Route 66 Leg 1 (2011)

Since I have given you a series over the past couple weeks about our recent road trip on Route 66, I decided to take you back in time to before I had this blog on our first Route 66 adventure in 2011.    It was just a month or so after Tyler and I were "official" and about 3 months after we initially started dating, we decided to take a roadtrip one January afternoon to see some sites on Route 66.  I'd never seen any of them although I've always lived in Oklahoma, so we started making plans.  Tyler's roommate at the time came along with us, and the two of them planned our trip to visit the sites from Oklahoma City westward. We took 66 through parts of the city, near the State Capitol, and suburbs in Bethany and Yukon.

A blurry picture of the Oklahoma State Capitol.  In my defense, I took this picture a long time ago.

Flour mill in Yukon from Route 66.

While the boys were mapping out the course of travel, they found a place called "Smith and Turner Mortuary."  It was funny, because Tyler's last name is Smith, and my last name was Turner.  I had no clue where we were stopping until we pulled up in front of the sign and got out to take a picture.  Clever and funny, those two silly boys were.

After that stop, we headed west on different broken sections of Route 66.  Since that highway has been replaced by newer highways, you can't always drive the whole stretch without having to jump onto the new highway and get off again onto the old 66.  

We went through El Reno, and stopped at Tyler's all time favorite onion burger joint in the state of Oklahoma, Robert's Grill.

I will now speak for Tyler, and tell you that you have to eat at Robert's Grill.  Because he always tells everyone that when the subject comes up.  A nice plus to this place is that their burgers are a really good bargain, but if you're into yummy, greasy, onion burgers then the quality is great.  I'm pretty sure Tyler is a walking advertisement for this place.

There really aren't a lot of stops for Route 66 in western Oklahoma.  The first major thing you'll see once you're west of El Reno are giant windmills from the highway.

 One of the other few 66 sites along the way.

We drove west to Clinton, Oklahoma and visited the Route 66 Museum, which was very interesting.
It was filled with a lot of antiques and Route 66 memorabilia.

Tyler in the telephone booth!  I'm not sure why he is squatting though.

Don't you wish gas pumps still looked this pretty instead of the smelly ugly boxes that they are now?

I'm sure these were still smelly, but atleast they looked nice.

Did you know the first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, and designed by professors at Oklahoma State?

After the Route 66 Museum, we headed back toward our little college town in Norman.  

But first, to stop by a tank on the side of the road.

Now both of the boys with the tank.

Just the beginning of a pretty sunset.

And really, when has Oklahoma not ended the day with a beautiful sunset?

I do believe this is about half of the Devon tower while it was under construction.  Hard to tell with the awful picture quality.

Have you ever driven any parts of historic Route 66?  What is your favorite Route 66 site?  

For those who aren't from the US, do you have any famous historic highways or roads in your country?

Pop's - OKLA Route 66

The last stop of our spontaneous road trip on Route 66 was to Pop's - a stylish service station and one-stop-shop for almost any kind of pop you can imagine.  Pop's is located in Arcadia, Oklahoma - right off Route 66.  

Especially beautiful at night, the white architecture with soft lights invites locals and tourists alike to come in to choose an assortment of pop in vintage style glass bottles (really, you can't get those just anywhere in America these days), or to sit down to a classic American burger and fries.  

The front and back of the station are made of glass, with shelves upon shelves of sodas lining the interior portion of the glass.

You can choose from a creative selection of pop.  The coolers are labeled with general soda flavors, and then you can pick your specialty within that category.

Some of the selections are more about the packaging that what's inside.  

It's  the ideology that counts.

Leninade, Stalinade, and Cream My People - politically charged drinks available at Pop's.

Here you can see the whole back wall filled with soda bottles.  However, these bottles are not the ones for sale - they're just for showcasing the windows and are actually glued down.

In front of the station is a giant light up pop bottle with a straw that turns all sorts of different colors.

Each ring turns a new color until the whole bottle has finally changed colors.

Pop's is a relatively short distance from Oklahoma City, so it is often a popular destination for groups of friends, college students, and date nights.

You always have to drink one of your purchases while you're there, but even better is taking the rest of your 6 pack home to keep for later.  

We didn't actually fill the 6 pack, but the carrier is still very useful when you buy more than two.

Here in Oklahoma, we are in the middle of several different prominent regions in the US, each of which use different terms to refer to flavored carbonated sugary drinks.  Oklahomans therefore are just stuck in the middle of the cultural terminology for the drink, but most of us either use pop, soda, or coke to refer to any and all of them.  

One of my two choices was this "Hippo Size" Burley Birch Beer - very close to root beer.

I have personally grown up using the term "pop," but it really depends on your family as to which word you are accustomed to saying.  Just from my observations, it seems that using "coke" to refer to all brands of pop tends to happen most in the southern part of the state, but can be found anywhere in the state.  It always confusing when someone who uses "coke" as their general term states that they want a coke, and those who use an alternate word may think they mean a coca-cola, when in reality they just meant soda.

My other choice - both from the section for root beers.

What is the prominent term for non-alcoholic carbonated sugary beverages in your part of the world, and do you refer to it in the same way?

Blue Whale of Catoosa - OKLA Route 66

One roadside attraction on Route 66 I've really wanted to see for a while was the Blue Whale.

What attracted me to it is how it is just so odd, colorful, and one-of-a-kind.

Plus we don't have whales in Oklahoma, which just makes this so funky and fun.

This was our last 66 stop for the day before dark, and the sun was beginning to set, which made for incredible skies and great reflections in the pond.

I never realized the whale was actually a dock that you can walk out on, as well as a retired swimming hole playground.  Can't you imagine the bliss of sliding into the water off a giant blue whale fin?

Tyler is just about to enter the belly of the whale!  

The whale is constructed of concrete and steel, with chicken wire holding things together on the inside.

There are all kinds of places that could have been used to jump in the pond when this was still a water park.  

The whale tail doubles as a great jumping location - although the pond is now shallow from drought and swimming hasn't been allowed here since the '80s.

The dock's construction.

This is the view toward the whale's mouth from inside the whale.  You can see several pipes and hoses that must have been used to run water down the slides.

The whale fins on each side are slides into the pond.

There is a second deck up above!  It looked pretty cool...but we didn't go up there.

But Tyler may have taken a peek...

Me with the blue whale!

This is the only picture of me Tyler took, and we forgot to check it very closely - my face is distorted!  Oops!  Oh well, I'm using it anyway.

What are some unique or odd roadside attractions near you?