Day 19 Route 66

Yesterday we traveled about 15 miles from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Today we plan to travel about 50 miles to Chandler, Oklahoma. There are so many things to see along Route 66. I try not to schedule more than one museum per day since my body generally doesn’t tolerate more than that which also slows us down. Of course, the fact that we start moving so late in the day doesn’t help.

So this morning I got up earlier than usual and was ready to hit the road by 10:30 a.m. Since the museum I had planned to tour here this morning isn’t open today, we headed out.  

We didn’t get far before our first obstacle, though. A semi with a flatbed was parked sideways across three of the four lanes of the road. They were loading a cabin to be delivered to its new home. We were in the lane that got to go by while the oncoming cars waited so it wasn’t much of a delay.  

For some reason I don’t have stops listed on my spread sheet for the next several towns. Well, I did have some camping places listed but we just got started so we don’t need them. So we drove right through Kellyville, Bristow, and Depew. Along the way we saw several things that probably would have been on my list if I had known they existed. I wonder how people decide what places to put in their guidebooks?

As we approached Stroud we drove by the shoe tree. We didn’t know we were close enough to Stroud for it to be there yet but we knew it was next on our list. When we saw it, it took a moment for us to realize that’s what it was. Something compelled us to actually back down the shoulder of the road to take a picture of it. I’m not sure why. We haven’t backed up for many things we missed on the first pass. Anyway, here’s the shoe tree for whatever it is worth.

We had planned to stop for lunch at the Rock Cafe but someone cooked it a couple of months ago.

So we went on into Chandler, Oklahoma, looking for another place to eat. Along the way we found the Phillips 66 station in Chandler. We didn’t get it’s picture on our first pass either and when we returned after lunch someone was hanging a huge political sign from the Phillips 66 sign. Don’t they know they aren’t supposed to do that to historic places? So we just took a picture of the building rather than try to get the entire scene. This building dates back to when they were actually gas stations before they became service stations before they became convenience stores.

After lunch we went to see the museum we had scheduled for this afternoon: The Museum of Pioneer History. It was supposed to include a display on the early days of Route 66. It didn’t. It had some interesting stuff but being in a downtown storefront space it only took about a half hour to see everything we were interested in. I did like several of their exhibits, especially this woman’s letter to her daughter explaining how to do laundry.

So, now it was still early afternoon and we had done everything on today’s list. Since the first museum we had planned to see today was closed and the second only took a little time, we decided to risk moving on to the next one in this same town: The Route 66 Interpretive Center.

Good decision. Most of the displays in The Route 66 Interpretive Center are short videos at locations spread around a huge space in a former Armory. Each space has some unusual “seating”.  At one you sit in seats removed from a Model A Ford, in another it was seats from a Mustang, in another it was a bed representing laying in the back of your station wagon at a drive in movie, in another it was actual theater seats, etc. Some of the videos were “On The Road” type interviews. Some were collages of old post cards. Some were clips of old photos. All were interesting. And because they provided seating for all these I was able to stay the rest of the afternoon looking and learning. Plus, they had the early days display that was missing from the Pioneer Museum.

So, now we had done all of today’s items and the first of tomorrow’s items and it was still daylight! Apparently that’s what getting up in the morning does. I may try it again sometime.

Now it didn’t seem to make sense to backtrack to the RV park we had planned to stay in tonight since we didn’t need to be here in the morning for that last museum. So, we headed on down the road for our next detour.

Internet friends, Steve and Carol, are staying at Fire Lake Grand Casino in Shawnee, Oklahoma, less than 30 miles south of Route 66. We had made plans to visit them tomorrow but why not go on down today? So, we did. We arrived about 5 p.m. just as they were expecting other Internet friends, Larry and Sharon. Once we got sorted out who was who we had a great visit. When Larry & Sharon arrived, we all parked our RVs, connected our utility lines, then headed over to the casino to eat. Where we talked for hours. We already felt we knew these people from the Escapees Discussion Forum but we know them even better now. It’s good to make new friends.

TTYL,

Linda