"Dirtybird" State Park, OK

The last weekend in January we visited some friends in Blanchard, OK, near Oklahoma City.  We camped out at Thunderbird State Park, about 12 miles east of Norman.

We thought the park was beautiful.  Well maintained, lots of mountain bike trails, very clean, and a nature center.  The campground we stayed in was on the south side of the lake on Highway 9.

This was our first camping adventure since the repaint.

I should have put the awning out, just to get the full landscape of the Rainbow, but it's really a good thing I didn't.  Saturday was beautiful - about 50 degrees and clear skies.  Sunday, on the other hand, was still clear but about 30 with 60 m.p.h. winds and would have ripped the awning to shreds.

We would definitely stay here again.  The ironic thing we found out at church on Sunday in Blanchard - Thunderbird S.P. has a local nickname of "Dirtybird"...evidently they find more bodies in this lake than any other in the Oklahoma City area.  Well, we didn't see any and that would not prevent us from staying there again!

Born Again

I should have posted earlier to bring that sense of anticipation, but...

On Monday, January 5th I dropped the Rainbow at Mason's Body and Paint on Wheeler Ave. in Fort Smith. I liked Mason immediately - he's a believer, and he really enjoys vintage and old cars. So when I started talking about him painting the Rainbow and told him the history, it really captured his fancy. I had to pick out a paint color and we found the original color, Coral, from a 1957 Ford paint catalog.

I picked up the trailer on January 20th, and here was my first look at it...

 

I took a few more pictures at home, and then hauled it to Creekmore Park to get a few more. I am so impressed with the work that Nathaniel Mason did, and his special little touch on the back was really neat.  I think my dad would be pleased.



Mason had a print shop reproduce the original Rainbow decal as closely as possible - they got close, and he printed me about 10 of the decals that someone online might be interested in.

Mason told me that while it was in the paint shop, a guy walked around it 10 times. Mason finally let him see the inside, and the guy wondered if we would sell it. Mason told him that he didn't think so.

While I was at the park just taking a few pictures, a gentleman came by and asked if I was interested in selling it.  Sorry - but she's been Born Again and staying in the family.  This is going to be fun.