In the mountains - Farewell to Oklahoma

It was pitchdark at night in our lodge room in the state park and we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise in the morning before the clouds came in. We packed and explored the surroundings and Lake Carlton some more, with its swimming beach (unfortunately it was too cold to dip in), playgrounds, marina etc.


We left the park for the Ouachita Mountains and drove on Talimena National Scenic Byway - a curvy, steep, narrow road, very popular with motorcyclists - through wooded, hilly area. It reminded us more of the (narrower) Blue Ridge Mountains than of anything else we’ve seen in KS/OK before. Slow drive, beautiful vistas, unfortunately cloudy today. Stopped many times to enjoy the views before we reached the border to Arkansas and - for lack of other options before - had a late breakfast in Mena, AK, in a small coffeeshop with home-baked cakes.

Arkansas is one of the very few states left we haven’t „been“, meaning, haven’t stayed there for a night (our qualification), though we (again) drove through parts of this state today. But this was not the only one we crossed, next was Texas, going South, and it became warmer mile by mile. Texas has more liberal speed limits and even on some state highways the limit was 75 mph, at least 70 mph. Gas prizes droped again from about an average of $ 2,90 in KS/OK to $ 2,70 in TX, but in general , we were really fortunate to get gas that cheap this year, though our Nissan Rogue had a great gas milage of over 29 miles per gallon. Payed over $ 4 for a gallon in spring on the West Coast.

At the Louisiana border, close to Shreveport, we had a break at the Welcome Center and did what we did in the „good old times“ when we traveled as students, just for fun, when money was tight: We looked through coupon magazines to find a good hotel deal. Now, with internet available, it has become much easier, and we checked for locations and ratings first, before we drove on to Alexandria/LA and after 430 mi (almost 700 km) driven, we checked into a Rodeway Inn for $ 54 tax included as well as free wifi and breakfast. Nothing spectacular, but a large room, clean and with microwave and fridge, though a bit noisy thanks to an old-fashioned A/C nearby. Bought a couple of things in a supermarket "nearby" and didn’t leave the room anymore; instead we tried to catch up with work, since there hasn’t been internet in the lodge the day before.