2015 Road Trip: Part 7 (AR-OK)

Arkansas to Oklahoma

Day 11

4.24.15

Deep in the unknown of the south central region of the US, I awoke to the pitter patter of raindrops on my tent.  I slept in to try and catch up after my extended drive yesterday, but I was very interested to see the campsite in daylight.  It was wet, green, filled with bugs, and there was a very large spider on my tent (thankfully on the outside).

Wombat settled and ready for another day of travel (as always!)

I attempted to pack up the tent without getting it more wet than it already was.  That was mostly a failure, so in it went to the stuff sack as a sopping mess of nylon and netting.  I realized I hadn't taken any pictures of my packing system for the car, so as an excuse to stand under the hatch to stay dry, I took a picture of it.

Clockwise from bottom left: water jug, accordion, clothes, sleeping bag,
sleeping supplies, frisbee, food coolers, cooking supplies, and boots!

The car appears to be pretty full, but what's nice is that it's only one layer deep in most places, so I can access just about anything I need quickly. I admit it took me awhile to remember the location of everything, but by now, I've got it down like the back of my hand.

I found a covered area elsewhere in the campground where I could prepare some breakfast without getting drenched, so that was step one. Afterwards, I drove into town to search for a place to stay for the coming night.  The goal was Black Kettle National Grassland in western Oklahoma, 475 miles away.

Since I was in western Arkansas already, I entered Oklahoma pretty soon in the drive, though keep in mind I started in the afternoon since I didn't want to be driving on only 4 hours of sleep.  It was very rainy, and according to my portable weather receiver, I heard that there was even more severe T-storms and tornado watches in Louisiana.  Despite my wish to see a tornado while driving through the midwest, I was easily repelled by the thought of large hail wrecking my car.

Oklahoma greeted me with a sweet trailer full of tractors!  Impressive load, pulling 4 full size tractors, each with easily 100-150 horsepower. Happy to see a Kubota included.

The rain gave way to some partly cloudy skies once I arrived on I-40 westbound.  It was a relatively uneventful stretch of road, giving me some time to enjoy some music, and by music I mean Infected Mushroom.  They are the best band for making long stretches of highway go by like nothing.

One big surprise for me, was how NOT flat eastern Oklahoma was.  It was actually filled with rolling hills.  Every once in awhile I would get a long bit of straight road, but nothing crazy like what I would see in the coming days.

While passing though Okla City, I saw some radical older planes right near the highway, and I almost stopped to take pictures, but...as you noticed, there are none.  Instead, I pulled off the highway to find some place to cook dinner.  Like the day before, I was in favor of cooking dinner, then continuing driving for awhile to the campsite.  This allows one to more quickly pass through theoretically boring parts of the country.  I was very wrong about this assumption.

I found an unexpectedly neat place called Red Rock Canyon Sate Park for dinner, just outside Hinton, OK.  I was racing the sunset, hoping to arrive at the park before the sun dipped below the horizon.  I won, and got this picture as the prize.

Red Rock Canyon SP sunset

One of the great things about a trip like this is that you get to see the sun rise and set from so many different places.

I drove down into the canyon, and was surprised to see big chunks of red rock jutting out from the ground like this!

One of several large jutting rocks in the park

A shot of Wombat near the canyon wall

Panorama of the canyon wall

After selfishly taking some Wombat shots, I found a picnic table next to some other campers and pretended like I had reserved a spot.  It would have been great except for a guy with his big truck and a trail with an obnoxious generator running on it.  God knows what they were using it for, but thank you for ruining the camping experience for everyone around you.  Finally he pulled it away and shut off the generator, and only then was the smell of campfires able to permeate everything.  It's a smell I have missed.  Soon, I will be having some campfires.

After dinner, I began the last leg of the journey to the Black Kettle Nat'l. Grassland, 100 miles to the west.  This is almost one part of the trip I wish I had seen in the daylight, and for two reasons.  One, I would like to have compared the western part of the state to the eastern.  Two, I nearly went mad with how straight the back roads are in Oklahoma. Compared to these roads, I-40 was a twisting mountain road.  You turn onto the road, then you don't move the steering wheel for 20 miles.  But there are some rolling hills, and at night, this makes it seem like the road will end every time you crest a hill.  Thankfully they warn drivers of curves with many reflecty signs.  And if there is a stop sign somewhere, they are kind to drivers who zone out after many straight miles by putting rumble strips before the intersection to wake you up.

Eventually, I found this campground, though I felt very clueless wandering around the mishmash of roads at night.  I saw this one car parked (engine running) down at the boat ramp, with no people to speak of.  Keep in mind this is at 11pm.  Slightly confused.  I wandered for a bit with my headlamp to find a place to set up camp.  I found a place that wasn't too far from the parking lot, which is ideal when car camping. Who wants to carry stuff a long way?

Day 11 progress map.  Miles from the day: 475.  Total miles accumulated: 2939.  Nearly 3000, and there are still at least four large states before one can see the Pacific Ocean.  The United States is an expansive place.

Check out the next post for daylight pictures of Black Kettle grasslands!