United States > Through Garfield and Beavers

The State Capitol is one of the most famous buildings in Oklahoma. The building of the state of Oklahoma is located just north of the city center. We drive past it. It’s difficult to stop on the busy ring road. From here, we pick up a section of the original Route 66 again. In Arcadia, just outside Oklahoma City, stands the world’s largest soda bottle. The twenty-meter-high bottle is visible from a distance. It sits in front of a gas station. Inside, they sell 700 different sodas. Route 66 later merges into the Interstate highway.

United States - The largest cola bottle in the world

We follow this road to Tulsa. Traffic moves calmly and considers other road users. Driving in America isn’t very difficult. The “keep-your-lane” rule takes some getting used to. Traffic may overtake on both the left and right. At traffic lights, vehicles are always allowed to turn right—even at a red light. At equal intersections, every lane has a stop sign. The car that arrives first goes first. The most remarkable thing about American traffic is that many traffic signs use text. No overtaking, roadwork, or dead-end, for example, are all written out instead of using pictograms. No problem for us, but tricky if you don’t speak the language. Good thing they didn’t do this in Japan. When we enter Tulsa, I’m surprised by the size of the city. It’s much larger than I expected. We walk through the downtown area. There are many tall office buildings. At the beginning of the last century, Tulsa was still an Indian village, but due to the discovery of oil near Tulsa, the city grew rapidly. Until the oil crisis around the 1980s, Tulsa was America’s oil city. Today, Tulsa is mainly a business city. Among the lunching workers, we order a sandwich at a nice little restaurant. After Tulsa, we leave Route 66. We drive south toward the state of Arkansas. The landscape is hilly and wooded. It’s a beautiful area to drive through. Although our navigation wants to redirect us, we choose to take a back road to Dogwood Canyon National Park. Along the way, we pass small villages with names like ‘Garfield’ and ‘Beavers’.

United States - The Trace Hollow Lodge in Dogwood Canyon NP

The narrow road winds through the hills. It alternates steeply up and down. In Beavers, we cross the lake. The narrow suspension bridge, 169 meters long, dates from 1949. The bridge is just wide enough for one car. We let the oncoming car go first. In the afternoon, we arrive at Trace Hollow Lodge. The lodge is at the end of a road by Table Rock Lake. The office is closed. An older couple drives up in a golf cart. “You must be from the Netherlands?” they ask. They introduce themselves as Conny and Rick. We turn out to be the only guests tonight. They lead us to our cabin. Rick explains how everything works. A great spot right by the lake. Grocery shopping is less simple. The nearest supermarket is in Shell Knob, almost twenty kilometers away. At the supermarket, we buy food for tonight and breakfast for tomorrow. The cashier asks where our accent is from. She’s completely impressed that people from the Netherlands are in her store. The other cashiers also turn around to listen. This seems to be the main event for now. On the terrace in front of our cabin, we enjoy the meal we prepared ourselves. Mosquitoes? Conny had said we wouldn’t have to worry about them. She might get bitten twice a year. We break that record within minutes. Quickly, we apply DEET. That helps. The rest of the evening is pleasantly warm on the terrace. There is no sound around us except for nature.