Doin' 90
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With the growing popularity of northwest Arkansas and southern Missouri comes traffic. Lots of traffic. The winding roads around Branson, MO and Eureka Springs, AR become clogged each weekend with huge numbers of tourists. Join us as we discover an alternate route.
In many cases the country lanes of the Ozarks are seeing many more cars and RVs than they were ever intended to carry. The parade of minivans and Buicks and Airstreams is never ending. All of them headed for the next hootenanny show or antique mall or Beanie Baby revival (or whatever they call a gathering of such). It's easy to see why so many of us seek an alternate route into the Ozarks.
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But mention the 'Zarks around a true gearhead and the first thing that comes to mind will not be rainbow trout and potpourri. The conversation will quickly turn into an alphanumeric soup of highways and byways. That's because Missouri and Arkansas offer some of the best roads in America, whether you're out to drag the footpegs or just soak in some scenery. For so many of us the destination is the drive.
Now some highways can really take the wind out of your sails. The plains of Oklahoma have more than a few of these long, boring stretches of asphalt. Hell, the entire western half of the state is nothing more than section lines. And what's worse then capping off a great summer weekend with a few hours of droning home on a Super Slab?
US-412 east of Tulsa would have to fall into the love/hate category here. On the one hand you have a quick and painless route out of Indian Territory. But the return trip on a hot summer day can be brutal. The last several miles seem to stretch on endlessly. The topography ends around Inola and from there it's stare straight ahead and try to stay awake. It's frightening how good Catoosa looks on a day like this.
On a recent visit to Eureka Springs we were headed up in no particular hurry. The objective was to meander that direction arriving in time for lunch. A group of Triumph Sprint owners had converged on the town that weekend along with some friends hanging around at a big Volkswagen show. The search for the definitive backroad continued and staring down US-412 was not the ideal.
Alternatively we left Tulsa eastbound on Route 66 and headed for Oklahoma highway 20. I've always been partial to OK-20 and enjoy ripping through the hills around Keatonville or Spavinaw whenever it's convenient, or at least not too inconvenient. If you follow OK-20 all the way to its conclusion you'll eventually end up on the border of Oklahoma. In its last few miles of life 20 undulates back and forth along the Arkansas border. One stretch is actually marked with the highway signs of both states (must be a logistical nightmare at their respective highway departments). After this short double-life you arrive at the "three corners", the point where a stone marker indicates the intersection of the Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri state borders. This also marks the end of OK-20 and the beginning of Missouri highway 43.
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