Day Four Springfield to Joplin

Before I tell you about my day, I will show you exactly what route 66 in Oklahoma looks like. Pretty much all the way across the state.

Okeydoke – first, you need to know that Springfield has a downtown that is just adorable! I was supposed to meet my Airbnb host at 5 and got in to town before 4 so I went to the nearest public library. It was a small branch with very good wifi and a great coffee shop next door. It opened into this public square. I started the day there on my way out of town. (The coffee shop, not the library...)

 

The square was the site of one of the few actual recorded gunfights of the old west. Wild Bill Hicock fought...some guy who isn't as famous as Wild Bill Hicock. Poor bastard got killed and didn't even make the headline of the historical plaque.

 

How long do you think the average person would spend sitting on the porch of a gas station talking to people they have never met before? Well, in my case it was two hours!

All the guide books talk about Gary's Gay Parita which sounds kind of like a very specific STD you might catch on a cruise ship, but is actually a very cool 1950s era gas station.

  Gary Turner rebuilt it and became a Route 66 fixture. He made a little museum, but he was the real reason to stop. He had stories and tips about the Route. All the guide books mention him.

Sadly, he passed away last year. His daughter moved back home and took over. She was sitting on the porch and we ended up shooting the breeze for two hours. I SWEAR I wasn't talking her ear off, either! 

 Her name is Barb also, so we had that in common. She worked in movie theaters, I worked in movie theaters. She likes to talk, I like to talk. We had a grand time!

While I was there two different couples came by. First off some youngsters (mid-twenties) from Germany. And then, as I was finally leaving, a couple around my age from Finland riding double on a motorcycle. 

She just meets people all day, gives them a soda, makes them feel welcome, sometimes sells them a tee shirt or a magnet* and replaces the toilet paper in the porta-potties. She and her George (Partner? Husband? Who knows, but they are adorable together...) could not have been nicer. It was a strange and wonderful experience. 

*I bought a back scratcher. What?? I sometimes get an itchy back. Plus, that poor woman put up with me for 2 hours!

  

I am very disappointed that I didn't take a selfie today. I am going to claim this one because I asked a grandma to take it. I was self-advocating, that's almost the same thing.

I'll back up.

So I was on a beautiful stretch of road (see video above) and I came around a corner and there was a herd of little kids selling lemonade. I hadn't seen another car in ages and I was thinking, “If these kids are hoping to make a living as lemonade vendors, they are screwed!

I went by and I heard the “Awwwww...” of disappointment. But I was just making an entrance! I pulled into the next driveway (quarter of a mile down the road) and came back around! They we so happy!

They sold me 2 cookies and some lemonade for a dollar. These kids are horrible businessmen! They are the only game in town, I would have paid $2.50 easy!

The grandma assured me the cookies were made with adult supervision. I told her I eat at Panther's Den* every week. I have no fear of underaged cooks. And dysentery. And eating the boogers of stranger. (Sorry...too far...)

*Student run restaurant at Beverly High School. It is seriously amazing. And very little chance of dysentery.

That grandma was awesome. She was pretty close to my age and DONE UP. She was dressed in linen pants and a top that were perfectly ironed. She had every hair in place and she had that thing where I knew she had a ton of makeup on, but it looked so natural. Like angels worked her over at Sephora. And she had been watching 9 grandkids all day!

Anyway, I DOUBLED my conversations with strangers today and it was super-fun!

I stayed at a hotel in Joplin. It was lovely, I went for a swim and ate dinner (Cheese, rolls and fruit from my beautiful cooler. I have to take a picture of my beautiful cooler at some point...) and read my book (THE OPPOSITE OF EVERYONE by Joshilyn Jackson. It was SO GOOD!!! Full of coincidences, but I don't mind that when the characters are this great and the story this grippy. And FUNNY! Good grief ENOUGH with all these CAPITAL LETTERS!! And, frankly, I'm pretty loosey-goosey with these parentheses, too...) and then fell into a deeeeeeeeep, sooooothing sleeeeeeeep...

Until the terrifying bleating of my phone's emergency signal woke me up.

Good grief.

You may or may not remember Joplin was pretty beaten up by tornadoes in 2011. So I was concerned.

 

It turned out to be a hailstorm. And it was fierce! You can't hear the pummeling of the cars in this video, but you can hear the delirious whining of a tired, traveling woman. 

 

And that's fun...

Next up is Tulsa – if you can guess what literary landmark I visited there I will send you a postcard!