Day 21. Van Buren, AR to Fort Worth, TX. 313 miles.

The last day of our trip, we pulled out of the hotel parking lot at 7:22am. I was eager to get home. It's not that I was especially tired of traveling, but I was looking forward to the remainder of our summer at home. We passed into Oklahoma and relished sights of rolling tree-covered hills as I knew that soon our scenery would be mostly ranch land with sun-shriveled trees. Houses and businesses are rarities in eastern Oklahoma, so when Molly told me she had to go to the bathroom, I envisioned a road-side pit-stop. Sure enough, the next exit we encountered had only a sign indicating that a state park was 11 miles away. I found a place to pull off and let Molly do her business on the side of the road. We continued driving and turned southwest toward Texas at Checotah, home of Carrie Underwood. The next couple hundred miles took us through tiny towns and wide-open spaces. We drove over the huge Eufaula Lake. The next time Molly needed to use the restroom, we were nearing a small town with only two sit-down locally owned restaurants and two gas stations. I chose a gas station that unfortunately had an inoperable women's room and a less than tidy men's room. We used it, but I wouldn't let Molly touch anything. The rest of our trip was uneventful, and Molly snuck in a sound nap.