Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Have you EVER driven through the desert in the summer???? If you have NOT, now is not the time to start. 5-6 hours in 120+ is NOT what you want to do. At 2am the desert is still 95 degrees. There is NO cell and NO gas station. If you should get stranded, you could be in big trouble.
I am going to suggest something that will work just as well and you still wind up on 1-40 - unless you want to drive through Texas. Skip Bakersfield. Drop down to 10 Below San Diego. You will go through a little bit of desert and then start to climb to higher elevation where it is bit cooler. Stay on 10 through Phoenix. !3 will take you to I-40 but you are going thru mountains you won't like much on secondary road. Continue to NM and I-25. Las Cruces is a delightful town. The Best Westerns are reasonable and very nice. I-25 is a straight shot to I-40 and it is a good road. You'll pass by Elephant Butte (good food) and Soccoro - where you can see many very large satellite dishes listening to outer space. .If you are not in a huge Elephant Butte has an awesome state park. Very clean with a beautiful lake. It is a nice diversion from driving. Somewhere between Albuquerque and Texas your going to pull a 9 degree hill. IF you are towing you will probably want to gear down and slow down. I"ve driven many a times from OK to CA and every dumb route I found.
IF you decide to go through Bakersfield anyway, be sure to fill up. There is no gas until you reach the CA/AZ and it closes early at night. You will still pull a good high hill going into the mountains. If you do that route do stop in Winslow, AZ. The motels are nice and reasonable, but the reason to stop is Winslow has the best Denny's between IL and CA. When you get closer to Texas you will start seeing signs for Red Griffith/Griffin truck stop/gas station. They are clean and quite descent and safe. There is usu. ally some pretty good restaurants and motels nearby too. The last Texas town is Shamrock. Good motels and good food.
You are going into AR on 1-40, but to get to Fayetteville you go north on 1-71 through the Boston Mountains. I've been trough them day and night. I do not know which is more hair raising. Even the truckers do not like these roads. I turn off at OK border and N on US 59. It is a beautiful drive on nice roads. At 412 go East (right turn), It will take you to I-71. Go North 30 miles to Belle Vista.
By the time you get to BV you will have driven 2000+ miles and you will be tired. Before you leave you should pack some essentials that you can access easily. Take a NOAA AC/CD weather radio and fresn batteries. Flashlight and maps. Washcloth. paper towels, silverware in a baggy and TP. You never know when you will need it. If you drink the same brand of bottled water or canned drinks, you will not be sorry. Not everyone has a body that handles different city waters well. What ever you do, do not drive in the desert during the day and make sure yo have plenty of ice and water before you start into it. It seems to me it took almost a tank of gas and at that time I had a 26 gal tank. It is the reason I like 10. It is not terribly very far across the desert before you are in AZ and gas stations. Don't worry about paper products. You will be glad you have them when you walk into a new empty home. You'll enjoy NWA.
Welcome Home!
I"ve made the trip more than a few times and I'll still here to talk about it.
Glad you have arrived safely, I am sure the drive wasn't all that bad as you really were not in the desert as in 120 degrees. Going through NM was pretty much high desert huh, with nice cool evenings. Anyway, welcome, now you have met someone, Good luck and enjoy BV. We need young families to keep us on our toes.
Have you EVER driven through the desert in the summer???? If you have NOT, now is not the time to start. 5-6 hours in 120+ is NOT what you want to do. At 2am the desert is still 95 degrees. There is NO cell and NO gas station. If you should get stranded, you could be in big trouble.
I am going to suggest something that will work just as well and you still wind up on 1-40 - unless you want to drive through Texas. Skip Bakersfield. Drop down to 10 Below San Diego. You will go through a little bit of desert and then start to climb to higher elevation where it is bit cooler. Stay on 10 through Phoenix. !3 will take you to I-40 but you are going thru mountains you won't like much on secondary road. Continue to NM and I-25. Las Cruces is a delightful town. The Best Westerns are reasonable and very nice. I-25 is a straight shot to I-40 and it is a good road. You'll pass by Elephant Butte (good food) and Soccoro - where you can see many very large satellite dishes listening to outer space. .If you are not in a huge Elephant Butte has an awesome state park. Very clean with a beautiful lake. It is a nice diversion from driving. Somewhere between Albuquerque and Texas your going to pull a 9 degree hill. IF you are towing you will probably want to gear down and slow down. I"ve driven many a times from OK to CA and every dumb route I found.
IF you decide to go through Bakersfield anyway, be sure to fill up. There is no gas until you reach the CA/AZ and it closes early at night. You will still pull a good high hill going into the mountains. If you do that route do stop in Winslow, AZ. The motels are nice and reasonable, but the reason to stop is Winslow has the best Denny's between IL and CA. When you get closer to Texas you will start seeing signs for Red Griffith/Griffin truck stop/gas station. They are clean and quite descent and safe. There is usu. ally some pretty good restaurants and motels nearby too. The last Texas town is Shamrock. Good motels and good food.
You are going into AR on 1-40, but to get to Fayetteville you go north on 1-71 through the Boston Mountains. I've been trough them day and night. I do not know which is more hair raising. Even the truckers do not like these roads. I turn off at OK border and N on US 59. It is a beautiful drive on nice roads. At 412 go East (right turn), It will take you to I-71. Go North 30 miles to Belle Vista.
By the time you get to BV you will have driven 2000+ miles and you will be tired. Before you leave you should pack some essentials that you can access easily. Take a NOAA AC/CD weather radio and fresn batteries. Flashlight and maps. Washcloth. paper towels, silverware in a baggy and TP. You never know when you will need it. If you drink the same brand of bottled water or canned drinks, you will not be sorry. Not everyone has a body that handles different city waters well. What ever you do, do not drive in the desert during the day and make sure yo have plenty of ice and water before you start into it. It seems to me it took almost a tank of gas and at that time I had a 26 gal tank. It is the reason I like 10. It is not terribly very far across the desert before you are in AZ and gas stations. Don't worry about paper products. You will be glad you have them when you walk into a new empty home. You'll enjoy NWA.
Welcome Home!
I"ve made the trip more than a few times and I'll still here to talk about it.
Linicx, has it been awhile since you came up to Northwest Arkansas from I-40? I only ask because you don't come up 71 anymore, you come up 540, which has a tunnel through the mountain, rather than the old highway over the mountain. It's very good road, and the tunnel takes a good 20-30 minutes off the driving time.
Linicx, has it been awhile since you came up to Northwest Arkansas from I-40? I only ask because you don't come up 71 anymore, you come up 540, which has a tunnel through the mountain, rather than the old highway over the mountain. It's very good road, and the tunnel takes a good 20-30 minutes off the driving time.
I was wondering the same thing. Linicx, 540 is a four lane freeway thru the mountains that was completed several years ago. No one takes Hwy 71 anymore. However, old 71 is still open and along with the Pigtrail makes for some fantastic sporty, scenic driving.
I was wondering the same thing. Linicx, 540 is a four lane freeway thru the mountains that was completed several years ago. No one takes Hwy 71 anymore. However, old 71 is still open and along with the Pigtrail makes for some fantastic sporty, scenic driving.
Though 540 is more convenient and a bit faster, I still prefer to drive 71... and it's even better now that it is not packed out with vehicles. You can take your time and enjoy the ride.
Last edited by RTTNFAM; 08-24-2009 at 11:25 AM..
Reason: correction
Well to update this thread....We arrived safe back on August 15th, '09. We drove on Highway 5 south in CA and went through Vegas then dropped down to highway 40. On the first day of driving we stopped in Flagstaff, AZ after 12 hours of driving. Then on the road again on 40 and we stayed the night in Weatherford, OK. Then we drove around OKC then to Tulsa and jumped on 44. When we arrived in Tulsa, I took 412 to Siloam Springs then went straight north on 279 to Bella Vista. Took all together around 29 hours from the San Francisco Bay Area to BV.
We have been here now around 6 months. Very beautiful here in the Summer and Fall. I have already been to Eureka Springs, stayed a night at the haunted Crescent Hotel, seen numerous lakes and rivers, signed up my girlfriends son for football in Bentonville back in August. We met a few good people through her sons football games. They were 1 game from winning the championship! Man do people LOVE football here.....we are in HOG country...LOL. The school here in BV, Cooper Elm. is a great school. Bentonville school system is awesome. My girlfriend found a job back in OCT and now runs the office she works at in Bentonville. I was laid off my last job in August back in CA. I just found a job and start tomorrow night in Bentonville. So things are going pretty darn good right now. We have a nice house for a fraction of what we were paying in CA in the "not so nice" part of town. Huge backyard, both are employed. The only thing we are still trying to get used to are the long winters. When its cold outside....we kind of feel trapped in the house. We have board games we play and sometimes we even have Playstation games we play. My girlfriend and I are both ready for Spring time to come. We are definitely ready for some 60-70 degree days so we can do alot of hiking. Lots of nice trails around our area. I miss the sounds of all the bugs at night!
Well to update this thread....We arrived safe back on August 15th, '09. We drove on Highway 5 south in CA and went through Vegas then dropped down to highway 40. On the first day of driving we stopped in Flagstaff, AZ after 12 hours of driving. Then on the road again on 40 and we stayed the night in Weatherford, OK. Then we drove around OKC then to Tulsa and jumped on 44. When we arrived in Tulsa, I took 412 to Siloam Springs then went straight north on 279 to Bella Vista. Took all together around 29 hours from the San Francisco Bay Area to BV.
We have been here now around 6 months. Very beautiful here in the Summer and Fall. I have already been to Eureka Springs, stayed a night at the haunted Crescent Hotel, seen numerous lakes and rivers, signed up my girlfriends son for football in Bentonville back in August. We met a few good people through her sons football games. They were 1 game from winning the championship! Man do people LOVE football here.....we are in HOG country...LOL. The school here in BV, Cooper Elm. is a great school. Bentonville school system is awesome. My girlfriend found a job back in OCT and now runs the office she works at in Bentonville. I was laid off my last job in August back in CA. I just found a job and start tomorrow night in Bentonville. So things are going pretty darn good right now. We have a nice house for a fraction of what we were paying in CA in the "not so nice" part of town. Huge backyard, both are employed. The only thing we are still trying to get used to are the long winters. When its cold outside....we kind of feel trapped in the house. We have board games we play and sometimes we even have Playstation games we play. My girlfriend and I are both ready for Spring time to come. We are definitely ready for some 60-70 degree days so we can do alot of hiking. Lots of nice trails around our area. I miss the sounds of all the bugs at night!
thanks for the update, so often we never get them.
As for the drive, that would be just about the way we would go. When we go from here to Vegas or Abq...maybe a few different stops, but basically the same.
I am so glad you like AR and BV. It is a great place to live, not just for retireees..
Spring will be here in just a few weeks, our crab apple tree is budding and our crocus and dafadils are now up, but not blooming of course. Even though it is expected to be a cool spring it will be welcomed after the cold winter.
Good luck on the job, continue to keep us posted, and GO HOGS next year. They should be rated in the top 25 to start the season anyway.
Nothing beats a cross country road trip. This has been the coldest winter in NW Arkansas since I've lived here. Good Luck!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaotik94
Well to update this thread....We arrived safe back on August 15th, '09. We drove on Highway 5 south in CA and went through Vegas then dropped down to highway 40. On the first day of driving we stopped in Flagstaff, AZ after 12 hours of driving. Then on the road again on 40 and we stayed the night in Weatherford, OK. Then we drove around OKC then to Tulsa and jumped on 44. When we arrived in Tulsa, I took 412 to Siloam Springs then went straight north on 279 to Bella Vista. Took all together around 29 hours from the San Francisco Bay Area to BV.
We have been here now around 6 months. Very beautiful here in the Summer and Fall. I have already been to Eureka Springs, stayed a night at the haunted Crescent Hotel, seen numerous lakes and rivers, signed up my girlfriends son for football in Bentonville back in August. We met a few good people through her sons football games. They were 1 game from winning the championship! Man do people LOVE football here.....we are in HOG country...LOL. The school here in BV, Cooper Elm. is a great school. Bentonville school system is awesome. My girlfriend found a job back in OCT and now runs the office she works at in Bentonville. I was laid off my last job in August back in CA. I just found a job and start tomorrow night in Bentonville. So things are going pretty darn good right now. We have a nice house for a fraction of what we were paying in CA in the "not so nice" part of town. Huge backyard, both are employed. The only thing we are still trying to get used to are the long winters. When its cold outside....we kind of feel trapped in the house. We have board games we play and sometimes we even have Playstation games we play. My girlfriend and I are both ready for Spring time to come. We are definitely ready for some 60-70 degree days so we can do alot of hiking. Lots of nice trails around our area. I miss the sounds of all the bugs at night!
Hey there, just wanted to wish you luck, we loved Bentonville/and Fayetteville when we moved there from Texas, now we are moving to Cali, the people are nice and the area is lovely! Just driving North you will find watering holes to swim and oh my goodness. And the college was great too.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Bentonville X
