We got on the road this morning the earliest yet at 8:00 AM.  After almost a week of re-packing and re-loading the bikes, we are getting better at it.

We headed back to downtown Hot Springs to get a few photos of the old bath houses and The Arlington and then turned around again to head for the Ouachita National Forest.  The Arkansas marketing propaganda said the roads through the forest were so scenic that it was hard to keep your eye on the road.  Well, it was pretty . . . but not as pretty as Pennsylvania and Kentucky . . . but still nice.

We crossed the border around noon into Oklahoma.  We stopped at Wister Lake Dam and took a few photos and then headed to Wilburton, the old stomping grounds of Jesse James and Belle Star, for lunch.  Right away we could see a difference between Arkansas and Oklahoma – Oklahomians (just made that up) take pride in their state and want everyone to try and keep it beautiful, not just for tourists, but for themselves as well.   The roads were all well-maintained even if they were not overly exciting to drive on with our motorcycles.  Oklahoma is just very neat and tidy . . . I was hoping to at least see some tumbleweed but maybe tumbleweed has been banned from the state as too messy.

Oh, by the way, did you know Oklahoma was HOT?  It was pretty much above 30 degrees Celsius all day today with a bit of humidity.  We have to get used to the heat or we will never make it through New Mexico and Arizona.

We saw the cheapest gas today at $2.16 per gallon (American dollars) but prices steadily rose as we headed towards Oklahoma City.  Rather odd, considering every second ranch we saw in Oklahoma had a mini-pumps churning away hauling up oil from the ground.  I guess they ship it all out-of-state and then buy it back.

After navigating through some more small, neat towns in Oklahoma, we decided to stay in El Reno tonight at a Comfort Inn.  We actually spent about 5 minutes on Historic Route 66 today before deciding on a hotel.  Tomorrow, we plan to head for the Route 66 museum, refreshed and well-rested, and then cover as much of Route 66 as we can.