Tulsa to Little Rock in 8 Hours

Our original plan was to go back roads from Tulsa to Little Rock but when we woke up it was pouring and the forecast looked like heavy rain all day. We opted for the safer (and faster) route of taking the interstate. The drive was supposed to be 3.5 hours but as usual it took us a bit longer. 

We just can't resist exiting when we see a brown sign indicating something that might be interesting. Some of the signs were just teasers and when we would exit, the site would be over 10 miles away so we’d hop back on interstate. 

We kept seeing signs for the Historic District of Van Buren so we had to check it out. The town was very cute and had what looked like some really interesting shops but sadly they were all closed. The Visitor Center was open and the lady said since they are open on Saturdays the shops close on Mondays. This has been a very common theme on our travels. So nice to see these little towns make sure to keep a work/life balance and only work five days a week. 

We asked the lady in the Visitor Center for a good spot for lunch and she recommended the Dairy Dip Diner. They had a great burger and patty melt and offered a little excitement. The police had stopped a couple folks out front and all the servers and guests were peering out the window watching. #smalltownexcitment 

Can you beleive we actually used to pay to be
told how much we weighed?  How crazy were we?!

Back on the road, we saw a couple big billboards for Wiederkehr Village so we figured they had to have some really cool sites and took the 15 minute drive off the interstate only to discover the village has a population of 46!  Literally 30 seconds later, we were out of the village.

Who knew Arkansas produced wine?!  After the village, we started seeing signs for the Wine Trail.  As much as we wanted to stop at some of the tastings, we decided to keep moving.

We wanted to see where the road led and we stumbled upon St. Mary’s Church and knew we had to stop. Daddy’s funeral mass was at St. Mary’s in Charleston and we saw a cardinal land on the statue of the Blessed Mother as we pulled up so we took as a sign Daddy was with us. The church and grounds were beautiful and there was an amazing view as well. 

The road eventually took us to Altus and when we saw the sign for their Business District we couldn’t help but turn off. Over the course of the last two weeks, we’ve learned the Business District is the town square for these small towns.  I bet back in its heyday this was a hopping place. Sadly, like most of the little towns in this country, the town square has closed down. 

Altus was our last stop before Little Rock as I was starting to reach my driving limit. Tomorrow we plan to head out to the River Market area and see what the town has to offer.