W5RJD Summit on the Air (SOTA) Activations

We planned to drive through Choctaw territory out of Arkansas and into Oklahoma so we could wind up in Durant and see the newly opened Choctaw History museum.  I found three drive up summits along the same stretch of road that wasn't too far from our route, so I made plans to do them all in the same day. They have all been  activated a lot and there were some recent summit access notes so I felt fairly confident we could pull this off.  It was a long day, but we made it.  W5A/OH-001 Rich Mountain The first one we'd tackle was Rich Mountain.  If you put Rich Mountain in Google Maps, it doesn't take you to the summit, but it does take you to the town of Rich Mountain which is the best way to get there.  We stopped at a really old general store, almost a shack, where we think we met the entire town.  There were four men playing checkers in the back and a fifth bringing in something from the car.  Very friendly bunch.  Our main purpose was a bath...

  After a really fun night watching the Presley's Country Jubilee, we left Branson MO and went back into Northern Arkansas, and my wife Michele (KM6GPZ) and I spent some time around Beaver Lake, a man-made lake formed by a dam on the White River in the beautiful Ozarks.  The huge lakes in this part of the country are narrow but they span for miles and miles.  Beaver Lake is over 22,000 acres in surface area. As we made the drive up to the summit of Whitney Mountain, we were both very hungry but couldn't find anything along the route.  I had read there was some sort of a lodge at the top so we were hoping there would be a restaurant too.  The drive up was fairly easy, but once we got to the top, I found the lodge was closed down and there was no stores or cafes, so we'd have to activate while hungry.  This provided me a bit of motivation to get set up quickly. In addition to the lodge, there was a (closed) community center and what looked like some residence...

  Me and my wife Michele (KM6GPZ) went on a 3 week road trip from California to Missouri and back, and I identified some drive  up summits to activate in various places along the way.  It was the middle of July and I knew it would be very hot, so I wanted to avoid hiking.  I also wanted to find peaks that would be relatively quick to activate so they didn't cut into our road trip too much. We spent the night in Albuquerque.  As we drove into town, we saw the massive Sandi Crest towering over the city.  I tried to take a couple of photos through the front car window but none of them really did it justice.  The crest itself is 10,678 ft, but the basic elevation of the city of Albuquerque is around 5100 feet, so compared to some of the summits back home, it wasn't really that high up.  But because the general area had very few other mountains, it was pretty stunning. The drive up was about 21 miles full of switchbacks on the back side of the peak....