Monday morning, we broke camp and headed home.
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