Last Updated: May 2026
November arrived and with it the annual migration south. After nearly a month in Nappanee, Indiana — three weeks of warranty work, train horns, 5am warehouse traffic, and one unexpectedly lovely stint at a lakeside resort — it was time to point the motorhome toward warmer latitudes. This year’s winter plan: Texas first, then Arizona. The route south took us through St. Louis, across the Oklahoma plains, and finally into the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where we settled in at Grapevine, Texas for an extended stay before continuing west.
The drive south through the fall Midwest was its own reward. The leaves had peaked while we were in Indiana, and the landscape was doing that late-October thing where everything is gold and amber and the light goes low and long by 4pm. After the intensity of the New England circuit and the industrial weeks in Nappanee, the open road felt like a deep breath. Canadian geese were moving south ahead of us on the same general schedule. We felt a kinship.
St. Louis, Missouri
The original plan had been to detour to Amarillo to visit family, but three unexpected extra weeks in Nappanee had compressed our schedule too much to make it work. Instead we drove six hours straight to St. Louis — the longest single driving day of the entire trip — and arrived without a reservation for the first time all year. It’s a small thing, but after months of meticulous advance planning, pulling into a campground on speculation felt faintly reckless. It worked out perfectly.
We stayed at the Casino Queen RV Park on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, just across from downtown St. Louis. The park was winding down its season — only two days left before closing — and we nearly had the place to ourselves. The train noise, which might have bothered us at any earlier point in the trip, now functioned as a white noise machine after our weeks next to the Nappanee rail corridor. The payoff for the location was immediate: a perfect, unobstructed view of the Gateway Arch out of our front windshield. Eero Saarinen’s 630-foot stainless steel catenary arch is one of those pieces of American infrastructure that photographs well but lands harder in person. The scale against the sky is genuinely surprising, even when you know it’s coming.
Claremore, Oklahoma
The next stop was the Will Rogers Tulsa KOA in Claremore, Oklahoma — named for the beloved humorist, actor, and social commentator who was born nearby in 1879. The campground sits adjacent to a quarter horse racing track, and our site looked directly out at the starting gate. Jake, who had been spending most of the trip pursuing uncooperative geese, encountered an entirely new category of fast-moving animal and was riveted.
Quarter horses are named for their specialty: the quarter mile, in which they can reach 55 mph and accelerate at roughly the same rate as a greyhound — about 45 mph in six strides. Watching them thunder down the track from a few hundred feet away is a visceral experience. Jake watched from the campsite window with an expression we can only describe as highly motivated. After weeks of train noise, highway traffic, and the general industrial ambiance of northern Indiana, this was a genuinely quiet and peaceful stop. The only sounds were wind across the Oklahoma plain and the occasional rumble of hooves. Flocks of Canadian geese circled overhead on their own southward migration, and we felt — as we had all across the Midwest — that we were simply one more convoy heading in the right direction.
Grapevine, Texas
Nappanee to Grapevine is roughly 1,000 miles. We spread it across three days of five to six hours each — the pace we’d settled into as the comfortable limit for a full-size motorhome on mixed highway. Grapevine sits in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, tucked between DFW Airport and a namesake reservoir, and it turned out to be an excellent base: large enough to have every amenity within easy reach, small enough to have genuine character in its historic downtown.
We stayed at The Vineyards Campground on Grapevine Lake, which earned its name — there were several winery tasting rooms within easy reach of the campground, and we made thorough use of them. The site was a pull-through with views of the lake, 50-amp power, 50 psi water pressure, sewer, and decent satellite reception. A Costco and a Super Walmart were both nearby, which after months on the road felt almost absurdly convenient. We provisioned like we were preparing for a siege.
Fort Worth Stockyards
The Fort Worth Stockyards are roughly thirty minutes from Grapevine, and they are worth every minute of the drive. The Stockyards served as one of the most important cattle trading hubs in the American West from the 1890s through the 1950s — at their peak around 1900, more than a million cattle changed hands here annually, along with hundreds of thousands of sheep and hogs. The complex connected the ranching culture of the Texas plains directly to the national rail system and the meatpacking industry, and for several decades it was the economic engine of the entire region.
The Texas Longhorns that appear in the twice-daily cattle drives through the Stockyards are direct descendants of cattle brought to the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1493. Their horns can span more than six feet tip-to-tip, and they are extraordinarily well suited to the open range — tough, heat-tolerant, and capable of foraging on sparse vegetation that would defeat other breeds. Longhorn populations have declined significantly over the past century because their lean meat doesn’t fatten as quickly as other breeds for commercial beef production, which is a shame. Watching a herd of them move down the brick-paved Exchange Avenue under the guidance of mounted cowboys in full regalia is one of the more stirring things we’ve seen anywhere in the country.
The Stockyards today is a National Historic District with a well-preserved collection of brick exchange buildings, saloons, restaurants, Western wear shops, and one of the finest concentrations of custom boot makers in the world. The cattle drive happens twice daily at 11:30am and 4pm — it’s short, maybe five minutes of actual cattle movement, but it’s done with real care and genuine Texas flair. The whole district manages to be both tourist-oriented and authentically Western in a way that could easily have gone wrong but doesn’t.
We had lunch at H3 Ranch, one of the Stockyards’ landmark restaurants, housed in a historic building with Western décor done right — not kitschy, just committed. The menu leans hard into Texas and Gulf Coast traditions.
Sandy ordered the catfish. It was exceptional — golden-fried, light inside, the kind of Southern-style catfish that requires a very specific technique to get right. She talked about it for the rest of the day. When someone who grew up eating seafood all her life singles out a piece of freshwater catfish in a landlocked Texas steakhouse as one of the best things she’s eaten in months, you pay attention.
Visitor Information
Casino Queen RV Park
The Casino Queen RV Park (200 S Front St, East St. Louis, IL) sits on the Illinois bank of the Mississippi with excellent views of the St. Louis skyline and the Gateway Arch. Full hookups available; pet-friendly. Note the park closes seasonally — verify dates before planning a late-fall visit. A good one- or two-night stop for the Gateway Arch area without paying St. Louis city campground prices.
Will Rogers Tulsa KOA
The Will Rogers Tulsa KOA (19802 E Admiral Pl, Catoosa, OK) sits adjacent to the Cherokee Casino Will Rogers Downs horse racing track in Claremore. Full hookups with 30- and 50-amp service. Quiet location with minimal road noise. The Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore is a worthwhile stop — well done and underrated. Pet-friendly.
The Vineyards Campground, Grapevine
The Vineyards Campground (1501 N Dooley St, Grapevine, TX) offers full-hookup pull-through and back-in sites on Grapevine Lake. 50-amp service, cable, and reasonable satellite reception. Walking distance to Grapevine’s historic Main Street tasting rooms and a short drive from Costco and major grocery options. Pet-friendly.
Fort Worth Stockyards
The Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District (130 E Exchange Ave, Fort Worth, TX) is free to enter. The twice-daily Longhorn cattle drives (11:30am and 4:00pm) are free to watch. The H3 Ranch restaurant is open for lunch and dinner; reservations recommended on weekends. Rodeos are held at Cowtown Coliseum on Friday and Saturday nights. The district is walkable and compact — plan two to three hours.
Practical Tips
Timing the cattle drive: The 11:30am drive draws smaller crowds than the 4pm show. Arrive ten minutes early and position yourself along Exchange Avenue — the cattle come out of the corrals at the east end and walk west toward the Coliseum. The whole procession lasts about five minutes, but the setup and the mounted cowboys are worth watching beforehand.
Grapevine wine trail: Grapevine’s Main Street has over a dozen tasting rooms within walking distance of each other, representing a mix of Texas and imported wines. Most charge $5–15 for tastings. The historic district is compact and charming — plan a couple of hours to work your way down the street without rushing.
Driving day strategy: The Indiana-to-Texas run is roughly 1,000 miles. Three driving days of five to six hours each is a comfortable pace in a motorhome; two long days is doable but tiring. St. Louis sits almost exactly at the midpoint and is well worth an overnight rather than a drive-through.
Gateway Arch tip: The best view of the Arch from the Missouri side is from the riverfront park directly beneath it. From the Illinois side (which the Casino Queen RV Park provides), you get the full arch framed against the city skyline at distance — a completely different and equally dramatic perspective, especially at dawn and dusk.
