5/11/12- Hank’s a lot!

Goldie and Me (that tiny thing by his left foot)

 Before hitting the road this morning we saw a little of what Tulsa had to offer. After departing the mint green palace, we headed to Tulsa’s Rt 66 Harley Davidson store for a merchandising detour. Then we headed to the Golden Driller, “a 76-foot tribute to Tulsa’s oil heritage,” the largest giant we’ve seen so far.

For an early lunch we headed to Hank’s Hamburgers for some great burgers and tater tots. Our order took some time but it was worth it. The ¼ pound burgers are cooked on the flat top on top of onions which caramelize and become part of the patty. Good stuff!

From there we took a driving tour of downtown Tulsa to see the city’s characteristic Art Deco architecture and the Blue Dome gas station. The Blue Dome also lends its name to the district in which it resides, a former warehouse district now home to numerous bars and restaurants.

 

In Oklahoma there are many places you can drive the old pavement- which is concrete, though in some cases it’s covered in a thin layer of asphalt- and we take as many opportunities to do so as we can. We took a few this leg of the trip, one with original 1928 concrete. These loops tend to be winding and curve through residential districts or farmland, away from the current highway. It really gives you a sense of what it was like to drive 66 back when IT was the highway.

In Sapulpa we completed a “virtual” geocache outside the restored Trolley Car in town. Mom took my picture in front of it from inside the car because it was raining. Hopefully it still counts! In the off and on rain we made our way through several more towns, most with remnants of old 66, like neon signs and vintage diners. It seems things don’t change too fast in these small towns. Except for giant penguins, they are never where you expect them. Yesterday our EZ guide gave us a GIANT ALERT for a giant penguin that was nowhere to be seen. Again today, we were promised a GIANT PENGUIN- but no! it wasn’t in town. We drove all around to see if we could spot it. Nothing. So, of course, when we gave up and headed out of town, there it was! In the middle of a Chrysler dealership lot, surrounded by cars, and not very big to boot. But, at least we found one of those wily penguins.

A few towns later we were forced to take a detour. A 50-mile detour. Since there are so few towns in central OK, there are few roads and we were diverted 50 miles roundtrip to bypass a 10 mile stretch of road. Our detour was so long we ended up in Prague! Well, Prague, Oklahoma that is. (Too bad it wasn’t kolache fest, or we may have stayed). When we finally made it back to the Route, we were in the current home of the author of our EZ66 Guide, Jerry McClanahan. His studio is there and he invites all of us intrepid travelers to visit him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t there when we dropped by. We’ll get ya on the way back, Jerry!

In tiny Arcadia, OK is the 1898 Round Barn, a truly round, not octagonal, barn with a dome roof. Perhaps given the inclement weather, the power was out in town so we couldn’t see the gift shop or RT 66 exhibit (it was too dark in the basement) but we did find out from the volunteer there that the largest round barn is in Wisconsin. Who can tell me where?

Giant bottle outside Pop's- it lights up at night

Outside of Arcadia is Pop’s, an enormous rest area with over 400 kinds of pop, plus a giant illuminated pop bottle out front. After buying our mix-and-match 6-pack of pop we headed into Oklahoma City. The tour had us taking a road into town that put us on a, seemingly, collision course with the capital’s beautiful Capitol Building. We didn’t stop to look inside, just admired from afar. The main attraction for us, mom especially, was the Oklahoma City National Memorial for the bombing in 1995. It was a very touching and emotional memorial which included a reflecting pool and rows of empty chairs representing the lives lost that day. The most touching part were the personal memorials- trinkets and pictures tucked into a chain link fence on the far side of the memorial site- honoring friends and family members affected by the tragedy.

Outside of Oklahoma City we crossed a 1924 bridge that was slated to be closed but we were happy to see it was not. A few more towns later we finally stopped in El Reno, had a late dinner and came back to the room to relax- driving is perplexingly exhausting. Hopefully we reach Texas tomorrow!

Until we meet again, C