John, you can make it to the Buffalo River in about 10-11 hours. (For me, it's always taken about 9 hours to get to Branson, MO from Rockford, IL, my wife does it in about 8 hours )

If you haven't floated the Buffalo you've missed the best river in the Ozarks to float.

I have a canoe you're welcome to use if you want to do that float. It's a Coleman plastic canoe, and while it's not a great boat, it's fine for floating the Buffalo.

If you have a way to haul the canoe from Branson down to the Buffalo and back, that'd save you at least a couple hundred bucks on a four day float, and since you're heading to OK afterwards you'd be a bit closer if you do come here.

I can probably shuttle you too. I drive a Suzuki Samurai, so it'd be a tight squeeze with the three of us in there, but I also have a utility trailer we can haul your gear with and a rack for the boat. It'd be a slow shuttle cause that's a full load for that tiny Zuk, but you can't beat the scenery.

You'll probably want to take out at either Tyler Bend or Gilbert that time of year. You can probably do 10-12 miles a day with little problem then, but it's a lot more fun if you plan more like 6-8 miles a day and spend time parking the boat and exploring around and swimming. The smallmouth bass are beautiful there (especially to catch and eat) and snorkeling in the Buffalo is a ton of fun, so consider that too.

And if you want to spend a night or two in Branson my wife can get you a good rate on hotel rooms. That might take a little pressure off you both by giving you some time to rest up and make the trip less tedious.

I escaped from Rockford twice, once back in the `70's and again in `95, so we at least have that in common to commiserate about while we poke along to your put in

And hey, big huge congrats on getting your boy into OSU!

That's pretty exciting stuff. (I'm sure those Texans will regret they didn't try harder to bring him there )