2014-11-17 Oklahoma City Bound Along Route 66

Despite being sick and snowed in for a few days in Tulsa we have managed to do everything we had planned. We are heading southwest along Route 66 on our way to Oklahoma City.

Along the way we passed Paris. I'm pretty sure it was Paris.

The sun was out, it was brisk, and there was still snow on the ground.

Supulpa had some great wall art.

And THIS beauty...

Karen gets great pictures of these old gas station restores even when I'm bombing down the Road.

Stroud, OK is home to the Rock Cafe, est in 1939, built with rock unearthed during the paving of Route 66.

The proprietor of this cafe, Dawn Welch, was the inspiration for Sally (the Porsche) in the CARS movies.

Davenport was home to some original Portland cement Route 66 roadway. It's only a couple of blocks long but the allure gets Route 66 travelers to come into the city.

I know, pretty exciting huh?

The town also has some great history murals on the walls of their buildings.

As we entered Chandler, OK we spied the Route 66 Interactive Museum. It was closed (we knew that) and we had planned to come back tomorrow.

From there we hit the Toll Road for the rest of the way to our next RV park, Roadrunner RV Park, in Oklahoma City.

2014-11-15 Cabin Fever Day Trip

We've been too sick to move or want to do anything for 42 hours and we are tired of sitting around. All of a sudden our 330 square foot 5th wheel is closing in on us.

So, after lunch we headed out for a day trip on Route 66 around Tulsa.

Route 66 in Tulsa is home to the largest outdoor drive-in movie theatre in Oklahoma. This place can hold 1,000 cars!

There are lots of old motels along this stretch of the road. Some even have murals on the side of them.

Great restoration of an old gas station

This old Meadow Gold sign stood down the street for 70 years. They took it down and restored it and then gave it a new home.

It is STILL cold outside but we are smiling our way along the Route.

Boston Street Church is so cool looking.

Heading away from downtown we found this sign.

What a wonderful looking statue that reminds us of the transition that there was between horse drawn wagons and automobiles.

Nice sign Goodwill Retail Store

Just outside of town they are trying to create a new Route 66 park called Route 66 Village. The train is a Frisco 4500 Steam Engine.

Coincidentally we were watching TV last night and they had a story on this sign. Well, we had seen one at the EAST end of town and this one was just installed on the WEST end of town.

And yes it is STILL cold outside. We keep reminding ourselves that "this too shall pass."

2014-11-13 Route 66 - Miami (not THAT one!) to Tulsa

It is once again time to move our home. We are currently in the NE corner of Oklahoma in Miami in the Miami Mobile Home Community. The site here was a very nice level pull through site with room in the front to park our truck.

We traveled through Chelsea on our way to Tulsa. Chelsea had two Sears Homes. These homes were offered in Sears Catalogs in the early 1900's. Over 100,000 of these homes were sold through 1937. We had previously seen many of them in the town of Carlinville, IL.

Outside of Foyil was this crazy totem pole park.

After dropping off our trailer at the Cherry Hill RV Park we headed back to Claremore to tour the Belvidere Mansion. It was build in 1907 and has been a single family home, a 14 room apartment complex, and is now owned by the Rogers County Historical Society. They have a Tea Room, Gift Shop, historical recreations of bedrooms, and special events area on the 3rd floor.

To say it was still cold outside would be an understatement. We don't see this often in Seattle.

The Blue Whale is a Route 66 icon and deservedly so. There isn't anything like it around. It was build as an anniversary gift in the 1970's and then became a swimming park. It finally officially closed in 1988 but you can still play on it, slide into the water, and jump off the tail section.

Entering Tulsa they had this really cool logo on the Road.

Off the Route and down at the Expo Square is this giant Tulsan.

And here we are parked near the entrance of this RV park.

2014-11-11 Kansas, CARS, and Route 66

13 miles. That's all there is folks. Just 13 miles of Route 66 going through Kansas today.

After crossing the Missouri/Kansas border from the east we enter Galena, the town that inspired the Disney movie CARS. To be honest, there were lots of Galena-like towns along the Route that all helped create Radiator Springs in the movie, but Galena likes to make the claim.

As we turn into town there is this wonderfully restored old gas station on the left side.

In the background you can see RED and Tow Mater and Tow Tater.

Tow Tater was the inspiration for the Tow Mater character in CARS. I'm sure you can see the lineage...

Inside the garage they've remodeled it into a cafe and gift shop.

Karen was ready for her picture with Tow Mater. Dressed with her Route 66 shirt, Mickey/Minnie cars motif scarf, and CARS Mickey ears.

After Will Rogers died they tried to rename the Road after him. It didn't quite catch on.

Further west is the very small town of Riverton. It has one ancient Food Market/Gift Shop/Antique Store on the Road that has been there since 1925. It was formerly know as the Old Riverton Store and the Eisler Bros. Store.

The final town in Kansas is Baxter Springs. Our first stop was the Visitor's Center that had been remodeled from one of the old gas stations that line the Route.

The President of the Kansas Historic Route 66 Association was here talking to the owners and he personally gave us a tour of the place and told us all the places not to miss as we headed West.

"Crazy Legs" Walker is one of the great characters we've met along the road. He has the ability to get one of his feet facing North and the other South. Disney/Pixar Imagineers took note of this and incorporated this quirky ability into the Tow Mater CARS character by making Mater the "world's best backwards driver".

This visitor center is so totally cool because rather than having a Guest Book to sign they have a whole building you can sign. Garage doors, bricks, walls - it's all fair game for your signature.

1/2 hour later Crazy Legs was STILL showing us places to go and people to tell, "Tell them Crazy Legs said hello." He knows everyone along the Route it seems.

We popped into another place called Angels on the Route and talked to Sue. She moved from California to be on the Route. They remodeled this old 1865 storefront into a cafe, meeting room, and ice cream shop. The shop is on the left.

The people we are meeting along the Route have some great stories to tell and they are really making our tour interesting.