Day Five - Joplin to Tulsa

Yep, I met Mater. Jealous? You should be.

According to my friend Shilpa, her son Caleb wants to marry me because of my close personal relationship with Mater. I know, he's only interested because of my connections. And he is five. But it's good to have options!

This was taken at Cars on the Route, a famous stop on the tiny little bit of 66 that runs through Kansas. The town it is in, Baxter Springs, also apparently has a haunted bordello. But I did not visit it. 

 

I don't know if you can see this too well, but it is a skinny little road. It is called the Sidewalk Highway. It was built in 1926 when only half as much money to pave the rode at it cost was allocated. So they only paved 9 feet across with the understanding that people would pull over for one another. This is an interesting historical anecdote I wish I had known before I started freaking out over the shrinking road.

Here is the marker that says as much. That I found after I pulled out onto the actual road.

Here's a freaky thing about this section of road. There was a “Historical 66” marker that advised me to turn on to the normal looking road that eventually turned into dirt that eventually turned into the Sidewalk Highway. I wasn't clear on the meaning of “historical”. But know I know that means - “You will eventually become concerned and check your GPS.”

However, when this happened, my GPS said I was basically in the middle of a blob of nothing. I just kept going 'til I hit road. I know dirt roads lead places, but they still make me tense.

When a giant red sign tells me to eat, I listen. So I ended up at Clanton's Cafe. It had started to rain pretty aggressivly, so this was a great place to wait it out.

 

I even had time to take a selfie.

And eat some extraordinary fried chicken.

A little further down the road was the WILL ROGERS MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM in Claremore. It was fascinating. Go look up Will Rogers. He was awesome.

When I got to the museum, I walked around back to this beautiful garden that houses his crypt. Since I was already around the back, I decided to walk around the whole museum to see what the outside looked like. Well, there was a door out to a courtyard and so I went in that way. Turns out, it was the back door to the museum. So I went through it backwards. It was very informative.

My son Frank was in the WILL ROGERS FOLLIES in high school, so I knew the bare bones of his story – spoiler, he dies at the end – but this filled in the gaps and really made me love Will. My pal Will.

You will be pleased to know that on the way out, I paid the admission. No one seemed terribly concerned at the lack of security. So mellow are the volunteer docents of Oklahoma.

Here is a picture of the statue at the head of his grave. A bird was sitting on his head just looking around happy as could be. I think Will Rogers would be pleased that his head is a bird perch. He seemed like a bird-perch-friendly kind of guy. 

This portrait was painted by Howard Chandler Christie. I seem to recall a HCC reference in one of the Betsy Tacy books. Something about a “Howard Chandler Christie profile” was it in CARNEY'S HOUSE PARTY”? Please comment if you know, it has been making me crazy!

 

I got to Tulsa early and had an hour or so to kill so I went to the public library. It turns out that it was named for my ancestors – Nathan Hale! I regret that I have but one picture of this library to post for my country...

I was a little sad that I didn't get to talk to a stranger today, but then I got to my airbnb and there was Ed! He was my host for the evening. He's a terrific guy. He is a recently retired college professor who is studying yoga now.

I got to the neighborhood and it was pretty tired looking, but when I went inside, the house was great. A post-war slab house that has been lovingly restored. My room was comfy and it was easy to get to.

Ed was the most charming part though. He went to a prayer vigil for the Dallas police officers and was totally mellow about me just hanging out in his house. When he got back, he offered me dinner. Which was nice, because it was going to be cheese, cherries, carrots, and hummus again. So we pooled resources and he made chicken and potatoes.

My only concern came when he told me about being interviewed by a grad student at Oral Roberts who was doing a study on airbnb and uber and those kinds of services for which there is a fancy name that I am currently unable to remember. Anyhoo, he told me that the only quote she used from him in the study was when he said, “All it takes is one ax murderer to bring the whole thing down.” And then we looked at each other awkwardly, each hoping the other was not an ax murderer.

We weren't! And Ed was something of an expert on Route 66 and gave me some great points of interest to look at. So hurrah!

Tomorrow, I get from Tulsa to Clinton. What's in Clinton you ask?

Cows.