31 August, Friday – Shawnee, OK

Up early and made it to the Rally before 8am : ) 

This morning’s interesting facts about Oklahoma:  The OK State Capital is the only capitol in the world surrounded by working oil wells.  Billionaire J. Paul Getty began his oil empire in Tulsa.  OK has more man-made lakes (200) than any other state.  There you go!

Breakfast was the super sweet, yummy green melon again today, along with pancakes and/or waffles : )   Followed by a group photo which took a bit of organising.

I want a haircut so a visit to SmartStyle at Walmart and Brooklyn, with magenta hair, looks after me.  Kim is going to wait with a coffee at McDonalds.  Then we have a look around, Kim did good out of this morning’s efforts, he will be toastie warm when we get back to Wellington with his new clobber.

We get a soft sided, wheeled case from Ross, at a great price - it only has to last one trip.  As Kim takes it out to the car he comments it is as big as our other two cases put together!!

L&L were having some work done on their coach this am so we meet up in Shawnee for lunch at Popeyes Louisiana Chicken!

I only got to photograph 14 of the 28 beautiful horses displayed throughout Shawnee, they have been hand-painted by local artist. The horses were installed in celebration of Oklahoma's centennial year in 2007, and the project has expanded ever since.

https://www.visitshawnee.com/things-to-do/attractions/painted-horses-in-shawnee/

Just one of the lovely painted 'Horses in the city' 

Back to the hotel to throw a load of laundry in and then back to the Rally for a pre HH visit.

Tonight is the final night of the Rally and they are going all out, the bar is open as usual for HH and as well as that they supply bottles of wine for the table.  The salads and dessert are delivered by hardworking staff and then tables are called by number to the RibEye Buffet which was pretty darn good!

Most everyone wearing their special 30th Safari Anniversary shirts on the last night 

The raffles and silent auctions took place after dinner and then it was time for fond farewells to our new and old Safari friends.  It has kind of done a full circle - four years ago we attended our very first Safari Rally just two days after we bought the coach, at Stan and Georgann’s Ranch in Leeander, Austin TX.  We met L&L then for the first time too.  We were lucky enough to visit Stan and Georgann again last year, with L&L, but sadly Georgann passed in October.  So we are extra happy to see Stan again at this Rally four years later, and we have enjoyed his company as much as ever.  So lots of hugs and maybe a tear or two as we say goodbye to everyone and particularly to L&L.  Safe travels everyone!