All those are great ways to see Texas
Idea 1 is Campermom's vacation somewhere on this site from last summer, Panhandle is HOT in July but they had fun. We did parts of that in April 2008 pictures somewhere in this forum
Idea 2 we did the Carlsbad, Davis Mountains trip from North Texas just a few years ago. Had a great time. We stayed at the KOA North of Carlsbad, no shade but we have an
RV, there are posters on this site see
Big Bend July 2008
that tent.
As to Arkansas, we did Lake Ouichita a few years back and loved it, here is some pictures, A scout troop in tents was near us by the lake.
Slideshow of pictures, photos, and videos, from webshots