Day Seven - Clinton to Amarillo

The National Route 66 Museum is in Elk City, Oklahoma and it is AWESOME!

Unfortunately, it doesn't open until 2 on Sunday and I was there at 10. It's Fourth-of-July-everything-is-closed all over again! At this point I was beginning to tire of all the 66 kitsch, but this museum looked amazing from the outside. And I wanted to see the inside. Bah...

But there was no way I could wait around for four hours in Elk City. Even elk can't find something to do for four hours in Elk City.

At the edge of a field right on the Texas border, there was a nice marker honoring Oklahoma's favorite son – Will Rogers.

 

I got out of the car to take a picture where I can see his happy face.

 

 

And was nearly killed by Pennywise the clown.

I spent a REALLY long time driving on this tiny little dirt road looking for a POW camp. The camp is not currently in use, making it much more difficult to find.

 During World War II, this field was filled with quonset huts which were filled with German POWs. And there is supposedly a plaque that says as much. Somewhere. I wanted to get a picture of it, but I was not enjoying the dirt road, or the signs that said, “Private Property, turn back Barb, or you will get your ass shot clean off!” So you are just going to have to take my word for it.

 

After being on the dirt road, I caved and hit the highway. But if I didn't do that I would never have been in the rest area that had the combo bathroom/tornado shelter. Pretty reassuring...

And since it was Sunday, I did a giant cross drive-by.

 

I got to Amarillo nice and early so I checked into the hotel and then went to a movie. I saw MIKE AND DAVE NEED WEDDING DATES, which was just as stupid as it looks. Maybe stupider. I enjoyed it thoroughly. My favorite part, though, was the sign on the theatre door that said “Open Carry Weapons Forbidden”. You're not in Massachusetts anymore, Dorothy...

I was just going to have cheese and cherries in my room, I wasn't particularly hungry, but I was in Texas. And there were, like, three road houses within a block of my hotel. So I went to one. It's the law.

I am pretty sure that the place I went was a chain, but it was new to me. So I am not counting it against my "no chain restaurants" rule. 

I got mashed potatoes for dinner, but more importantly, I got a Texas Tea flight. These are flavored teas that contain moonshine. I could develop a taste for these. If it weren't for the drunkenness factor. 

Perhaps you can see that I had about 5 sips of each one and had to stop. Luckily, I just had to walk across the parking lot to get to the hotel. Perhaps stagger.

 

The one thing I learned on my one night in Texas -

Moonshine can not be trusted.

If you'd like to see what a section of Historic Route 66 looks like – feel free to watch. It cures insomnia, if nothing else.

Day Six - Tulsa to Clinton

Ladies and Gentlemen, let's hear it for my future travel-buddy Kathleen Waldron who guessed S.E. Hinton as my Tulsa literary connection!

 

This hideous shack in a rather dicey neighborhood was the Curtis brothers' house in the movie THE OUTSIDERS and I choose to believe that S.E. Hinton picked it out for them because it was the actual house that the actual Ponyboy lived it.
I listened to THE OUTSIDERS on my ipad from Joplin to Tulsa and it was the first time I had "read" it as a parent. It is a truly terrifying story. I kept thinking of poor dead Mrs. Curtis looking down from heaven at Darry trying so hard and Ponyboy trying to stay gold. 

Excuse me, I have something in my eye...

According to Tulsa, it is the point where east meets west. And they can prove it with this statue. Seems believable to me! Who is going to doubt Tulsa?

 

The Rock Cafe in Stroud was my breakfast stop. And what is a more nutritious breakfast than peach cobbler, I ask? There is none! The owner of the cafe (who was not there) is said to be the inspiration for Sally in the CARS movie. So if you are reading this, Caleb, I nearly met Sally...

Here is a bad picture of the outside. They are currently refurbishing it and they have brand new bathrooms outside. I nearly used one of them on my way in. They aren't hooked up to the sewer yet. It would have been tremendously bad...

I went to the round barn, which is a famous Route 66 landmark. They should call it the barn that is hotter than satan's underpants. Because it is! But just as I was so hot that I could barely stand to not turn on the air-conditioner* -  like a beacon my salvation appeared in the distance...

 

 

POPS! It is a diner/gas station/land of sodas.

They seriously have glass bottles of every soda produced in the US. And it was blessedly cool. And I bought a bag of ice to restock the cooler. It was a magical place!

I soaked one of my scarves in the still-quite-icy former ice cube water before I dumped it out and made a snazzy cooling turban which I wore nearly all the way to Clinton. I am very fashion-forward.

*Don't worry, I've gotten over my dislike for driving with the AC on by now. I'm currently in New Mexico and it is 104.

Disclaimer: This picture is from the internet. The reason is because I wanted to cross this bridge, but one of my guidebooks said it was condemned. A different one said there was a group trying to get it fixed. I was getting mixed messages. So when I got to it, I paused. Iit appeared other people were going over it and living, so I got my phone out to document my possible near-death experience on video.

Except I didn't press the damn button.

And I wasn't going to risk my life again to recapture the moment. So just imagine me, in my turban, window open, screaming with fear as I crossed it. Pretty picture!

  This is the entrance to the Stafford Air and Space Museum. It is a fascinating museum that chronicles the life and career of Gemini and Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford. At least I am pretty sure it was fascinating. I just went to the gift shop to get a present for Rich and use the bathroom. Listen, it was getting late and I was tired and it was $7. I'll go to the next Air and Space Museum I run across...

This was the view from my hotel.

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A! O-K!

Aside from cooling me down, the stop at POPS also allowed me to make my dreams come true! I found Green River, the elusive soda pop from Chicago that I have been looking for. (Did I not tell you about that? It is a sad story. I was looking for this soda. And I couldn't find it.) 

 

But POPS had it!!

And they had Big Red in a glass bottle. I have been seeing that in 12 packs on my Green River foraging trips. (Yes, there have been several, I really wanted to try that soda!) But the glass bottle looks awesome. I already had a can of Vess. And when I had tried the other can I bought in St. Louis, I thought, “Meh...” so I didn't bother to look for it at POPS.

They give you a cardboard six-pack holder and you can fill it with singles of all the sodies. So I got regional favorites Green River, Big Red, Vernors (I haven't had it in a glass bottle since the 70s!)and Cheerwine. I also made two terrible mistakes. Mrs. Someonehorrible's Peaches and Cream soda and Saranac Shirley Temple. Blergh...

And once again, I have spent a REALLY long time talking about soda. Perhaps I have some sort of disorder.

I will leave you with this.

I am fairly sure that it is my greatest work.

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.

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!

Day Three St. Louis to Springfield, OK

  I must introduce you to Helen and George. They are the friends of my parents (and now me!) who put us up for the night. And put up with us for the night! They are fun and lovely. And they were kind enough to store my camping equipment for me for the rest of the trip once I came to my senses and realized that there is no way I will be camping in the desert in 100 degree heat. So the probability of bear attacks just went down about 47 percent. I might still taunt or otherwise upset a bear, but it won't be from inside a tent.

  Mom and I said a tearful goodbye. Well, not tearful, but it was a little sad. So mom did a dance in the driveway to cheer me up. I'm going to miss that little grasping-impaired lady!

  Even though it was my first day solo, that didn't stop me from going off route almost immediately. But I had to to get to the LAURA INGALLS WILDER HOME!! And you know I was not going to miss that!

I got to see Laura's travel desk – complete with fake (I assume) $100 bill peeking out of it!

I got to see Pa's fiddle, too.

Which was a little breathtaking. 

Not Lincoln's desk breathtaking, but pretty cool.

 

I did not take a picture of Laura's writing desk in her house because I wasn't allowed to take photos in the house. But during the tour, I was the first person to go into her little writing area. So despite the admonition from the tour guide not to touch anything, I discreetly touched the desk as I walked by. Because I wasn't NOT going to touch the desk.* The woman behind me hissed, "I saw that! I should report you!" and then proceeded to BLATANTLY touch the desk. And then we both giggled, because rules are for other people.

*And yes, if I had six foot long arms I would have touched Lincoln's desk too! I know these are artifacts, but I touched the underside of the writing surface of Laura's desk. Like I was hiding my gum there. (Before you even ask, I did NOT hide my gum there.) I would have touched Lincoln's gum spot too. Not the shiny top where people can see. I can see that this justification is getting out of hand. I'll just stop here. 

I drove up the road a little ways to visit the stone house that Rose Wilder Lane bought for her parents. 

It is just beautiful! And I learned that it was a Sears Roebuck house, which I found fascinating. It has always been a dream of mine to go into a Sears Roebuck house and now I have! See kids, dreams can come true!

I also visited the Wilders' graves. There was a little girl there who was leaving as I got there. She reminded me of me at age 10. She was obviously on a family vacation and her little brothers had had just about enough of this cemetery crap and her lovely, patient parents didn't want to rush her, but they needed to get going.  Right before she left she took a letter out of her pocket and weighed it down with a rock and put it on the base of the gravestone. (You can almost see it between the orange flower and whatever the hell that green thing is on the left.) Once she left, I so desperately wanted to read the letter to see what she wanted to say to Laura. But I didn't. It is enough to know that there are still little girls out there who are so in love with books that they leave letters for dead writers. 

And now, my lunch. Isn't it pretty? I made it from healthy foods from my cooler!

So unlike me.

 This is the hatch of my car. It is practically a gourmet restaurant on wheels.

  Speaking of food... I ate at Steak and Shake for dinner. It was good, but I don't get the fuss. Maybe there is no fuss. Maybe I have been imagining the fuss.But it looked cool, anyway.

After I ate, I was looking for someplace nice to just go and read my book for awhile. There was a young mom waiting for her fella to get back to the car with dinner and she had twins who looked about 3 and a baby definitely under two in the back seat. 

I asked her if she knew anyplace pretty to go and sit. 

She looked at me funny, so I went on. "You know how when you are driving in the afternoon and all the kids fall asleep in their car seats at the same time? Where would you go to enjoy that for a few minutes?"

She broke into a huge smile and gave me directions to a pretty park with a fountain. 

We chatted about kids for a few minutes and I went on my way.

I am glad I made a rule that I have to talk to a stranger a day on this trip!

And finally, here is the Airbnb where I stayed the night. It was the top floor of an adorable bungalow in Springfield. I was a little nervous because I had never stayed in an Airbnb before. But my friend Danielle is a host and she is wonderful! (Come to Beverly and stay at Danielle's) So I just pretended that I was going to stay with Danielle and it worked out fine. You can check out some other photos on their page. But those ones don't have the added bonus of me taking the picture reflected in the mirror. 

And you thought you'd get out of this blog post selfie-free! HA!