I-40 Road Trip: Oklahoma City to Memphis
The Oklahoma State Capitol - the only capitol building in the US to lease its grounds to oil companies (Photo Credit: Andrew Langford)
July 4 • By Andrew Langford
There’s not much that would motivate one to drive the I-40 corridor from Oklahoma City to Memphis, but whether you’re moving cross-country or driving a car you bought in Oklahoma back to Florida, there are a couple of stops worth seeing to make the most of this drive.
Oklahoma doesn’t appear at the top of many US dining guides, but its impact on American cuisine is undeniable. Hard times and heartland agriculture have helped to create or popularize dishes as iconic as the fried onion burger, chicken fried steak and fry bread tacos (Oklahoma isn’t exactly a vegan or low calorie paradise).
To really kick off this road trip, start things off in the wrong direction. 30 minutes west of Oklahoma City lies El Reno - at first glance, just a typical Plains farming community. But pay attention to the street names. Placed on a key turn in Route 66, El Reno’s history of serving the American road tripper date back to the earliest days of the automobile. This means an abundance of cheap and delicious eats all around the town center, including donuts and Mexican hole-in-the-walls. Yet the reason you really come to El Reno is for the fried onion burger.
A variation of the classic American cheeseburger, Oklahoma’s unique strain has gained growing national attention in just the last few years. Incorporating slices of onion into the cooking of the patty itself, the fried onion burger yields a crispy, caramelized layer on one side of the burger inextricably fusing the flavor of the onion with the juices from the meat. El Reno has played an important role in developing these burgers and both Robert’s Grill and Johnnie’s Hamburgers & Coneys do a good job of honoring this legacy. But the spot that you’re really trekking out here for is Sid’s Diner. Claiming almost every superlative and award offered up in national burger rankings, Sid’s is a true American classic. Order the Depression Burger, a side of onion rings, and maybe grab a hot dog and shake for the road. It all blows the road trip Sonic out of the water.
Back in Oklahoma City, it’s worth spending a few hours in the largest city on this trip. Oklahoma City is a very modern American metropolis riding high on the fracking revolution and generous oil & gas profits. While the standard of living is fairly high here, OKC can also feel like a composite image of the typical US city. A small downtown core includes a handful of tall glass buildings and an arena, while suburbs radiate out towards the horizon.
If you chose to do anything here, stick towards the downtown. The Bricktown River Walk is cool, but if you’ve already been to San Antonio, you get the point. The cooler water features in a generally parched downtown are the Myriad Botanical Gardens, catty-corner to Paycom Center, and Riversport Adventure, a notable urban aquatic park home to one of the US Olympic & Paralympic Team’s rowing and canoe/kayak training sites.
A short rib melt served with fried okra at The Mule (Photo Credit: Andrew Langford)
North of downtown lie some of Oklahoma City’s trendiest neighborhoods and most diverse restaurants, many of which can be found on NW 16th Street. If you’re sticking to the road trip classics, try The Mule for over-the-top grilled cheeses and melts and Pie Junkie for similarly decadent desserts. Also notable on this stretch of road is the gastropub Oak & Ore, breakfast spot Aurora, and Mar Der Lao Kitchen.
Perhaps surprising for the middle of the country, OKC has a robust southeast Asian population, with much of the immigration coming from Laos. As a bustling anchor of the community, Ma Der Lao Kitchen churns out incredible larb and chicken wings. And this is not a spot that’s just good relative to the local Laotian options, it’s nationally regarded as one of the country’s best Laotian restaurants. In fact, The New York Times last year named in one of the 50 best restaurants in the country.
Now it’s time to actually hit the road. Navigating through town, be sure to watch the speed limit to avoid any pesky speeding tickets - because wouldn’t that be a bummer for the trip - and maybe detour a few minutes to see the state capitol. It not only has the distinction of being one of the few located outside a city center, but it’s also the only one with active oil drilling on capitol grounds. Some preconceived notions about a place can wind up being true.
20 minutes from the city center, by the time you’ve passed the sprawling Tinker Air Force Base, you begin to see the Oklahoma that most people picture - large, open fields. It’s hard to argue that this beats driving through the Rockies or the Florida Keys, but Oklahoma’s gently sloping hills make for a relaxing few hours as you fly by on a well-paved, sparsely trafficked highway.
If you find yourself in need of food during this portion of the drive, Tandoori Indian Restaurant makes for an unexpected pit stop near Shawnee and the Seminole Nation. Sharing space with a Baskin Robbins in a gas station near I-40, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, but once you’ve sampled their tandoori chicken those worries go away.
After 2.5 hours of driving, you’ve reached the Arkansas border. You could stop for the night in Fort Smith, but it’s worth pressing on another hour to Russellville, at the edge of the Ozarks. Nearby attractions include Mount Nebo, one of the most prominent points in the state, and the town itself has a fairly robust main street. Restaurants like Fat Daddy’s Bar-B-Que and Pasta Grill are good options in an area too often dominated by fast food chains. Just remember to arrive before it gets too late, as most businesses are closed by 9 in this area.
Day 2 kicks off with the option to go one of two routes. The more ambitious, nature option involves a 2.5 hour route to Little Rock passing through the Ouachita National Forest and Hot Springs, Arkansas. Unless you’re trying to see every national park or just really love hot springs, this is one national park that is not really worth detouring for if you’re pressed for time or trying to limit your mileage. Instead, opt for the fairly non-scenic straight drive down I-40 to Little Rock, which should take about an hour from Russellville.
The bahn mi special at The Root Cafe (Photo Credit: Andrew Langford)
Little Rock is a mid to upper-tier southern capital that makes for a worthwhile few hours. Start the trip off in the Quapaw Quarter, a stretch on Main Street just south of downtown with a variety of popular shops and restaurants. Around the same corner at West 15th Street sit popular dining options Press Waffle Co, Loblolly Creamery, and The Root Cafe - perhaps the busiest lunch spot in the city. It can be hard to find truly healthy vegetables in the South, but The Root Cafe balances veggie plates like crispy fried tofu and vegetarian shiitake burgers with American classics like cheeseburgers and meatloaf.
After lunch, check out some of the city’s history, from the Civil Rights era to the international stage. A few minutes away is Little Rock Central High, one of the grandest high school campuses in the country and an important early site in the Civil Rights movement. Beyond taking the chance to appreciate the architecture, you can visit the associated National Historic Site with a small museum dedicated to the Little Rock Nine and part of Arkansas’s history during the turbulent 1950s and ‘60s.
The exterior of the beautiful - and somewhat infamous - Little Rock Central High School (Photo Credit: Andrew Langford)
Across downtown, on the banks of the Arkansas River, sits the sprawling William J Clinton Library and Museum. Like most other presidential libraries, it covers Clinton’s presidency and hosts the archives for materials related to his administration. What does help set this library apart is the modern structure itself and the library’s role in helping to revitalize this area of Little Rock. Occupying a former rail yard, trails now radiate from the site both along and over the river via an abandoned railroad lift bridge.
South of the library, a number of former warehouses have been converted into coffee shops and ~ slightly ~ stronger watering holes. It’s hard to go wrong between The Rail Yard LR beer garden and Lost Forty Brewing, although Lost Forty’s nearby operation, Camp Taco, makes for a great snack before hitting the road.
With a few hours to go before sunset, it’s time to leave for Memphis. This last stretch of I-40 is rather tedious as the landscape becomes flat and interspersed with industrial sites, while the highway itself is clogged with semi-trucks. But before long you’ll be crossing the Hernando do Soto Bridge over the mighty Mississippi into Memphis. Like its ancient namesake, this Memphis puts a lot of focus on its pyramid. Every great visit to the city starts off at the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid, the world’s largest Bass Pro store set inside the world’s tenth tallest pyramid. Checking out this redneck paradise complete with a hotel, observation deck, and indoor boat lagoon is a deeply American experience worth memorializing with a souvenir hat.
A mecca for those seeking hunting gear, outdoor apparel, and all things strange in the American South - the Memphis Bass Pro (Photo Credit: Andrew Langford)
This sets the tone for a lot of what there is to see in Memphis. Many of the city’s attractions, such as Beale Street, cater to the kinds of mass crowds pleased with commercialized honky tonks, blues bars, and music-related museums - Graceland, ahem - that are also found in Tennessee’s other major tourist hotspots.
For a different, more somber experience, spend some time at the National Civil Rights Museum, a complex centered on the Lorraine Motel, the site of Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination. The museum is about so much more than the assassination itself, but both the weight of seeing the balcony where he was slain and the interactive exhibits throughout the main building make for a strong, visceral reaction.
The pinnacle of dining in Memphis is the city’s barbecue. One of the most well-known regional barbecue variations in the country, Memphis style is defined by a focus on pork and incredibly nuanced dry rubs with dozens of spices. Convenient to both Beale Street and the National Civil Rights Museum, Central BBQ serves up some of the city’s finest barbecue in an expansive complex of Memphis-themed rooms. For a very local experience, try Cozy Corner, a long-time favorite of Uptown residents churning out ribs and other barbecue staples from behind a no-frills counter.
A car-based photo of the rib, coleslaw, and potato salad dinner plate from Cozy Corner taken when the dining room was closed during late-wave COVID restrictions (Photo Credit: Andrew Langford)
Memphis is an unlikely stopping point for most road trips given the city’s declining population and small passenger airport. Instead, you’re likely en-route to another major southern city or looking to continue the travel fun in Nashville or New Orleans. Nashville is just three hours away via I-40, while New Orleans can be reached in a roughly six hour ride through Mississippi . . . but that’s a whole other adventure.
