Travel from Choctaw, Oklahoma to Russellville, Arkansas

Back to our regularly scheduled blog posts, catching up with travel from October last year. Where we left off, we were in Oklahoma.

We drove our coach 248 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Choctaw, Oklahoma to Russellville, Arkansas.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

Route

An interactive map:

I-40:

I-40

“Speed limit 75, no tolerance”:

No tolerance

I-40

A stop at a rest area:

Rest area

Paladin:

Paladin

Crossing the Arkansas River:

Arkansas River

A VW microbus:

A VW microbus

“Welcome to Arkansas”:

Welcome to Arkansas

Another rest area:

Rest area

Crane:

Crane

Fall foliage:

Fall foliage

A motorhome and vanlifer:

Motorhome and vanlifer

It’s that VW microbus again!

It's that VW microbus again

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Causeway:

Causeway

Lake Dardanelle State Park entrance:

Lake Dardanelle State Park

Checking in:

Checking in

Visitor center

Checking in

2024 travel plans

I hope you enjoyed the posts reviewing 2023. So what’s in store for ’24? Sights galore, and more!

We spent the holidays in the panhandle of Florida, in Carrabelle. We are now heading south in Florida, with several days at Universal and Disney theme parks, dry camping in the Everglades National Park, and a sea plane trip to the remote Dry Tortugas National Park for Jenn’s birthday. And that’s just the first couple of months!

After that, we’ll be heading inland, visiting Georgia for the first time, and revisiting Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas, ending up in Paris, Texas for an Escapees gathering for the big solar eclipse in April.

We’ll stop in Red Bay, Alabama on the way back east to get a new custom desk installed for Jenn (hopefully), and other maintenance. Then reach the east coast at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in May. We’ll then head up the coast through North Carolina and Virginia, with a stop at NIRVC in DC for annual maintenance, and to visit friends there. 

Then we’ll head west, picking up additional new states, Maryland and West Virginia, revisiting Tennessee, then a bunch more new states: Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis. Then sprinting through South Dakota and Montana to Washington for our annual health checkups and family time in August.

After that, we’ll go south through Oregon and California, with our annual visit to Disneyland in October. We might fly to Hawaii after Disneyland, or might defer that to 2025; to be determined. Another notable thing in October will be staying at a 55+ RV park in Arizona; I’ll be turning 55 years old in May, so we’ll finally be able to stay at age-qualified parks.

Continuing east, we’ll close the loop around the country through New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana, ending the year where we started in Florida.

A big circuit of much of the country, visiting 12 new states, plus 13 we’ve visited before, for a total of 25 states. Which will bring the total number of states we’ve visited to 35. Just 15 to go! (Or 14 if we do make it to Hawaii.)

This route will be our longest yet, at 11,858 miles, if we stick with the plan. For reference, we travelled 9,945 miles in 2023, 8,772 miles in 2022, and just 2,300 miles in 2021 (starting in September that year).

We’ve currently made campsite reservations up to the end of July, with a few gaps and a few beyond that, since some places allow booking up to a year out, some six months, and some only three months. And sometimes circumstances force us to re-route. So all this is very much subject to change, but that’s the plan for the year.

What’s more, we already have a tentative plan for 2025, too, again circumnavigating the country, picking up most of the remaining 15 states. And an even more tentative plan to visit Alaska in 2026, which will probably be the last state (as mentioned, we’ll probably fly to Hawaii sometime in 2024 or 2025). But more on those next year!

Here’s a map that shows the state outlines, colored time zones, our travel route, and pins for stops. Our route begins in the panhandle of Florida, and goes generally anti-clockwise around the country, ending up where we started:

Map with time zones

Another variation of the map, that shows more detail, but the states are less visible:

Map

It’s going to be another busy year. I hope you’ll follow along via this blog and the YouTube channel.

2023 travel days

I thought it’d be interesting and useful to include a summary of travel days. Here are links to blog posts, and a sample picture of the view of each, so you can see how the landscape changed as we travelled in our coach.

Read to the end for some sneak peeks of places we went that I haven’t yet posted about!

You can see all of the travel-related blog posts via the travel category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.

Travel from Corpus Christi to Lockhart, Texas:

Pump jack

Travel from Lockhart to Columbus, Texas:

Overpass

Travel from Columbus to Lake Conroe, Texas:

Exit and evacuation

Travel from Lake Conroe to Lake Whitney, Texas:

Sam Houston statue

Travel from Lake Whitney to Dallas, Texas:

Dallas, Texas

Travel days to US Virgin Islands:

USVI

Travel from NIRVC in Dallas to Gordonville, Texas:

Denton Buc-ees

Travel from Gordonville to Abilene, Texas:

Wide load

Travel from Abilene, Texas to Las Cruces, New Mexico:

It would behoof you to slow down

Travel from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Tombstone, Arizona:

Welcome to Arizona

Travel from Tombstone to Surprise, Arizona:

Picacho Peak

Travel from Surprise to Kingman, Arizona:

Josua trees

Travel from Kingman, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada:

Hover Dam and Lake Mead

Travel from Las Vegas, Nevada to Death Valley, California:

Area 51 Alien Center

Travel from Death Valley to Yermo, California:

World's Tallest Thermometer

Travel from Yermo to Palm Desert, California:

Cafe 247

Travel from Palm Desert to Orange, California:

Green hills

Travel from Orange to San Diego, California:

Ocean and yellow flowers

Travel from San Diego to Bakersfield, California:

Flowers

Travel from Bakersfield to Paso Robles, California:

Vineyard

Travel from Paso Robles to Petaluma, California:

Roadside artwork

Travel from Petaluma to Meyers Flat, California:

Redwoods

Travel from Meyers Flat to Crescent City, California:

Ocean

Travel from Crescent City, California to Florence, Oregon:

Bridge

Travel from Florence to Eugene, Oregon:

Tunnel

Travel from Eugene to South Beach, Oregon:

Newport bridge

Travel from South Beach to Seaside, Oregon:

Rock

Travel from Seaside, Oregon to Ocean City, Washington:

Astoria-Megler Bridge

Travel from Ocean City to Shelton, Washington:

Narrow bridge

Travel from Shelton, Washington to Buxton, Oregon:

Fremont Bridge

Travel from Buxton to Welches, Oregon:

Glimpse of Mt Hood

Travel from Welches to La Grande, Oregon:

Columbia River

Travel from La Grande, Oregon to Glenns Ferry, Idaho:

River

Travel from Glenns Ferry, Idaho to Alpine, Wyoming:

Arco, Idaho

Travel from Alpine to Yellowstone, Wyoming:

Grand Teton National Park

Travel from Yellowstone to Cody, Wyoming:

Bison

Travel from Cody to Buffalo, Wyoming:

More curves and slopes

Travel from Buffalo to Devils Tower, Wyoming:

Approaching Devils Tower

Travel from Devils Tower, Wyoming to Medora, North Dakota:

MT-7

Travel from Medora, North Dakota to Spearfish, South Dakota:

Sunflower field

Travel from Spearfish to Badlands, South Dakota:

Badland National Park

Travel from Badlands to Hot Springs, South Dakota:

Bison

Travel from Hot Springs, South Dakota to Ogallala, Nebraska:

Another zoomed perspective

Travel from Ogallala, Nebraska to Scott City, Kansas:

Large farm equipment

Travel from Scott City, Kansas to Guymon, Oklahoma:

Wind turbine blade on a truck

Travel from Guymon, Oklahoma to Tucumcari, New Mexico:

More fun with zoom

Travel from Tucumcari to Albuquerque, New Mexico:

Ruined building

Travel from Albuquerque to Santa Rosa, New Mexico:

Overpass

Towed from Santa Rosa to Moriarty, New Mexico:

Towed from Santa Rosa to Moriarty, New Mexico

Travel from Moriarty to Tucumcari, New Mexico:

Travel from Moriarty to Tucumcari, New Mexico

Travel from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas:

I-40

Travel from Amarillo, Texas to Choctaw, Oklahoma:

Leaning water tower of Texas

Travel from Choctaw, Oklahoma to Russellville, Arkansas (post coming in January):

Fun with zoom

Travel from Russellville to Hot Springs, Arkansas (post coming in January):

Overpass

Travel from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee (post coming in January):

Traffic camera

Travel from Memphis, Tennessee to Red Bay, Alabama (post coming in January):

Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama

Travel from Red Bay, Alabama to Toomsuba, Mississippi (post coming in February):

Tombigbee River

Travel from Toomsuba, Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana (post coming in February):

Twin span bridge over Lake Pontchartrain

Travel from New Orleans, Louisiana to Spanish Fort, Alabama (post coming in February):

Our coach via traffic camera

Travel from Spanish Fort, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida (post coming in February):

Road under water

That’s a lot of travel!

2023 travel route

Let’s look back at our coach travel in 2023. You may also want to check out the 2022 travel summary and the 2021 travel summary.

We bought our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP diesel pusher motorhome on September 2, 2021, and other than a few times when we’ve been out of it during servicing appointments or flying vacations, we’ve lived in it full-time since then.

When we bought the coach, it only had 5,161 miles on the odometer. In 2021 we drove it about 2,300 miles. In 2022 we drove another 8,772 miles. In 2023 we added 9,945 miles, so have driven it 21,017 miles on our adventures so far, for a grand total of 26,178 on the odometer.

One of our goals is to visit every state in the US. In 2023 we stayed in 11 new states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida. These join Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas in 2022, and Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, California, and Arizona in 2021, for a total of 23. Not quite halfway! (We only count states visited since purchasing our coach.)

We also revisited several states last year, as we headed back to our Pacific Northwest domicile. So all the states we visited in 2023 — in order — were Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida; a total of 20 in the year.

Here’s a map of our coach travels and stays in 2023, via the excellent RV Life Trip Wizard website, using a variation of their maps that more clearly shows the state borders and color-coded time zones. We started the year in southern Texas, then the route headed north then west to the California coast, north to Washington, east to North Dakota, south to New Mexico (a detour for the Balloon Fiesta), then east to Alabama (barely), south to Louisiana, and finally east to the panhandle of Florida, where we finished the year:

Map with time zones

Another variation of the map, with more detail:

Map

Here’s the route map with the travel in 2022 and 2021 also displayed in different colors; our 2023 travel in purple, our 2022 travel in blue, our 2021 coach travel in green, and our 2021 Yellowstone rental trailer trip in brown:

Combined map

The same map as an animated GIF, adding each year:

Route map GIF

We actually revised our route a few times from what we planned for 2023; here’s an animated GIF that compares what we had originally planned (as shown in last year’s 2023 travel plans post), and what we ended up doing (as above):

2023 maps

Fascinating!

Travel from Amarillo, Texas to Choctaw, Oklahoma

We drove our coach 284 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Amarillo, Texas to Choctaw, Oklahoma.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

Route

An interactive map:

Departing the RV park:

Departing the RV park

Texas likes to have frontage roads with onramps to freeways, which is actually a good system:

Texas service road with onramps to freeway

I-40:

I-40

Cadillac Ranch:

Cadillac Ranch

RV Ranch:

RV Ranch

Amarillo overpass, with boots in the name:

Amarillo overpass

The Big Texan Steak Ranch:

The Big Texan Steak Ranch

VW Slug Bug Ranch:

VW Slug Bug Ranch

VW Slug Bug Ranch

Big cross:

Big cross

Leaning water tower of Texas:

Leaning water tower of Texas

Old building:

Old building

Wind turbines in a row:

Wind turbines in a row

Wind turbines in a row

Rest area:

Rest area

The rest area on the other side of the freeway had an underground shelter:

Rest area

Cotton field:

Cotton field

Welcome to Oklahoma:

Welcome to Oklahoma

Welcome to Oklahoma

Dinosaur:

Dinosaur

Our coach at the rest area:

Our coach at rest area

Elk City:

Elk City

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

A stop at Cherokee Trading Post:

Truck stop

Cherokee Trading Post

Cherokee Trading Post

Super-relaxed Paladin:

Paladin

Oklahoma City:

Oklahoma

Interesting bridge art:

Interesting bridge art

Interesting building:

Interesting building

Air Force One:

Air Force One

Air Force water towers:

Air Force water towers

Our destination, the KOA entrance:

KOA entrance

Koi pond:

Koi pond

Guided to our site:

Guided to our site

Guided to our site