Always Want To Go

WinStar World Casino and Resort was our exciting home base for our recent driving trip. I briefly stopped by WinStar a few times, and Steve had never been. We received very generous complimentary hotel and free play offers in the mail from WinStar and so our trip was born.

It has been a while since we took a car road trip. RV travel and car travel are not even close to the same. We definitely missed the luxury of making a quick sandwich as we drove along on the road. Also, how annoying is it to have to actually stop the car for bathroom breaks. Perhaps I am spoiled?

Fun Town RV Park at WinStar

But guess what? A few weeks after our driving trip, we took another trip north to Oklahoma in the RV and stayed at the Fun Town RV Park at WinStar! This is one of the most pleasant RV parks we have visited. We were very impressed. This is a great stopover on or way north as well as a great destination.

The RV park is a full-scale resort with all the amenities you would expect. The park is immaculately maintained, and the staff is super friendly and helpful. It was wonderful to find the air-conditioned, shiny clean laundry room where we could make quick work of that chore. Not much of a hassle this time at all.

Winstar Hotel

Our hotel experience just a few weeks earlier was also a terrific experience. Check-in was very crowded, and while it involved a long wait in line, the cheerful staff handled all the guests wonderfully. This is a top-rated casino resort in this area and although our visit was midweek, it is very popular and busy any day of the week.

The resort has a cabana-type pool, a fantastic golf course, multiple restaurants, and, of course, miles of casino gambling. In the south tower, our standard hotel room was spotlessly clean, nicely decorated, and comfortable.

WinStar is in Thackerville, Oklahoma, just north of the Texas – Oklahoma state line, and is the largest casino in the world. WinStar opened in 2003 and has been growing ever since. This casino has the most enormous gaming floor in the world, with 370,000 square feet.

The WinStar is an American tribal casino owned and operated by the Chickasaw Nation.

This casino is made up of nine different but connected casino plazas. Each plaza is named for a world venue and is elaborately decorated. The nine plazas are Beijing, Cairo, London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, New York, Paris, and Vienna. You could spend an entire week just visiting the different casino plazas!

A perimeter drive showing each of the casino plazas

We had a spectacular time visiting both the hotel and the RV park. Although we probably may not make WinStar a destination, we most definitely will stop here along our route when we travel in this area. The hotel was very nice, but we love traveling in the RV and enjoyed this great RV park.

RV shopping?

On our driving trip to WinStar, we stayed overnight in Waxahachie (pronounced waak·suh·ha·chee) because we wanted to spend the following day curiosity shopping at three large RV dealers nearby in Alvarado and also explore a bit in Waxahachie.

It seems like almost yesterday that we were shopping for our cozy Coachmen Leprechaun, see “So you want to buy an RV?” but it never hurts to look, and stay informed about the possibilities, does it?

We climbed in and out of at least 30 different Class C, Super C, Class A motorhomes in Alvarado, but nothing caught our eye or interested our pocketbook. We learned a lot about RVs and ended the day with a solid appreciation for our Class C Coachmen motorhome we often call home these days.

Waxahachie, Texas

We love learning a bit about the history of small towns as we travel, and we always try to visit their local museums, shops, and restaurants. The best information and stories about these towns, however, come from the people who live there. This is why we travel!

Just south of Dallas, this great little town is known as the Crape Myrtle Capital of Texas and holds a crape myrtle festival each year in July. Waxahachie, initially home to Kikapoo, Waco, Tonkawa Indians, became the county seat of Ellis County in 1850.

The historic buildings, shopping opportunities, and small-town charm make Waxahachie an excellent tourist destination. Tourists are also attracted here by Waxahachie’s numerous festivals and events calendar that takes place here each year.

1895 Ellis County Courthouse, one of the prettiest courthouses I’ve seen in Texas.

Hatchie Heart Trail

These fun-painted hearts were placed throughout the town as part of Waxahachie’s “A Place in Your Heart, Texas” campaign. Huge hearts were colorfully decorated by local artists and are not only fun to just look at, but it also provides a sort of treasure hunt through the town.

Please click the link Hatchie Hearts to discover a bit of each heart’s story and the artists’ names.

SuperCollider in Waxahachie?

Collider: a particle accelerator in which two beams of particles moving in opposite directions are made to collide.

Merriam-Webster.com

Supercollider: a very large collider capable of accelerating particles to very high energies.

Merriam-Webster.com

In 1991 construction began on a Superconducting Supercollider near Waxahachie. It would have been the world’s largest supercollider, but construction was defunded by the government and canceled in 1993.

The planned supercollider would have had a circumference of just over 54 miles. However, only about 14 miles of tunnels were bored before the project was canceled. Today the tunnels are filled with water, and the site appears to be an abandoned office park. This is a curious piece of Waxahachie history, don’t you think?

Confederate Powder Mill – compelling history

This Waxahachie monument marks the location of a Confederate powder mill constructed in 1862. An explosion destroyed it in1863. The owner and another person were killed in that explosion. Sabotage was suspected as the cause of the blast but never confirmed.

8/47 Memorial

This Waxahachie memorial was built in honor of the 19 men killed in a horrific accident in 1946. A Chevrolet truck collided with a fuel truck. This memorial was recently erected to memorialize this sad event. All except the driver were Waxahachie residents.

Showman’s Rest

Mount Olivet Cemetery
Hugo, Oklahoma
33.9987, -95.5012

Several years ago, my brother took me to this cemetery while hunting for geocaches. I was amazed to see the unique headstones in place here in honor of beloved circus performers and have always wanted to visit here again. These coins are left to indicate that someone visited the gravesite to pay their respects.

Hugo, Oklahoma, nicknamed Circus Town, USA, was wintering headquarters for several traveling circuses as far back as the 1930s. A portion of the cemetery was purchased to provide a final resting place for circus performers here.

The Showmen’s Rest section of the cemetery pays tribute to these circus performers

Paris, Texas Eiffel Tower

We took a quick drive here from our base at WinStar. Did you know there was an Eiffel Tower in Paris, Texas? It is sort of a scaled-down replica of the actual Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. This version, however, is topped with a bright red cowboy hat! It is an excellent location for photos.

Red River Valley Veterans Memorial

Right next to this tower is an impressive and thought-provoking Red River Valley Veterans Memorial built to honor all Veterans.

Another successful adventure was completed. We are so enjoying our retirement and the ability to get out and about in our little motorhome. We always enjoy getting back to our home, but it’s only a few days before we are ready to go again. I am forever planning new trips and trying to find interesting historical places to see. Have you got any suggestions?