Day 4: Alanreed, TX to Eufaula, OK

We have covered a lot of ground so far on our germ-avoiding journey.  We are on Day 4 of 10 and already about 45% of the way to Virginia.  We are intentionally putting in a lot of miles in these remote areas, figuring there would be more stops ahead as we get through the midwest.  The kids are definitely growing restless of the long drive days, but are excited about the nature-based days ahead.

We stopped twice today.  The first was a planned “run around” stop for lunch.  We found a town that we’d be crossing through between 11 and 12 and tried to find a park.  With nothing to go on besides maps, we chose the Kiwanis baseball park, which had the best chance of being people-free.  Besides a few walkers, we had 20+ acres to ourselves.  Fun fact about the fields of Oklahoma - so many thorns.  Our soccer ball was covered in them within seconds. We moved to the deserted tennis courts and all was well.  The kids spent an hour running around and the adults got some work done.

We continued our drive through Oklahoma City.  There, we stopped at the Centennial Land Rush Monument.  There were dozens of bigger than life sculptures depicting the literal race for land in Oklahoma.  The park had a tiny man-made river and was lovely.  Only a few folks there - although the parking lot at the Bass Pro Shop next door was mobbed.  We have focused on staying away from people on this trip with great success.  It just takes a little effort.

Some thoughts on why we chose to do this trip.  We had some long discussions and decided the road trip was the safest decision for our family.  Sure, we are in an ideal scenario for an adventure, but also this allows us to have an environment we control.  No one touches our stuff and we can steer clear of other people.  It’s not easy for the four of us to live in a 25 by 8 foot space by any means.  We are certainly not social distancing from each other.  But we are seeing the country and making the best of some forced togetherness. Our homeschool efforts are mostly crafts, but we are making time for audio books and road trip math.  Jason calculated our necessary miles per day, for example.

We stopped for the night in Eufaula, Oklahoma.  We had hoped to do a park in the same remote/nature spirit as last night, but there were heavy rains here today and the campsites at the State Park were mostly flooded.  We are in a more standard RV park instead. 

We used the opportunity to do some much needed laundry (after buying a roll of quarters).  Tomorrow, we explore Arkansas on our way to Missouri.  We've chosen a route that takes us through Kentucky and West Virginia.