The Road Home 2015- Oklahoma to Arkansas

On the morning of 4/12/2015, we packed up and left our nice spot in the Walmart Parking lot in El Reno, OK, got back on I 40 heading east. 15 miles up the road we come to the town of Yukon. A big sign greets us with the fact that it is the home town of Garth Brooks. This would be the first of many informative signs that we would come across this morning. A little farther down the road was Oklahoma City and a Bass Pro Shops location and me being me, just couldn't drive by without stopping. Unfortunately we found it located in a really downtown setting and not one I wanted to fool around with since I was pulling a trailer. So, we erred on the side of caution and remained on I 40 and continued on. Disappointment first thing.

As we drove we continued seeing signs pointing out things of interest about particular towns, as for example, Henryetta, OK announced itself as the birthplace of Troy Aikman. Oologam as the birthplace of Wil Rogers. Pretty interesting stuff. But the thing that we really noticed was the constant reference to Indian tribes, as in: Leaving Cheyenne Arapaho Nation. And the more we traveled the more different tribes/lands we came across.

• Cherokee
• Seminole
• Kickapoo
• Sac
• Fox
• Shawnee
• Choctaw
• Creek(Muscogee)
• Patawatomi
• Arapaho
• Chickasaw

We both got curious and Mary fired up the Hot Spot, took out her iPad and started doing some research and what she found was interesting, to say the least.

Signs referencing the Trail of Tears  were seen in many places, most notably National Parks located along our way. What she found in her research is best described by clicking on the link to the Trail of Tears above, but in short, all of this was the result of the Indian Relocation Act of 1830 (which actually continued on into the early 1900's) where thousands of Native Americans were forcefully relocated to accomodate the land hungry, expanding United States. A pretty sad story and one we should all be ashamed of.

And then we left Oklahoma. We enjoyed our drive through it. Many beautiful sights and spots, as in farms, farm lands, cattle, horses.  Sorry there are no pictures. About 12:15 we crossed over in to Arkansas and settled in at Overland RV Park in Fort Smith/Van Buren area. We had covered just over 210 miles today. Convenient park, just a couple of blocks from I 40. Nothing to brag about, but it was home for a night.

Overland RV Park Fort Smith/Van Buren, AR

Monday, 4/13 we pack up and get back on I 40 and head to West Memphis and Tom Sawyer RV Park. Should be a trip of about 271 miles. I called ahead and reserved a spot and we have one right on the Mississippi River. Should be interesting as I have heard and read a lot of good things about the park.