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Geo: 38.5179, -90.4522
Today was a longer day of travel than I anticipated due to Labor Day traffic, but it was still a nice day. I probably would not stay at the Comfort Inn I stayed at last night again. The hotel was ok, but the room felt humid, even with the air on, the hallway had a strong odor of chlorine from the pool and the bathroom could really use some updating. The shower head was only slightly taller than me so I don't know how a tall person would like that! I started the morning with the free hot breakfast, which was fine, and then headed out on my way.
I really wanted to stop at Prairie Grove State Park. This Civil War battlefield is about 9 miles southwest of Fayetteville and all the reviews I read were great. Turns out, there was some kind of Labor Day craft show going on so you couldn't drive into the park and had to pay to park across the street. The park is usually free and I was only going to spend a short time there so I kept going on my way. Oh well.
I headed north toward Siloam Springs where I got
on the fast moving Highway 412. At some point I crossed into Oklahoma (only 6 states left on my list now!) but I never saw a welcome sign for the state. I did see a Welcome to the Cherokee Nation sign. Eventually the highway signs changed from the Arkansas shape to the Oklahoma shape so I knew that's where I was. I had looked last night for places to stop and found out about Natural Falls State Park. This park was just a little ways off the highway and cost $5 for a day pass. The main attraction is Dripping Springs, a rocky cove with dripping waterfalls. I took lots of nice pictures, but now I see they are all way too dark to tell what I was looking at and I'm disappointed. I thought they looked fine on the camera screen. Oh well. If you would like to see it, you can google the state park or you can watch the movie Where the Red Fern Grows as some scenes were shot here. I will not watch the movie because the book was too sad.
I followed the 412 for a bit and then headed north on Highway 59
towards I-44. This road is really pretty. You see lots of large cattle ranches and the road twists and turns up and down the Ozark Mountains. I always pictured Oklahoma as flat and full of cows, wheat and oil pumps, but the eastern portion of the state is not like that. I didn't see any waving wheat or hear the wind come sweeping down the plain. And I was alright with that. I drove over a few lakes, which are really just large portions of the Neosho River, and there were lots of people out boating. The highest temperature I saw on the car thermometer today was 94 so it was a good day to be out on the lake.
Eventually I came to the interstate, paid a $1.25 toll (IPass does not work here) and headed back east towards Missouri. The interstate is more boring because it's mostly flat, but there were still cows to see and some hills. I picked up lunch at a Chick fil A in Joplin and continued on to the George Washington Carver National Monument. This was a perfect place to eat lunch! There were lots of picnic tables in the shade and the breeze
was blowing so the heat was minimal. This was the only picnic lunch of my trip.
The park is part of the National Park system and has no admission fee. The museum is pretty nice and has an interactive section for kids. There is a also a one mile walking path with lots of informational signs. It was a really nice park! George Washington Carver is of course known because of peanuts, but he started his life here as a slave. He was born towards the end of the Civil War and was kidnapped, along with his mother, while he was still a baby. He was eventually found and returned to the Carver home. He was frail and exempt from doing chores and used his time learning about the various plants on the property. This would help him later in life when he was able to go to college and get a degree in agriculture. And then he discovered peanuts and all the things you could make with them. I only stopped at the park so I could get a passport stamp and eat lunch, but I'm glad I did!
The rest of the trip was spent driving. From the park, it was still over 200 miles to my hotel and I was hoping to get there quickly. I hit a lot of traffic starting in Rolla and it took me an hour and 45 minutes to go the last 80 miles. Lots of people heading home after the long weekend! I'm staying at a Drury Inn in Fenton and it's a nice place. They have free hot breakfast and dinner! And so many dinner choices: baked potatoes, chicken tenders, nachos, pasta, salad, hot dogs and soups. And you could eat as much as you wanted. It was so nice to not have to get back in the car to get dinner. I had some pasta, a salad and some baked potato soup. I hope the breakfast in the morning is as good. The room is standard but they have dispensers in the shower for shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. I was just thinking yesterday how hotels should do that rather than use all those tiny bottles and this hotel has done it. The only thing they are missing is hand lotion, but I can't be picky with all the other perks.
I would like to say that I did not have high hopes for Arkansas or Oklahoma, well mostly Oklahoma. I'd been trying to figure out how to get Oklahoma off my list and when I planned this trip, it seemed like the perfect time to do so. I have now learned that Arkansas is a state I could see visiting again. The Ozark area is really nice and there are several other national parks to visit. I still have no desire to vacation in Oklahoma, but the small section I drove through was not bad. I enjoyed driving through the "mountains" and seeing the vast acres of pastureland. I found that getting off the interstate and onto the state highways makes ones opinion of the state change.
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Mom
non-member comment
Too bad I was not with you....you would at least have heard the song ;)