One week after returning from Wichita, we took a trip to Tulsa. The purpose was to finally attend an annual meeting of the Extra Miler Club—a group of people who collect counties like we do. Of course, we also used the trip to pick up more counties in four different states. Our flight landed in Tulsa on a Friday morning. We were spending the night there, but we had some county collecting to do first. With that in mind, we rented a 2025 Mercedes CLA250 and were off.
We headed east out of town on Hwy 412. We exited and went about a block to enter Wagoner County. Continuing on 412, we also got off at Hwy 10 near the city of Kansas, traveled south, and entered Adair County, followed by Cherokee County about 2.5 miles later. Before heading back to Tulsa, we weaved our way through the middle of nowhere to Natural Falls State Park for a quick stop. A short hike to a beautiful waterfall was a lovely way to break up our drive.
After leaving the park, we got back on Hwy 412 and continued east until we crossed the Arkansas state line, where we stopped for a quick bite at McDonald's in Siloam Springs. We then followed the highway to Madison County. From there, we went north to Eureka Springs, picking up Carroll County in the process. We traveled north from Berryville on Hwy 211, crossing the state border into Missouri, and picking up Stone County. Moments later, we turned west and entered Barry County, our last new county of the day. We then drove straight to our hotel, the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tulsa. We were pleasantly surprised by a free upgrade to the Governor's Suite, which was just as wonderful as it sounds. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, the Avery, before retiring for the evening.
On Saturday morning, we walked a few blocks from our hotel to meet up with other county collectors at the Arvest Convention Center for the annual Extra-Miler Club meeting. After the meeting, we got on Hwy 412 again, this time heading west. After driving a while, we eventually went through both Garfield and Major Counties. We stopped for lunch at Carl's Jr. in Enid. Then we made an impromptu stop at Gloss Mountain State Park. The park features a sort of “glassy” rock-like material all over the place. It’s an interesting phenomenon. Later on, after getting off Hwy 412, we traveled west and entered Ellis County. From there, we found ourselves on Hwy 15, crossed into Texas, and thus into Lipscomb County. We continued west, picking up Ochiltree, Hansford, and Hutchinson Counties as well. Shortly after entering Hutchinson County, we turned right on Hwy 281, taking it right into Moore County. One mile later, we got off the main road, turned north, and went about 3.5 miles to the Sherman County border.
At this point, it was getting late, and we were getting a little antsy for our hotel. At the city of Dumas, we went west on Hwy 87 for about nine miles, until we reached Hartley County, our last new county for the day. From there, we drove straight to our hotel, the Hyatt Place Amarillo.
On Sunday morning, we started our drive back to Tulsa. We drove northeast out of Amarillo on Hwy 60, picking up Roberts and Hemphill Counties. We then got on Hwy 33 and headed east into Oklahoma, picking up Roger Mills County. Continuing further east, we crossed into Dewey County. We then drove up to the city of Seiling, where we grabbed lunch at Subway. Eventually, we found our way to Hwy 51, where we headed east and picked up Blaine and Kingfisher Counties, our last new counties of the trip. At that point, it was a straight shot back to Tulsa. But we made one final stop before the airport. We found the house where the 1983 film "The Outsiders" was filmed. We didn't pay for the tour, but I was briefly in the home while I searched for a bathroom, which I eventually found in a gift shop (which featured many props and outfits from the film) behind the home.
When it was all said and done, we had picked up 23 new counties. So, what's next? We have a trip planned for Montana and North Dakota in late August. Stay tuned!
