Solo trip: Dallas - Oklahoma - Wichita - Fayetteville - Dallas

[pichalite]

I'm 25 year old male going on a solo road trip from Dallas in above said route this Saturday. This is my first solo trip ever. I reach Dallas at 9 am on Saturday and return flight is at 8 pm on Monday. What would be the best way to cover this route and what are the must see places to visit enroute in this 3 day time. I enjoy nature and uptown. I would prefer a Scenic route may be a US route instead of inter state. Also I'm a budget traveler.

I'm set to visit 50 states and will be visiting 4 of them during this trip :). I'm done with 24 of them already.

I'm a vegetarian, so barbaque in Arkansas is not an option for me :) :)

Appreciate all help.

[DonnaR57]

Are you looking to just drive so that you can say you've touched 4 more states, or are you looking to see something while you drive?

I ask because it's about 1000 miles round trip to go from Dallas up to Wichita via Oklahoma, then drive over to Fayetteville AR, and then back to Dallas. That's easily 2 full days of driving. You wouldn't have a whole lot of time to sight-see except maybe an hour here or an hour there, and certainly not too many of those.

By the time you land in Dallas, and get a rental car, it will be at least 11 am before you set out. Then on Monday, you'll have to be at the rental car drop off around 5 pm and ready to check in for your flight by 6 (assuming this is a domestic flight).

As long as you are aware of those obstacles, and you don't mind if your loop is almost all driving, I'd say "go for it".

Oh, don't know much about the vegetarian diet, but western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma are also known for their catfish places.

Donna

[pichalite]

Yes. I'm aware that would be rush. I want to enjoy watching around while I drive.

Do you have any suggestions for route and must see places ?

[AZBuck]

You say that you plan to pick up four 'new' states on this RoadTrip. The obvious ones are Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas. But if you plan to just drive, then you could add Missouri and/or Louisiana without too much effort. Either way, you'll be pretty much stuck on the Interstates and major US highways in order to make this work: I-35 north from Dallas to Wichita, then US-400/KS-171/MO-171 to Joplin MO, US-71/I-540/US-51 to Texarkana, and finally I-30 back to Dallas. Still, even on a RoadTrip that is almost exclusively driving - perhaps more so on such a trip - it is important that you get out of the car every few hours and get some fresh air and exercise, both to keep yourself fresh and alert and to do more than just check each state off some mental list. To that end you'll need quiet venues near the highway such as Lake Murray State Resort Park, the Oklahoma City Memorial, Fall River State Park, Big Sugar State Park, Devil's Den State Park, Cossatot River State Park, and Lake Bob Sandlin State Park. Your stops will depend on exactly what route you end up taking and how often you can afford to stop, but those should give you some ideas of what you should be looking for.

AZBuck

[Lifemagician]

Do you have any suggestions for route and must see places ?

Why not have a good look at your maps..... rather than electronics, and choose your route from the numerous ones available to you? rather than depending on someone or something to set that choice out for you. It's your trip, why not make it uniquely yours?

Lifey

[pichalite]

Will check the parks information. Thank you.

I've already visited St. Louis and New Orleans. So, those states are off my list.

And for these 4, I thought I'll be able to drive through and visit must see kind of places in each state enroute. I know I can't visit everything possible in those 4 states in a 3 day trip.

[pichalite]

Why not have a good look at your maps..... rather than electronics, and choose your route from the numerous ones available to you? rather than depending on someone or something to set that choice out for you. It's your trip, why not make it uniquely yours?

Lifey

Well I did some research before posting. Was looking if anyone travelled this route before and might give suggestions. I was planning to make stops at below places.

Dallas
AT&T Stadium
Botanical Garden

Bentonville
American Art Museum

Wichita
Old Cowtown

Oklahoma City
Memorial Museum
Cowboy Museum

[DonnaR57]

Wichita - Coleman Co. (tents, etc) has a factory outlet store and museum there. There's also some pretty good summer stock theater there if you are there in the evening.

Fayetteville - just north of there is Pea Ridge National Military Park. It caught our attention when we went through there, but we were in a downpour so we kept it in mind for a later trip.


Donna

[pichalite]

Back from the trip yesterday night. I thoroughly enjoyed my solo travel and luckily was not stuck anywhere in the Texas - Oklahoma - Arkansas severe weather and Tornado watch.

Travel Log:

04/09/2016 - 06:50 AM EST - Fly to Dallas from DC.
04/09/2016 - 09:40 AM - Picked Rental Car. Booked and drove Mid-size first time ever. Painful initially and spent half day regretting and though of spending extra $60 bucks to upgrade but got used to by late afternoon.
04/09/2016 - 10:40 AM - Spent couple of hours at Dallas Botanical Garden. Nice place. Lot of photo shoots going on. Weather was awesome. Partly Cloudy but not raining. Parking + Entrance - $30
04/09/2016 - 12:30 PM - Went around Dallas Downtown, Sixth Floor museum - did not go in though. Walked around for a bit and had lunch.
04/09/2016 - 01:30 PM - Went to University of Texas in Dallas in Richardson and quickly drove around. I got an admission for Grad school there but attended a different one. So wanted to see the campus.
04/09/2016 - 02:00 PM - Drive to Oklahoma National Memorial on I-35.
04/09/2016 - 05:30 PM - Spent some time at the memorial. Drove around city. Went to National cowboy museum but it was closed by that time.
04/09/2016 - 08:00 PM - Dinner and stayed at Hilton for the night - $78

04/10/2016 - 08:30 AM - Drive to Wichita on I-35.
04/10/2016 - 11:30 AM - Visited Old Cowtown Museum. Free entrance on that day since some spring event was going on. Place is nice - worth a visit. Went around for like an hour and half.
04/10/2016 - 01:30 PM - Drive to Bentonville on US 400 and I-49.
04/10/2016 - 05:15 PM - Visited Crystal Bridge of American Art. Had to rush because it closes at 06:00 PM. Free entrance on that day for whatever reason. Quickly glanced the art. Architecture is pretty cool. There are trials around which seem to be nice to walk around but I did not had time.
04/10/2016 - 06:30 PM - Went to Walmart Museum - its like 5 min drive from Crystal Bridges. Walked around the Museum and bought a guilt free sundae to eat in the cold weather in the evening. (still feeling guilty).
04/10/2016 - 08:00 PM - Dinner and stayed at Comfort Suites for the night - $86. I had that itch to go and stay in the forest or sleep in car at a Walmart for the heck of that experience but dropped the idea as I have to drive the next whole day.
04/11/2016 - 08:00 AM - That F'ing table clock cheated me with wrong time by 1 hr. I was planning to start at 07:00 AM. Drive around University of Arkansas. Nice place and university on Mountains.
04/11/2016 - 09:00 AM - Drive to Mena, Arkansas on I-49 and US 71. I-49 route from Bentonville till Fort Smith is awesome - very scenic and beautiful. Raining all the way on US 71.
04/11/2016 - 11:30 AM - Arrived Mena, AR. There is this huge walmart that had so many 24 x 7 gas stations and food joins in the same complex or neighborhoods. Looked like a very safe location. This is the time I felt bad for not camping in car at Walmart.
04/11/2016 - 12:00 PM - Drive through US 88 - Talimena Scenic Drive in Ouchatia Nation Forest till US 259. Visited several scenic points for like first 1 hr and later rushed at 65mph since I am the only one on the road. I saw a car once in 15 mins or so. The drive is serene with hardly any people. Went on a 1 mile hike at Lover's trial on the drive. No rain at all on US 88.
04/11/2016 - 02:00 PM - Drive to Dallas Love field Airport via Texarkana. US 259, US 82, US 37, I-30. Weather was so bad on I-30 for a while with heavy raining enough to case zero view with Tornado warning in effect. My T-Mobile had zero signal after arriving in Mena, AR till I entered I-30. So had to rely on Car GPS which might have taken me through an extra route. Nevertheless, it was scenic. Got a warning instead of ticket for driving 84 on 75mph road near Bogota, Texas. Cop said speed limit is 70mph while the road sign says 75mph. Did not argue much because he was not going to give me ticket anyway. I generally drive +5-8mph extra than speed limit. Decided to drive only +4mph now onwards.

Overall, its a nice trip!. Thank you all for suggestions in this thread. Waiting for the next road trip!! Will post another thread with the route for suggestions when I figure :)