Ardmore, Okla., to Port Aransas, Texas
We plan a drive from Oklahoma to Port Aransas, avoiding I-35 in Texas to stay away from traffic in Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio. Any suggestions for the best alternate route would be gre...
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We towed our trailer to Port Aransas and Rockport last year. We too avoided San Antonio like the plague. We did go through Corpus Christi to Padre Island, camped there, then headed north to Port Aransas. We used the ferry on a weekday with no wait at all. When we left the wonderful Goose Island State Park campground near Rockport, we went to Victoria and took US 77 on the way north. Other than a lot of hills, it is a great road, but we were not in a hurry and had no schedule. If you get hungry, there are lots of places selling German deli sandwiches, Czech kolaches, smoked turkey and sausage, and BBQ to stop at along that highway.
If you want a more scenic route than US 77 or US 183 and have a lot of time, go west from I-35 at Gainesville, as others have suggested, through Bowie to US 281 and go south through the Texas Hill Country. Before you get to San Antonio, turn east on Texas 46 and go through New Braunfels (another town with great German-Czech food and BBQ) to Seguin. Texas state highways are generally as good as US highways in most other states. At Seguin, you can take I-10 east to either US 183 or US 77 and head south again.
DO NOT take Texas 123 south from Seguin or try to use US 181. From Karnes City to Beeville and west to Uvalde and Carrizo Springs, the roads are incredibly congested (traffic jams in the middle of nowhere) due to all the drilling, hydrofracturing, pipeline construction, and road rebuilding going on in the Eagle Ford Shale. There are NO places to even stop and eat lunch because every parking lot big enough for an RV is filled to overflowing with brand-new white Ford F-250 4x4's driven by hungry drilling and construction crews. If you think Dallas-Fort Worth traffic is bad, try Three Rivers at lunch time (ask me how I know!).
If you want a more scenic route than US 77 or US 183 and have a lot of time, go west from I-35 at Gainesville, as others have suggested, through Bowie to US 281 and go south through the Texas Hill Country. Before you get to San Antonio, turn east on Texas 46 and go through New Braunfels (another town with great German-Czech food and BBQ) to Seguin. Texas state highways are generally as good as US highways in most other states. At Seguin, you can take I-10 east to either US 183 or US 77 and head south again.
DO NOT take Texas 123 south from Seguin or try to use US 181. From Karnes City to Beeville and west to Uvalde and Carrizo Springs, the roads are incredibly congested (traffic jams in the middle of nowhere) due to all the drilling, hydrofracturing, pipeline construction, and road rebuilding going on in the Eagle Ford Shale. There are NO places to even stop and eat lunch because every parking lot big enough for an RV is filled to overflowing with brand-new white Ford F-250 4x4's driven by hungry drilling and construction crews. If you think Dallas-Fort Worth traffic is bad, try Three Rivers at lunch time (ask me how I know!).
