[“Shunpiking,” Cynthia learned at the Philbrook Museum for people who shun the turnpikes (and their tolls) and seek to find their way on back roads—that’s us, whenever possible.]

We headed out of Tulsa in a northeasterly direction on Thursday and visited the Will Rodgers Memorial (#11) ( www.willrogers.com/memorial-museum#!) in Claremore, OK.  Quite a nice memorial to his life.  We didn’t realize that he had such an extensive movie career or a huge collection of saddles. Another nicely done museum.  We then proceeded to the Cherokee Heritage Museum (#12) (www.cherokeeheritage.org) at Parkhill. The Cherokees were one of the “civilized” tribes that had adopted many western ways after contact with the British in the early colonial period when they occupied parts of Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and Tennessee.  As recounted in this museum, they were then subject to several “removals” finally resulting in the “trail of tears” as they were forced to go to “Indian Territory” in what is now Oklahoma.  This was also true for the Choctaws, Seminoles, Chickasaw, and Creek.  The rest of our day was a pleasant scenic drive south on the Illinois River until we reached our camping spot at Greenleaf State Park next to a lake, still mostly full of families with kids on spring break.

On Friday (March 22) a one-hour drive got us to Fort Smith Arkansas (#13) (https://nps.gov/fosm). The Fort is a national historic site, as it served multiple roles as a military outpost, a site of conflict during the Civil War and Federal District court with the record of many executions in the late 19^th century. From there we proceeded to Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas and visited with the parents of one of Larry’s colleagues.   We arrived later that afternoon in Bentonville and had time to visit the grounds of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (#14) (https://crystalbridges.org) at sunset. This museum was funded by the heiress of the founder of Walmart, which is headquartered in Bentonville. With no good campgrounds nearby, we once again abandoned the trailer and stayed in a Holiday Inn for two nights.

We started out our Saturday at the Museum of Native American History (#15) (www.monah.us).  This is a relatively new and small museum in Bentonville, but it did a fabulous job of sketching out the story of the inhabitants of north America from 15,000 years ago to the present.  The archeological specimens, especially pottery from the last 1000 years (and mostly from Arkansas), exceed in quality those we had seen earlier in Peru and other collections elsewhere.   The remainder of the day we had a chance to fully tour the Crystal Bridges museum.  After 10 days of sunshine and blue skies we finally had some rain and a bit of thunder and lightning.

We continued to follow the old Route 66, much of which now runs along Interstate 40 in this area. We went to Amarillo, Texas, where Cynthia visited Amarillo Museum of Art (#6) (www.Amarilloart.org)   while Larry searched in vain for  car wash large enough to clean off the accumulated mud spray on both the trailer and car.  We aimed to stay the Palo Duro State Park, which the Texans boast has the second largest Canyon in the United States, after the Grand Canyon.  However, it was full, as this was spring break in Texas.  We were able to stay next door at a Zipline outfit that also had RV hookups on a bluff overlooking the canyon.   We finally reached the point that the overnight lows were staying above freezing, so we could put water in our fresh water tank and simply turn on the taps when we needed to. 

On March 18 we headed further north and east from the Texas Panhandle towards Oklahoma, avoiding the interstates (and all the big truck traffic) by driving on State Highways.   And as one of our foreign friends observed, “You can drive in Texas without turning.”  However, our car navigation routed us on a short cut that seemed to be reasonable county road (gravel) but after 2 miles it came to an abrupt end at a gate and cattle guard.  The road was quite narrow, without an easy way to turn around with our trailer, so I started to back up, hoping for a ranch driveway which I could back into to turn around.  Even with a back-up camera on the trailer, it is difficult to keep the trailer going the way you want it to in reverse. Then a pickup up came running out from a nearby ranch house and beckoned us to move back forward.  He was mostly concerned that we would block a cattle truck that was due to arrive.  He wanted me to go over  the cattle guard on a bumpy hill, but I told him it was impossible.  But he was able to open another gate into an unplanted field and we did a 180 degree turn there and were on our way. We are sure he was muttering under his breath ”Crazy fureigners”

 We stopped in the city of Panhandle, Texas to see the little “Square House Museum,” (#7) (www.squarehousemusum.org)  which was sort of a local county history museum with a very talkative and helpful local volunteer.  We then entered Oklahoma (the first time there for both of us) and made a stop at the Washita National Battlefield, where General Custer managed to stir up Indian hostilities by a night-time raid on a Cheyenne encampment.  We stayed at a state park at Foss Lake and enjoyed warmer weather that allowed us to read outside and enjoy the laughter of kids enjoying their school’s spring break and trying their hand at fishing in the lake.

We then entered Oklahoma (the first time there for both of us) and made a stop at the Washita National Battlefield, where General Custer managed to stir up Indian hostilities by a night-time raid on a Cheyenne encampment.  We stayed at a state park at Foss Lake and enjoyed warmer weather that allowed us to read outside and enjoy the laughter of kids enjoying their school’s spring break and trying their hand at fishing in the lake.

We started the day on Tuesday, March 19 by touring the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, AR, full of information about this historic highway from Chicago to Los Angeles.  Then we headed west to Tulsa, stopping at the Chisholm Trail Museum (#8) (www.chisholmtrailmuseum.org)  in Kingfisher and the Oklahoma Territorial Museum (#9) (www.okterritorialmuseum.org) in Guthrie.  In Tulsa we took a break from the trailer and stayed at Candlewood suites hotel for two nights.  That gave Cynthia a chance for a full tour of the Philbrook Museum, (#10) (www.philbrook.org) while Larry stayed at the hotel to take care of some administrative work and do a couple loads of laundry.  We enjoyed a nice steak dinner out, so no need to cook or wash dishes.

We love venturing into Utah and the red rock canyons carved by the Green, Colorado, Virgin and other rivers of the Southwest.  On March 14, we went southeasterly in Utah to Moab and Arches National Park.   This requires going over 7500- foot Soldier Summit and down the narrow Price River Canyon.  A delightful find was the Railroad and Mining Museum (#2) in Helper, Utah. The coal mines in this area shipped their coal out by rail and extra “helper” engines were needed to get trains over the pass, thus the name of the town.  We have been in Arches National Park (#3- https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm)  before, but still enjoyed a short, sunny sojourn into the park to appreciate the wind- and rain-carved rock formations there.  

We continued through the high southwest plateau on March 15 and attempted to visit a pueblo in the “Canyon of the Ancients” National Monument in Southwestern Colorado.  However, the 16” of snow they had received in recent days (by the “bomb cyclone”) left large patches of slush on the narrow county road to the pueblo.  We had our first adventure of turning around by backing the trailer into a ranch entrance.  However, we were able to visit the Anasazi Visitor Center (#4- (https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/colorado/canyons-of-the-ancients) that provided an interesting overview of the Anasazi culture that flourished in the area for a several thousand years before the arrival of Europeans. We had our most challenging time finding a place to stay in Colorado as most RV parks and campgrounds were closed for the season, we ended up “camped” at a mostly closed RV park (the owners in Arizona) where some accommodating permanent residents told us where we could put our trailer and we could hook up to electrical power.  Low temperature overnight was 22 F.

Wonderfully scenic driving continued on March 16, as we went south from Colorado into New Mexico on a sunny, blue sky day.  After crossing the Continental Divide near Chama, Utah we had lunch in the trailer in the village of Abiquiu next to one of the homes of Georgia O’Keefe (#5).  We also visited a gallery there (in an old, former trading post) of an art dealer who collected pieces from all over the world including a few from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. 

At Santa Fe we linked up with the historic Route 66 and stopped at the Pecos National Historic Park (#5-https://www.nps.gov/peco/index.htm) and spent the night at a KOA campground overlooking the hills near Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Waiting to enter at West Yellowstone

Before leaving Yellowstone, we traveled from our Madison Campground to the Norris Geyser Basin for a short walk among the thermal features there.  Then we exited via the West Yellowstone Entrance, where hundreds were lined up to enter the park on the Labor Day weekend.

After lunch in West Yellowstone (and Wi-Fi to catch up on emails, etc.) we headed west into Idaho, then quickly north into Montana. In the process we crossed the continental divide for the fourth (into Snake River Drainage) and fifth (back into Madison/Missouri River drainage) times. Just as we were heading out of Idaho into Montana we experienced the modern version of cattle herding with ATV’s ridden by young women with purple hair supplementing riders on horses, wearing baseball caps.  See the video here:

Herding

Having been along this route before we know the scenery is spectacular, but like the rest of the Northwest, it was clouded in smoky haze.
On September 3, we were mostly on I-90, making tracks for home. We detoured for auto tour in nearly dead “historic” Butte and then stopped in Deer Lodge, where Cynthia visited an art gallery and a prisoner craft shop across from the “Pen” which is still mostly in a 100 year old sandstone building on main street. Meanwhile, Larry napped in 92 degree heat.

We proceeded through Missoula and on to St. Regis, where, after failing to get into a Forest Service Campground on the Clark Fork river (it was full) we had our “serendipity moment” when we found an unmarked campground right on the river, which was both free and devoid of neighbors, other than fishermen in their drift boats going by. A very peaceful spot, not considering the BNSF trains that rolled by on the other side of the river every hour or so.

September 4th was out longest day in terms of mileage as we went about 250 miles to the Potholes State Park south of Moses Lake. We stopped in Wallace for brunch, finding three out of four restaurants closed and plenty of parking on a “holiday dead” downtown. Everyone we met commented that the smoke was the worst that they had ever experienced. We understood that most of it was coming from Canada and Montana on unusual northeast winds.

September 5th was our final day, going along the familiar I-90 to I-5 route back to our Olympia home, also still covered with smoky haze from the various regional fires.

Click on the following links to see some of the videos of the thermal features we visited in Yellowstone.

Mud volcano

Dragon’s Mouth

Norris