On the road: August 2020

August 2020 - Pandemic Version 2.0

We found ourselves with a stretch of 5 days without babysitting obligations so we headed north to cooler (marginally) Oklahoma and Arkansas for a getaway before resuming online learning supervision of the grandkids. Preparing for the trip involved removing two rows of seats in our van and returning the sleeping platform and gathering camping equipment. We took all the food we needed for the trip so we did not need to do any grocery shopping while on the road.

We pulled out of our driveway in Houston with a crescent moon and closeby Venus displayed brightly in the sky just as the eastern horizon was turning pink. Our route took us through the very familiar territory of East Texas where we spent our college years and we stayed off interstate highways. We crossed the Red River into Oklahoma by way of Hugo and McAlester to our campground on Lake Eufaula. We cut our stay there to just one day because of faulty electrical service and biting ants in the sand around our site.

One of our favorite scenic drives in that part of the country is the Talimena Scenic Byway through national forest between Talihina, OK and Mena, AR. We enjoyed a leisurely drive with stops at overlooks and picnic grounds. We ended the day at a very nice Brady Mountain campground on the south shore of Lake Ouachita just west of Hot Springs. The temperature was a few degrees cooler than the previous night and reliable electricity powered our fan all night.

On Day 3, we set off on a gravel national forest road to reach the Hickory Nut Vista for a magnificent view of sprawling Lake Ouachita and a picnic. We explored the area around the town of Mt. Ida and found a very lonely geocache that hadn't been found in almost four years. A relaxing evening followed at the campsite with a few games of Yahtzee and reading books.

On Day 4, I wore a shirt that I bought three years ago to mark the 100th Anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. We drove 30 miles east to Hot Springs National Park where we strolled up and down "Bathhouse Row" and drove both scenic drives - West Mountain and Hot Springs Mountain. Great views of the town below. We filled up water jugs at the public springs faucet before returning to Brady Mountain.

The return trip to Houston on back roads was enjoyable. We woke to 67 degrees and drove with the windows down until about 10:30 a.m. We avoided Texarkana and Shreveport, Louisiana by staying off the interstate. We made a brief visit to Nacogdoches for a series of adventure lab geocaches and saw a few historic sites that we didn't know about when we were in college there in the 1970s. It just proves that there is always something new to learn.

Summary: 1,416 miles in five days, 4 states, 94 geocaches

Since returning home, we have planned out our fall camping season (with and without grandkids) for 4 October/November weekends when the weather cools off.