Day 24 Route 66

Some Route 66 states found a couple of good ways to preserve a lot of the old route. In rural areas, they made it the frontage road (or service road or outer road) of the Interstate Freeways. In cities they made it the business route. Those two things help us stay on track as we travel.

Today we crossed the border into Texas. They do things differently here. For instance, freeway rest areas here are picnic areas. They have tables but no other facilities. You can stop and sleep all night if you want to, though. Since we prefer to have electricity to run our furnace fan at night, we probably won’t take them up on that offer.

The leaves are changing color here! It’s hard to remember that they even have trees that have leaves, but in northeast Texas they do. They have seasons in this part of Texas. In fact, Dave says the really bad blizzards we got in Minnesota that came from the south instead of the west originated here.

Our first Route 66 stop today was the former U Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas. The cafe is still in business.

The book says Route 66 comes and goes between Shamrock and McLean, Texas, so we should take I-40. We did. Boy did it feel wrong to be on the Freeway! Plus, we could see Route 66 beside us so we think, for the first time, the book led us wrong.  

It was interesting to see how we responded to being back on the freeway, though. Dave has said if we hit snow or freezing temperatures we might have to get on the freeway and “make a run for it.” Was this foreshadowing of how that would be?

Our next stop was the Texas Route 66 Museum. I like their pictures of things along the route because their photos were of the families that owned the businesses standing in front of them. It was nice to have people in the pictures so the places had some life to them. That doesn’t mean Dave or I are going to stand in front of the things we photograph, though.

I also like the Coke machine they had. This one obviously dates from the days when Coke was not in competition with water.

We went to the McLean post office to pick up our mail but they were closed for lunch. So we toured more of the sites in town while we waited. While driving from one place to another we met a John Deere tractor driving down brick Main Street I wish I’d had my camera ready to get that picture! Here’s another Phillips 66 station. Note the outside rack for servicing cars.

And here’s the Cactus Motel. Housekeeping was moving from room to room while we were there.

 

Then we returned to the post office but it still wasn’t open so we snacked while we waited. Then, having received a read a bunch of our mail, we moved on.

This leaning water tower is in Groom, Texas. Lot’s of people stop there to ask them what happened. Which is precisely the point. It was built that way so people would stop rather than just drive by.

Then we stopped in Amarillo, Texas, for lupper. If a combination breakfast and lunch is brunch, isn’t a combination lunch and supper lupper? The Big Texan Steak Ranch’s claim to fame is a 72 oz steak dinner that you get for free if you can eat it all in an hour. Otherwise you pay $72. We were pretty hungry but decided not to risk it. We settled for smaller steaks. Besides they make you sit up on a stage next to a countdown clock if you order the big one. As former Minnesotans that’s too much attention.

Then we went to the A-OK campground where we planned to spend the night. But, they had too much electricity. Our EMS, electrical management system, shuts down the incoming electricity if it gets as high as 132 volts. When Dave plugged in our EMS it read 130 then 131. Rather than having our electricity turn on and off all night again, we moved to the Amarillo Ranch RV Park. It cost more but it also had a book exchange where I traded in six books, so I guess we came out OK.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 23 Route 66

Our first stop today was at the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma, which had as advertised “a mother lode of stuff”. 

 

Our next stop was McLain Rogers Park, site of some beautiful neon and a Depression era outdoor ampitheater. When we drove under the sign I heard a terrible scraping noise and thought we were surely tearing something off the roof. Nope, it was just our Segway hitch scraping on the dip in driveway. I should recognize that sound by now.

  

Then we drove by the Tradewinds Motel but the sun was wrong so our picture of the sign is not worth posting. The Tradewinds claim to fame is that Elvis slept there. Four times. So, if you are an Elvis fan, you’ll want to stop there sometime yourself.

Next we went to the Anadarko Basin Museum, in Elk City, Oklahoma, which has a display portraying Route 66’s relationship to oil and gas. We didn’t get to see the display, though, because the museum was closed. And it wasn’t even late in the day yet. We did take pictures of the rig on display outside. We had to take two pictures because it’s too tall to get it in one. That’s our RV parked at the base of it in the second photo.

 

Then we stopped at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City. I don’t know why they got to call theirs the national one. It was located in the Old Town Museum. My impression is the Old Town Museum wasn’t drawing enough traffic so they put a few things from Route 66 into part of it. It did have a good video, though, which made it worth the stop. If we had more time and mobility we might have enjoyed the rest of Old Town but we only paid for the Route 66 part.

Then we headed west, enjoying the scenery but not making any stops. It was interesting to watch farm land turn to ranch land. You can feel the transition from Midwest to Far West.

Texola is the last town in Oklahoma before you cross into Texas. We made that our stop for the night. Actually for two nights since we decided to do laundry here. The Double D RV Park is located at what I suppose is technically a truck stop, but it’s gravel drive kind of place with a small town feel to it. You check into the RV park at the gas station. The restrooms with their showers are shared with the restaurant where we ate supper along with plenty of locals. And the laundry had one good washing machine and one dryer. So Dave spent most of a day doing our five loads of laundry while I, once again, worked on our trip research.  

I’m far enough along on that project now to be able to start branching out beyond Route 66. I started a new spread sheet for Highway 101 since I’m sure we’ll do that sometime. I probably should have focused on the southern U.S. border, though, since that’s where we plan to go when we finish Route 66. Highway 101 traveling south to north is not something we want to do at this time of year.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 22 Route 66

Yesterday we drove from the Lucky Star Casino in El Reno, Oklahoma, to the Lucky Star Casino in Clinton, Oklahoma. The first one had full hookups but no shuttle. At the second one the shuttle driver said they had no hookups until we said we wouldn’t stay then he found a 30 amp electrical one for us. Neither charged a fee and neither made us sign up for a player’s card so they don’t even know who we are. This free camping is helping our budget a lot.

When we left camp we went first to WalMart where we mailed our absentee ballots, filled some prescriptions, restocked our groceries, and bought a hanging shoe bag.  

The shoe bag is designed to hang on the back of a door. We cut the bottom off it and hung it on the back of the dinette just inside the door. Now we have a place to keep our shoes handy where they won’t rattle around.

Then we went to a recycling center that didn’t want our pop cans. They were closed for lunch and were frustrated that we couldn’t find the container labeled cans. We were frustrated, too; we are still carrying that bag of cans.

Finally, we headed on down Route 66.  As we neared a place where there were two possible routes, there was a big sign from the Calumet Chamber of Commerce urging us to take their route. The smaller sign said “Paved Route 66”. We chose paved.

The route we chose was “interesting” enough. It was two narrow lanes of the original pink concrete and it followed the contours of the land; they didn’t grade the roads back then like they so now. So it was full of what the turn-by-turn author called “dipsy doodles”. It felt a lot like some kiddy carnival ride. To make matters worse, the angled curbs they used channeled all the water to the bottom of each hill where it froze and broke up the concrete so each of those places had been patched with asphalt which also didn’t hold up well. Like I said, it was an “interesting” ride.

We stopped for lunch at a truck stop at a Cherokee Restaurant. I had a barbecued buffalo sandwich.  I like buffalo; it’s lean but tasty. Dave’s French dip was made with slices of real beef roast. So we both went away happy.

Next we did take an alternate route because we wanted to cross the bridge of 38 spans. Most of it went over flood plain but it did eventually cross a river.

Our next Route 66 stop was Lucille’s in Hydro, Oklahoma. Unfortunately Lucille is no longer with us so there is just the building and a monument telling her story.

In the next town, Weatherford, Oklahoma, there is a Lucille’s Roadhouse in a similar building with an art deco addition. It felt to me like they were trying to take advantage of the original Lucille’s popularity but maybe it belonged to her family. I don’t know.

Also, in Weatherford we found a propane dealer. He was pleased to fill our tank for us so we wouldn’t have to worry about our furnace going out in the night. He had two dogs. The tiny chihuahua marked our tire as if that made him the owner of our motorhome. Oh, if only it were that easy!

It was still early when we reached Clinton, Oklahoma, but not early enough to visit the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum located here. We didn’t have any potential campgrounds on our list here, either. So when we saw the sign for the Lucky Star Casino we felt lucky indeed. Another night’s free camping and another night when we didn’t have to cook. This casino’s restaurant turned out to be just a fast food style deli but their sandwiches were good. And we have a good internet signal. What else could we want?

TTYL,

Linda

Day 21 Route 66

Yesterday was supposed to be a travel day but winds gusting to 39 miles an hour made us decide to stay parked. I spent most of the day researching our route and realized I hadn’t told you what that involves.  So here goes.

I did tell you we bought two books in Chicago about touring Route 66. One of them is a turn by turn description of the road itself and the other is a list of things to see and do along the way. So being the spreadsheet freak that I am, I started a new spreadsheet and listed the things to do and see and their locations. The turn by turn book added a few more places. Websites about Route 66 added some more.

Then I turned on my mapping software. I use Street Atlas USA to mark our route so I can see what towns we will be passing through.

Also on Street Atlas,  I have a bunch of files downloaded from discoveryowners.com. Those include locations of things like WalMart SuperStores, Flying J truck stops, Corps of Engineers campgrounds, etc. So I look at my route and see which of those places lay along it and add them to my spreadsheet.

Then I go to my membership campground directories and add places we can camp at discounted rates. We belong to Passport America which gives us a 50% discount on their parks. We also belong to Escapees, Good Sam, and Winnebago/Itasca Travelers each of which is usually good for a discount of about 15%.

Then I go to my Nick Russell e-books. Nick is a former newspaperman who has been fulltiming for eight years and during that time he has gathered lots of information on free and cheap places to camp. I pick a state we will be visiting and go through his campground, fairground, and casino books marking each location in the state on my Street Atlas Map. Then I add the ones that lay along our route to the spreadsheet.

By now, my spreadsheet is getting pretty long but it is incomplete. Most of the places on it don’t yet have addresses. So I Google each one to get the address, time of opening if it’s a museum, cost if it has one, and a short description of the place. If the place is a campground, I also look it up on rvparkreviews.com to see what others have thought of the park.

If I still have time, I Google state tourist bureaus for any other information they might offer. And if I have even more time, I Google towns along the route. That’s how I found the Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa.

Then I give each town a sequence number so I can sort them in the order we will reach them. And I give each category of stops a number so the museums will sort to the top of each town, the drive-by sites will sort next, the shopping/eating places will sort next, and the campgrounds will sort last. That way a quick look at the list while we are driving will tell me what’s coming up.

Then I decide how much of that we are likely to do today and select that portion for printing.

Finally we are ready to hit the road knowing we are not likely to miss something we’ll regret because we have lots of data to help us decide what to do when and where.

TTYL,

Linda

Day 21 Route 66

We’ve decided we’re not going to make it over the mountains before winter hits at the rate we are traveling. Our current answer to that is to stop making so many stops. We will assume we will pass this way again and only do the stops directly connected to traveling Route 66. No more history museums that are interesting but not relevant to THIS trip. So, today we drove into Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but did not go to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, etc.

We did stop to take pictures of the Owl Court Motel and the milk bottle building since they are Route 66 icons. We didn’t get a picture of the Route 66 Bowl because it was not safe to stop on that busy road.

 

We did stop at WalMart to pick up things the last one was was out of.

And we stopped for lunch at Lee’s Sandwiches at 3300 Clausen Boulevard, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  

Euro-Asian was accurate. You could buy cheese and pate’ and pastries or Spring Rolls and sushi or sandwiches made on freshly baked baguettes or croissants. You could buy a whole coconut that had it’s shell removed. You could buy a smoothie in avocado or mango or one of many other exotic flavors. Or cups of oriental vegetables. Or bags of Frito-Lay brand chips. I can’t imagine anyone going in here and not finding something they’d like to eat. No, I’m not going to tell you what we had. Go choose your own.

In Yukon, Oklahoma, we stopped to take pictures of Yukon’s Best Flour, another Route 66 icon. Here’s the best one we got.

In El Reno, Oklahoma, we went north on Highway 81 when 66 turned west so we could go to the Lucky Star Casino for a couple of nights. We are liking this free camping with water and electric hookups. We plan to stay here while Dave works on a computer project for the Escapees Class of ’08 and I do more research of what’s on down the road being careful to not keep adding things that are not Route 66 related.

TTYL,

Linda