Ride to Medicine Park, Oklahoma Sept 14 - 16

Post date: Jun 18, 2012 2:21:28 AM

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Well folks,

We have decided to take a group back to the Lawton, Oklahoma area.  Yeah I know, you are wondering what the heck is there to see in Lawton.  Well there is more than you can imagine like:

1.  the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge   http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/oklahoma/wichitamountains/regulations.html 

2.  Medicine Park, America’s Cobblestone Community  http://www.medicinepark.com/index.php

3.  The old Fort Sill Museum  http://sill-www.army..mil/museum/history.htm

4.  Meers, the home of world famous Meers burger  http://www.meersstore.com/

5. The Plantation Inn  http://www.plantationinnok.com/

We were last there in the spring of 2006 where I took 6 bikes and 10 people for this 2 day ride and had a great time.  Our friends from Lone Star BMW Riders took their group there last fall which inspired me to bring this ride back for us this year.  One special item that I discovered from their ride was how much Medicine Park had been built up just in the last few years.  Especially when I saw that they had recently built a 20 room motel (the Plantation Inn) on the old foundation of the original Oklahoma Press Association's Clubhouse that burned in 1940. And they also have many nice B&Bs as well as cabins.  This historic little town at the entrance of the Wichita Mountain Refuge is certainly worth a visit!

And if you have been paying attention, we had this on our calendar for the week Sept 22nd.  However after we got back from Ruidoso, I started looking at accommodations and found that rooms at the Inn were dwindling away for this weekend.  So I got back around to it and yesterday I called and found that the Inn and town are booked up from a wedding and another festivity in the town this weekend. 

So…….we are going to move this ride to the previous weekend, Sept 15th, where the Inn has plenty of rooms, with one exception….we are departing Friday Sept the 14th. And, for a couple of good reasons, I’m changing this ride to staying 2 nights in Medicine Park.  One, to spend more time in the park & surrounding area and two, so we will be able to visit the old Fort Sill Museum on the base that is closed on Sunday.  We tried to visit that museum last time, just before we left out for home but discovered going onto the bas that it was closed.  So this means that if we get to Lawton on Friday, then we (and Rex) will be able to visit the old Fort Museum….which has a bunch of history in it.   This was the military prison were Geronimo was incarcerated for his last years before he died in 1909.  It is also where the famous Comanche Quanah Parker, his mother Cynthia Parker and his sister are buried

So for now the plans are to:

1.  Depart Friday Sept 14th and ride 200 miles to Lawton, where we will have a late lunch at Meer’s Oklahoma, visit the wildlife refuge, and run up Mt Scott before riding to Medicine Park to check into the Inn.

2.  Saturday will be a leisurely day where we visit the park again to see anything we weren’t able to see the previous day and then ride to Fort Sill to visit the museum.

3.  Then Sunday after breakfast head for home.

So look over the above links and decide if you would like to go on this ride. But, even though everyone is invited, this is more of a couple’s adventure to visit an interesting location rather than a ride to a destination (even though we will be riding back roads to and from). But, we need to get a head count so I can get a block of rooms reserved for the moment, so please respond back to this post.

Thanks,

Rick and your 2012 Activity Committee