May 23, 2003

Start:   Hardy RV Park, Hardy AR
End:     Tulsa KOA, Tulsa OK
Miles:   289
Hi Temp: 86.2
Lo Temp: 49.5
 

The trains kept going by all night long. I counted three, at least, but they weren't all that disturbing.

The weather was nice and cool when we got up.  We had breakfast in the trailer, then unhooked and headed west a little earlier than usual (8:20am).

Yesterday's terrain was flat; today's was hilly. We saw some nice scenery, especially the area of Lake Norfolk.  Most of the day we spent going up and down while passing through the Ozarks on US-412. 

We stopped for diesel fuel at a "country store". It turned out to be a lot more.  It had several tables and a small kitchen, shelves with all the things your car might need, more shelves full of videos, soft drinks of every kind and basic groceries. I had a giant hamburger and Dolores had a chicken platter. Both were very good. We enjoyed listening to the farmers talking about why they'd decided not to cut hay today (showers in the forecast), and the prices at the last auction, and their neighbors.

We had been advised not to diverge to the north on US-62 going through Eureka Springs because the road is very hilly.  I'm glad we didn't go that way.

The hills were certainly not as bad as going over the Blue Ridge, but it was hill, valley, hill, valley all through Arkansas to Springdale. Naturally, all the towns are in valleys so you get to try to accelerate out of town uphill. We didn't get very good milage today.

After Springdale, the road flattened and we entered Oklahoma.  On this (west) side of the hills it was quite warm.

I had made some improvements to the cooling systems on the truck before the trip.  We had tested them partly while going through the hills in Arkansas, with the engine and transmission cooling systems remaining in a reasonable range.  Now with the temperature above 80f on the Cherokee Turnpike, we kicked it up to 70mph and turned on the air-conditioning. The temps rose a little when climbing small gradients, but not too much.  It seems the work was worth it.

We called the Lake Keystone State Park, where we wanted to stay, and found it was full due to the Memorial Day weekend.

We merged with I-44 approaching Tulsa and saw the KOA sign at the first exit, so we jumped off and checked in. After getting set up, I got the e-mail for the past several days and sent our notes. One of the inbound e-mails was from friend Russ Chalk (a shipmate on USS Ray), saying he had six sites at a COE (Corp of Engineers) campground on Lake Keystone for his family and us for the weekend.

He wasn't home, but Sandy was. She said he was out, but to call him on the cell phone at the campground in the evening.

We had a steak urge, so we looked at tourist guides for suggestions and picked the closest one. We headed out the famous US-66 to the northeast and stopped at Molly's Landing. This is a funky place near a river.  It has all sorts of things hanging from the ceiling, many photographs on the walls (one of the old Bob Wills band, signed by all the members), odd-ball furniture and other things to keep you guessing.

We had our cocktails, bread, salad, steak and potato.  The beast was very good, tender and done right.  The waitress was one of the happy, perky, types who kept us laughing and was very helpful in answering our questions about the weird Oklahoma liquor laws (for instance, in Rogers County, you can only have two drinks with dinner - no more).  The grocery stores sell 3.2 beer, but for anything harder you must visit a liquor store. Liquor stores are privately owned and plentiful. We'll go back to Molly's if we ever return here.

I called Russ and we arranged to go out there tomorrow morning and stay the day and nite with them.  Then we'll go on to Altus to see Dolores's niece, husband, and daughter.  Dolores called them to warn them of our upcoming arrival.