We left New Mexico on Saturday, intending to drive two full days to get to the Grand Lake of the Cherokee. We did the first day just fine. Texas and Oklahoma don't have many rest areas on the interstate, even on the toll roads. At the end of the first day we pulled into the Double D RV Park. It is small but the sites are level and it easily takes the place of a rest area. With our Passport America card ($44 annually, a huge steal) it was $12/night for full hook ups and a grassy LEVEL spot. Such a deal that we decided to stay put for a second night. We're really out of practice for driving 400 miles days. This was 388 and we needed to rest an extra day!!
This part of Texas and Oklahoma are REALLY flat.
Although this field looks like it has already been harvested, you can still see lots of cotton. Maybe it's a thin yield this year.
Route 66, also known as the
Will Rogers Highway, the Main Street of America or the mother Road was one of
the original highways. US 66 was
established on November 11, 1926. It
became one of the most famous highways, originally running from Chicago, IL to
Santa Monica, CA. Its 2,448 miles also
went through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The
song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 and the television show of the 1960’s “Route
66” made it a pop culture icon. We have been on portions in California, Arizona and now New Mexico and Oklahoma.
This is what happens when the interstate highway system by passes your town
Texola is on the border of Texas and Oklahoma, US Route 66 was main street.
After spending Sunday watching football, walking around and just generally kicking back, we had a second day of just under 400 miles to get us to Monkey Island on the Grand Lake of the Cherokees. We picked this location because a friend said we should go to the Har-Ber Village Museum. However when we got there, it was closed for several days, then closing for the season. Oh well, next time.
Grand Lake of the Cherokees was first envisioned as a source of hydroelectric power for the Cherokee Nation.
The Monkey Island lighthouse
With 460 miles of shoreline, it is a huge lake
Our morning walk included a talk with a couple of locals. The roads are covered with these hard green bombs. Turns out they are a type of walnut. I never did open one up!
He also gave us these pecans that he had picked up that morning. A little scared of them, too!
After our walk we took a drive around the lake. There are a number of boat launches,
This is one of the two smaller spillways.
Pensacola
Dam is claimed to be the longest multiple arch dam in the world, its main span
consists of 51 arches spanning over 5,000 feet in length. We crossed it on the very narrow State
Highway 28. It seemed to go on forever.
The next day, instead of riding, we took both wheels off of my Versys and the rear off of Wayne's BMW and headed to a local shop. We also took new tires, they mounted them for us; we went to Joplin Missouri to shop and have lunch. When we returned, the tires were done and we proceeded to get ready to move to our real riding destination: Arkansas.
We like to fuel prices here!!
We are staying at the Kettle campground just east of Eureka Springs, AR.
We had to unhook the trailer, no long spots were available. That's when I noticed that the trailer had a flat tire. At least it didn't blow out like the last two tires we had to change!! The shop replaced the faulty valve stem and for $5 we were on our way!
The local transit system comes right into camp
We didn't know if we would be out too late for the trolley, so we drove into town. It is built on the side of the hill.
Eureka Springs is in the Ozark Mountains in northwestern Arkansas. It is known for its well preserved Victorian buildings. The town has about 60 springs, some of which are in city parks and open to the public.
It's a neat old town.
There are several of these 100' fire towers around town. In the high season, they are open to climb. We're a bit late for that.
We will spend a few days here, riding and looking around before moving farther east.
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