Four State Area Research Trip - June 6-1112, 2026

An overview of the travels as tracked in Travel Mapping (click for larger image).

Sarturday, June 6 - Amsterdam, New York, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, via Albany, Chicago, and Pawhuska

I has an early flight out, which was listed as delayed when I got to the airport, but ended up not being delayed that much at all. My first hop to Chicago was kind of a bumpy ride. I had some time in a crowded Midway airport before the flight to Tulsa. That one was on time, also took us through some bumps, ending with a bouncy landing in Tulsa. Tulsa's not an especially big airport, so it was easy getting my luggage and the car. Soon I was on my way in a pretty heavy rain to get a small lunch at a nearby Braum's [Picture] (this is Oklahoma, after all). I had some time to explore the area and made a dinner reservation at the Pioneer Woman's Mercantile in Pawhuska. I started with some of the Historic US 66 routes on the east end of Tulsa. It was obvious right away that Tulsa embraces its US 66 history. I then took the loop around downtown Tulsa, traveling all of I-244 and the hidden I-444 in the process. The rest of the ride was a much larger loop. My route was along the Gilcrease then Cimmaron Turnpikes. In between I drove through some very heavy rain. That let up then stopped as I continued west, so I made a quick rest stop [Picture]. I stopped in Stillwater, parking by the Oklahoma State football stadium and took a little walk that took me past the Wrestling Hall of Fame (but not the pro wrestling one like we used to have in Amsterdam) [Picture]. Then north to Ponca City, where I took a little loop through town that got cut off by a railroad crossing. From there, I started back east through Osage, and got to Pawashka in time for dinner [10 Pictures]. I enjoyed my meal at the restaurant at The Mercantile, run by Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman on the Food Network. I especially liked the biscuits. After dinner, I checked out the Mercantile shop [2 Pictures] which was kind of like a small Buc-ee’s for cooking fans. From there it as over to Bartlesville and south back to Tulsa to check in for the night. My hotel was in the Greenwood neighborhood. A pro soccer game [Picture] was taking place at the baseball stadium a block away, and I watched lots of fireworks out my window when the game ended. [4 Pictures]. [63 Pictures from the Roads].

Sunday, June 7 - Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Springfield, Missouri, via northwest Arkansas

I started with a Sunday morning walk through the northeast parts of downtown Tulsa near my hotel, seeing ONEOK Field, Black Wall Street, the Blue Dome, and Guthrie Green [17 Pictures]. After the walk, I got ready, packed up and was on my way before 10. My ride started by seeking out and driving most of Historic US 66 from downtown out to I-44. Tulsa does a great job with it, and there are so many businesses consistently themed [7 Pictures]. The area really leans into their idea of being the Capital of US 66. My ride to Springfield was definitely not a direct one. The only fixed stop along the way was baseball in Springdale, Arkansas, but I meandered a bit for the rest of the route. I started east along US 412, which becomes the Cherokee Turnpike. At Kansas (town, not state), I made a nice loop to the south to pick up a couple extra counties and got a nice scenic side ride as a bonus [19 Pictures]. From Kansas, I turned north. I picked up some Daylight Donuts in Jay [2 Pictures], then drove up the Oklahoma 20/Arkansas 43 route that follows right along the state line for a while, to get to the Missouri/Arkansas/Oklahoma triple point [6 Pictures]. My goal for this next step was to drive the new part of I-49 that opened since my last drive through the area. I was fortunate to pass through Noel, where the road goes along and under a cliff and there's a scenic river [10 Pictures]. I successfully drove the new I-49, then continued south to Springdale. My goal was a Northwest Arkansas Naturals game at Arvest Ballpark. Their Saturday game against the Midland RockHounds was suspended due to rain, and they were scheduled to finish that game then have the regularly scheduled game. I arrived and parked in downpour, and waited that out before going in. Once inside, it was a while before the field was ready for the game to resume. I only saw the 9th inning but it was quite an inning. Northwest Arkansas hit a walk off grand slam to take a 9-6 win. Even though only one inning had been played since the field was prepped after the previous rain delay, they took a full 35 minute break to do it again. By the time the game got underway, rain was moving closer. They played only 2 innings before the heavy rain came and there was another delay. Since it didn't look good for the game to resume any time soon and I still had a pretty good ride ahead of me, I left. Turns out it was a good choice since the game was officially rained out [23 Pictures]. Back on the road, I drove theough heavy rain in Springdale which ended as I drove east and had a really nice ride through the Ozarks of northwest Arkansas. After turning north into Missouri, I picked a Culver's in Branson [12 Pictures] as my dinner stop. As I left Branson, I thought I had a pretty good chance of avoiding the worst of the thunderstorms that were moving through the area. Turns out, I didn't.

I drove through (and stopped for a few minutes during) a tornado-warned storm near Ozark. The rain was torrential but fortunately the worst of the winds were a bit to my east. I arrived in Springfield and checked into the Drury Inn around 8:00. Time for some prep work for the working group in the morning, and to catching up on many other things. [68 Other Pictures from the Roads]

Monday, June 8 - Day 1 of the Working Group

The day was spent primarily at Drury University, and included an excellent sandwich for lunch with some Drury faculty at Big Momma's, and dinner later with my research colleague at a local Huey Magoo's.

Tuesday, June 9 - Day 2 of the Working Group and Baseball

Day 2 at Drury was very productive on the research side. On the food side, it included doughnuts and a nice lunch at the Zayka Indian restaurant in downtown Springfield. In the late afternoon/evening, I joined one of the Drury faculty at the Springfield Cardinals game against the Amarillo Sod Poodles [11 Pictures], driving parts of Historic US 66 on the way to and from [5 Pictures], followed by a gas stop and some snacks from the nearby Buc-ee's [Picture].

Wednesday, June 10 - Day 3 of the Working Group

Day 3 at Drury was my day to do most of the leading. And of course there was food too. We had an excellent lunch at a Peruvian place called Cafe Cusco on Commercial. It was enough food that no dinner was needed beyond what the Drury Inn's "5:30 kickback" provided that evening. [3 Pictures from Drury]

Thursday, June 11 - Day 4 of the Working Group, and drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma

I wasn't planning to stay for the full day as we wrapped up the working group, and left to catch my flight out of Tulsa by 11. I was about 20 minutes out when I got the notification that my flight was cancelled. So I pulled over, rebooked myself on a Friday morning flight out, and returned to Drury (partly via Historic US 66 [6 Pictures]). This let me join the group for lunch at a local pizza place [4 Pictures] (more like flatbread than pizza, but really good), and stay for the afternoon as we wrapped up the working group. After also arranging to keep the rental car until morning and booking a hotel for the night in Catoosa, I was on my way again around 4. First I dropped my research colleague off at the Springfield airport. With the rest of the afternoon and evening to get to Catoosa, I decided to take US 60 through southwestern Missouri and into eastern Oklahoma, then Historic US 66 from there. This meant all new roads for me in this stretch but also let me stay south of a nasty set of thunderstorms up along I-44. It sent me right through a dry slot between storms in the line. Things were a bit of a slog leaving the Springfield area, with so many traffic lights and pretty heavy traffic on US 60 out of town. Once out of the main commuting range area, it was a really pleasant ride. Once I was into Oklahoma and past I-44, I joined up with a stretch of Historic US 66 for quite a while [23 Pictures]. As I got closer to Catoosa, something on the radio got me to check if the Tulsa Drillers were at home against the Wichita Wind Surge. I thought they weren't but glad I double checked. Turns out they were home and in a rain delay to start the game. So I did a quick checkin at the Hampton Inn in Catoosa and turned right back around to drive into Tulsa for the game [18 Pictures]. I missed the first inning and stayed only through the 7th since I had some things to take care of back at the hotel before bed. So I ended up with 3 new ballparks on the trip. [42 Other Pictures from the Roads]

Friday, June 12 - Catoosa, Oklahoma, to Amsterdam, New York via Tulsa, Denver, and Albany

My flight was scheduled for 10:20 so I left the hotel around 8, filled the tank in the rental car, and headed for the airport. All nice and easy for car drop. When at the bag tag kiosk, I was unable to do the self-service checkin because my flight was now delayed 3 minutes and that would make my already tight connection in Denver even tighter. I think they just wanted to make sure someone talked to me about getting right from gate to gate when in Denver. Security was quick, I got a snack and waited for boarding time. In the end, the flight was delayed more than that making my connection seem less and less likely to work out. We got going and it was an easy flighs over to Denver, with a nice view of the still snowy Rocky Mountains as we came in [Picture]. Once in Denver, it turns out there was also a bit of a delay on my second flight that gave me a chance to grab a sandwich to take on board. That would have been just right, but just before I was about to board, they suspended boarding to look into a mechanical issue. It was announced as a delay of up to 2 hours. I used some of the time to walk the terminal quite a bit. They were able to complete the repair in a little more than an hour and we were good to go more like 90 minutes late. Not too bad. The takeoff from Denver was very bumpy despite clear skies. It was all clear skies for a while, with a great view of Lincoln [Picture] but some high clouds limited the view by Omaha. A few hours later, I got a nice view of the Great Sacandaga Lake [Picture] on approach to Albany. I landed about 16 hours after my original plan, but no harm done and it was an excellent trip both for the research project and for a chance to explore the Four State/Ozarks area.