Green Country Cities & Beauty (Grove, Locust Grove: getaway, jobs, health)

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by SinCity

Please tell more about the Google jobs and its relationship to Pryor. This is first I heard any such mention. I got lost outside of Locust Grove somewhere (later coudn't even trace my steps) and ran into an Industrial Park with very large companies of all kinds. It felt very isolated from any particular town. Where does all their work force come from? Is that where Google has plans?

Well, SinCity I am not exactly an expert on the Google jobs deal. But I did talk to a number of locals who were excited. Yeah, that industrial park is really huge. It has the North American Gatorade distribution site. Lots of people work there. There is a large coal-fired electric generation plant and the GRA--Grand River Authority--also generates lots of hydro power. The companies are coming in for the cheap power, land, low taxes, and mid-continental distribution site. Also, there are major natural gas pipelines in the area. Lake Hudson is not too faraway and will no doubt develop further. The Pryor side of the lake is not too developed now. And I,too, got lost coming out of Locust Grove and heading for Pryor. I still don't know how I got so turned around. Guess the roads are just confusing. Downtown Pryor is sort of a little world to itself well away from the industrial park. Lots of trains bearing coal from Gillette, Wyoming, are lined up by the side of the highway to fuel the big power plant. There did not seem to be much pollution from the plant--they must scrub the coal pretty good. Of course, a lot of clean hydro power is also generated. Big barges can also access the area by way of Lake Kerr--that may not be the right name-- and they can go all the way to the Gulf Coast from there. All in all an area with great potential.

[SinCity]

Jammie, I think you probably need to spend an extended period of time in the Green Country region and split the time up between Grove and Tahlequah so you get a good feel for both. My guess would be that a week or 2 in both places would either hook you for life or set you free!!! When I was traveling to Tahlequah from Muskogee each day, I didn't really get the full flavor of the different cities. Then I spent a week in Tahlequah and that hooked me. When my business was done a few days early, rather than go home to NV early and save some dollars, I didn't want to leave.

I wonder if fibromyalgia symptoms are better or worse with humidity? About 85% of the people in and around the Vegas Valley suffer from some level of rhinitis and people who move here from other places usually start getting more severe symptoms within 4 years (according to an allergist I went to) and I suffer from it more than the average. In the 2 weeks I was in OK it cleared up entirely, my skin felt and looked so much better and I just felt better physically. And mentally as well of course, since I had "found my spot". Have you ever taken that test on the Internet sight called Find Your (or maybe it is "My"0 Sot.com? It's fun and enlightening. That's the first clue I got that maybe I ought to consider AR or OK.

[SinCity]

Woops, my typing accuracy isn't too good without spellcheck!!
it is ****.com

[peggydavis]

Jammie, I hope you do move to OK.

If you have SAD, I guarantee you will be cured of the winter blues here. You may have noticed that the forum here gets a little grumpy during the long hot summer here though. Then when cooler weather starts to arrive we get a lot more cheerful.

One of our sons was visiting us recently. An ad came on TV for a company that will tint all the windows on your house to keep the sun out. As he lived in Seattle for some years, he thought that was really funny. He thought we should add that to the "you might be an Okie" list. If you have or have ever considered having all the windows of your house tinted, you might be an Okie.

[Jammie]

Peggy, that's funny!!!! Who knows? Tinting house windows could be a booming business in OK and Texas. Yea, probably not in Wa. or Or. though.

Ok's temps really aren't much higher then ours during the heart of the summer, but your humidity and dew point is generally higher then it is here. I know this is odd, BUT I actually like humidity. Just like SinCity, my skin feels much better when it's warm and humid. We have enough summer humidity to have it be ok, but six months of the year I need major LOTION. And the winter SAD thing may not be so bad except it lasts SO long some years. We were just lucky the past three years, but we can have a solid six months of winter some years, too. The sun does shine quite often, but there's just no warmth to it at all. Tulsa doesn't seem to have half the winter that we have. (I've followed it)

SinCity, you know~this is odd, but it's true. The higher humidity is SUPPOSED to make me feel worse, but I'm actually in good shape during the summer. It's the cold and icy winds in the winter that bother me. Health and Wellness had others with fibro who were the same way. So it may be a myth that fibro and osteo sufferers can't stand the humidity. OR we're just all different. I don't mean to mislead anyone, I'm very active and function well, but if I ever slowed down, I'd be in trouble.

If you've ever read in the Health and Wellness forum, we've had exchanges about allergies, too. We don't have any, but some people say they were just as bad in the desert as in other areas of the country. They attributed it to the fact that many people had come down and brought their native plants with them. OK didn't seem to kick any nasty reactions for us. The Carolinas do have something though that makes me very ill. Major headache and allergy things going on for me there. That's the only place I've ever been that allergies have been unbearable for me.

It's just so interesting to know that you're someone else from the desert who has no problems in Ok. Theoretically, it should be the other way around so there mustn't be just one rule for that either.

Yes, I've taken the test a few times. They normally come up with a few interesting places. Actually, OK is generally one of their suggestions for me.

I was just thinking about this yesterday. When I was a little girl, Mom's bro owned the movie theatre. So, of course we'd go into town on Sunday nights to see a movie once in a while. The first movie I remember was called "Ma and Pa Kettle in the Ozarks." It must've been an early 60s movie. I don't remember anything about the movie itself, of course, but I thought the Ozarks were so pretty.

[jessaka]

SinCity,

Welcome to Tahlequah. As you may remember we moved here last year. I would have loved to have moved north of here because it is beautiful and with less tourists. But due to our age we didn't want to move twice, and so when we got older we knew we would need to move into town. Now wouldn't it be funny if at 90 we found we could have still lived in the country and been driving to town?

Thanks so much for the information. You are an asset to the board as are the others.

I just came back from my second trip to Chouteau's Amish Cheese House. If you haven't been there you need to go. The town isn't much, but they say on Sunday's you can see the Amish driving their buggies to and from church. I hope to go there some Sunday and see that, even go to a meeting.

I just love the cheesehouse though. I got two more jars of jam. It is like how my grandmother used to make jam. What you get in the stores is tasteless, and I believe it is because fruit is picked before it is ripe, and maybe pesticides cause the lack of flavor too; I don't know. Then I got some candied ginger which is so much cheaper than what I get it for at the health food stores. And butter there tastes so good. I got 5 lbs. for $10.00.

Then we went to the Cherokee Holiday here in Tahlequah. Missed the powwow but saw the gourd dance, and it was so wonderful. Then we shopped at the craft booths, and I bought a painted gourd. Stood in line for 1 hour and 45 minutes to get an Indian taco because it was the longest line there, so we knew the food had to be good. That was a lot of suffering. Our poor backs. I was with my sister and niece, and if it were not for the two 16 year old boys that were standing ahead of us and keeping us company with their conversation and jokes I don't think we would have lasted. The man who made the tacos said he comes and does this every year as well as cooking for parties. But you can get great Indian tacos at Lucky's in downtown Tahlequah on Muskogee Avenue. You have to ask for them as they are not on the menu.

Then we went to Eureka Springs, AR. It is 2 1/2 hours from here. It is my kind of town. While I loved Guthrie, I can say that Eureka Springs is where I would want to live if it had the money because it is in the Ozark Mountains, it is a hippie town, it is mostly historic, and the streets go up and down hills, and the town goes on for what feels like forever. A local told us to eat at the Oasis, so we found it and did. It was a hole in the wall, so you had to squeeze into your seats and even into the restroom. It was what a hippe would call "a trip." The food was fresh, and it was so wonderful. Their salsa was delicious, and we had a Spring Street Burrito that was also great. The man on the street that told us where to find it told us to order those things. Plus there are a lot of artsy buildings surrounding the town. But it would have its minus' for me too. Too much traffic, too many people, too expenisve, not near a VA hospital. I had so much fun shopping there.

But then there is a part of me that even feels that Tahlequah is too large of a town, and I would love to live in Locust Grove.

But for me the grass is always greener, and I would really like to live everywhere I love.

[Jammie]

Jessaka, I just love the reviews of your day trips. You have such a talent for actually "taking people THERE". You said Eureka Springs is a "hippie town". Do you mean like the Hippies of the 60s and 70s? If so, guess where I'm going. I love the era and the styles of those two decades.

[jessaka]

Yes, the hippies of the 60s. At the Sunday market there was a guy selling cacti. He was still in his old hippie clothes with gray beard and hair, very colorful in dress. A young girl came up to him and said, "Are you a real hippie?" He said yes, and so we took photos of him. I lived in Berkeley in the 70s and caught some of the hippie action. Then the woman selling soap next to him had been at Woodstock with her mother when she was 9, so I told her to come over and get in the photo. That little girl was so excited to see a hippie. I was too. I loved those days, minus the drugs and free love, which I didn't get into, but the clothing and the back to nature was what attracted me. Seems like many of the old hippies now own their own businesses there and or work in the stores.

When you go there Jammie, you must see the 67 foot statue of Jesus just out of town. Also there is a Thorncrown Chapel on the road back towards Rogers, not far out of town. You have to really watch the signs. Coming out of ES towards Rogers you will see it on the left, and if you pass the bridge you have missed it. (There is a lot of construction right there where they are building a new bridge.) Anyway, I have seen photos of it, and it is beautiful. All just wood frames and then glass. We got there at 3:30 and they were closed for a wedding. Next time we will stop there. You can find photos of these things on the Internet.

[Synopsis]

Wow, this place is amazing. Is this it jessaka? I have never seen that, or heard of it. Beautiful!

[Jammie]

It looks amazing and it's definitely some place I want to go to. I'd feel young again. I also loved the clothes, the back to nature, simple ways and the MUSIC of that era. Oh and did I mention the music???