September 30, 2012 — Sunday
A sunny Sunday as we left the excellent Best Western Plus Suites-Tulsa Central where picky me found nothing to complain about. The accommodations and staff were tiptop, especially Faith, formerly from a small town near Bombay, India. And let’s not forget Betty the Mon-Fri breakfast lady, a hardworking Okie lady proud of her work and city, who called us ‘sugar’. In the parking lot we met four delightful French guys on rented Harleys sporting small French flags also doing Rt. 66: Jerome, Julien, Greg and Gilles. I tried my rusty French, they said they’d flown into ‘Shee-caw-go’ and would ride all the way to LA, stopping where the spirit moved them, spirit a key word because they had dubbed themselves The Jack Daniels Team. We took a group photo and said “a bientot, see you on the road”.
Our first 66 icon of the day was the Blue Whale in Catoosa, and it really is a huge blue whale that sits on a little lake by the road. You can enter through its mouth and slide down into the water. The whale park was closed for swimming, but we thought it would be fun to do some other trip.
On the way out of Tulsa, once again we saw the Meadow Gold Dairy sign, which we saw in its full neon glory last night. The dairy is no more, but the sign was saved, restored, and sits on its own throne-like concrete pad, re-lit in May 2009 which made Tulsa folks very happy.
Further west we braked several times for the great murals in Sapulpa, reproductions of antique advertising on the sides of commercial buildings downtown. More towns on the route should restore or create murals to generate tourist traffic, civic pride and downtown rejuvenation.
Next up: between Depew and Stroud, The Shoe Tree. Now this is strange, one two-story high tree with dozens of shoes hanging from it, all kinds of shoes, and a few smaller trees 12-15′ with even more shoes. No signs, no explanation, no way anyone could throw shoes that high and make ’em stick, but somehow, yes, way.
Time for lunch, and the perfect place popped up, the Rock Cafe in Stroud. The first table in the door, there sat our French road buddies. Big bonjours all ’round. This is a great diner and it was jammed. Felt like everyone in the county had stopped in for Sunday lunch. The cafe is extra special because a fire destroyed it in 2008, but townspeople and 66ers from all over the world pitched in labor and money to re-build it from native rock and re-open one year later, to the day. Leaving Stroud is a classic mom & pop 66 motel, the Skyliner Motel, with another of those wonderful neon signs.
We didn’t know when we stopped, but Chandler’s Route 66 Interpretive Center would be the day’s highlight. For a small town, this museum in a former armory is amazing. Right inside the door we met Judy, a docent volunteer who was born in Chandler, left after high school, returned in 1998, and is thrilled the armory and town have a new life. Judy was as full 0f information as her bubbly personality. A wedding was about to start in the large events room, a dewy, young couple who looked as though they just graduated high school, but she ushered us into the main museum room, pointing out the satellite view of Chandler painted on the floor and all the interactive exhibits. When I say interactive, I mean it…like lying down on a double bed coated with heavy plastic, punch a button and watch a short video on a screen in front of you…or sit down in one of those classic metal yard chairs, these painted turquoise, punch another button and watch another short video. The video bits were fun: a swing, easy chairs, a bench atop a brick sidewalk, a Red Flyer wagon, and more, each with a short but fun/interesting video. The best video was a 20-minute film about a local, Dick Besser, telling his Rt. 66 adventure and every second of it was fascinating. We sat in old-fashioned movie theatre plush seats, pushed another button, and watched Dick recount how he drove his 1939 Ford from Amherst, NJ with another junior college graduate, both headed to get engineering degrees at the University of Arizona in Tucson–2,545 miles with his trusty Ford getting 17.8 miles to the gallon and a vital waterbag hung on the front of the car. The guys got there in one piece, with one scare when he lost his brakes east of Winslow, AZ because his friend had left the handbrake on by accident. On 4/8/2000 Fred and his wife repeated the trip in a 2000 red Corvette. We wished we could have met Dick Besser and swapped 66 stories.
Our next stop was Arcadia’s Round Red Barn, one of the biggy 66 icons–seen in every 66 book. It’s a real beauty, really red, and really round. A farmer built it round because he thought Oklahoma’s infamous tornadoes would go around it. It collapsed at 12:09 pm on 6/29/1988 and as one local described it, “just kind of sighed and fell in like a souffle.” The barn was restored and dedicated 4/4/1992 and is now in its 114th year. The upstairs accoustics were phenomenal, matched by the intricate pattern of wood spokes in the ceiling, a master work of folk art.
From sublime to soda, which is POPS, a newish 66 attraction that opened in 2006, and it grabs your attention today just as the classic tourist traps did to 66 travelers from 1930’s and onward. POPS is a lighted 66-foot tall pop bottle on the west end of Arcadia. There’s a hoppin’ 50’s dinner in classic black and white with punches of hot pink and turquoise–and two very tall facing glass walls with every soda pop on the planet, seriously, soda of every flavor from every country that makes soda. We’re talking cucumber, melon, creamed corn, cotton candy, over 50 types of root beer, dozens of ginger beers, old-timey favorites like Hires/Orange Crush/Nehi Grape/Chocola, and of course, the special Route 66 pops: cola, root beer, lime, orange, cream soda, and black cherry. We had to try a lime and root beer…pop, fizz, oh how good they is.
Our final icon stop was a zigzag off 66 to Edmond’s TeePee Church. It took a while to find it, but thanks to I-Pad GPS and patience, we came spotted it a half mile away. Built 1947-48, Bruce Goff designed the Hopewell Baptist church to look like a teepee, conical in shape, sloping sides 80′ tall its tent poles actually surplus oilfield pipes. Although it was listed on the National Historical Register in 2002, the building has been unused for several years; a recent preservation/restoration project has begun and a sign boasted “First Annual TeePee Church Golf Tournament” later in October. This marvelous building is in desperate disrepair, so we wish the fundraising golf tournament super success.
As we drove toward Oklahoma City, we passed a tranquil farm field, full of massive trees and dozens of cows lying in the shade on the green, green grass. The scene was such a slice of heartland America, we turned around to photograph it. Such a scene, so many scenes and sites to make the head and heart glad to be alive, such a day.