It seemed like a short night, probably because we decided that we really needed to get on the road a little earlier for now. We had a busy day on Friday, and felt a little rushed, not to mention that we started getting tired of riding at about 4pm. Since today was pretty busy as well, we decided to get a jump on things and hit the road by at least 7am this time. Glad we did, too! It was a fun filled day!
We started out at a little gas station (replica) called Gay Parita. As we drove up, and pulled to the side of the road, Jon spotted Sheriff from Cars!
The gift shop wasn't open yet, but the front gates were wide open, inviting us to come in and take a look around. That is the thing I am learning on this trip, people who live on the route and have these little road side attractions (or a piece of history on their land) pretty much all welcome you in to enjoy what they have. This was something that was obviously a labor of love for these folks. I was sorry they weren't up yet, so that we could meet them!
We stopped for gas a little further down the road and found this interesting piece of "art"!
The Crapduster - Half Cropduster, Half Manure Spreader.
We drove on along to Carthage, MO where we pulled over to check out the 66 Drive-in. This was our first encounter with a group of motorcyclists from Australia. Throughout the day, we passed each other at each stop. We kind of blended in with them a few times, as they would overpower our little family of four, since there were around 15 bikes, some with passengers as well as a couple chase cars in case of trouble.
Before long, and many old motels and old gas stations later, we "cut the corner of Kansas for the 13 miles that route 66 covers there. We came to the town of Galena, an old mining town, and met a man directing traffic in the street. One look and we knew we had made it to Cars on the Route (formerly 4 Women on the Route). Their clam to fame is that the Disney/Pixar folks found the inspiration for Tow Mater there. We looked twice and noticed that not only do they have their "Tow Tater" (had to be renamed because of copyrights), they now have a Tow Mater sitting beside him!
We met a lady named Melba Rigg who is one of the owners. We learned from her that she was interviewed for the DVD extras on the Cars 2 movie! She touts herself as a really fast talker, and she proved that indeed she CAN speak very fast. I don't know what she said, though.
We drove on toward Baxter Springs and crossed the Rainbow Arch bridge. Really cool old bridge.
Next we stopped in at SACS 66 in Baxter Springs. It is a cool antique store that had a penny smasher machine that Jon wanted to use. We put in our quarters and penny and tuned the crank, but nothing happened. Then the lady behind the counter said that she has had this happen before, and said that the new pennies sometimes get stuck. So she came over with her own quarters and penny to try to push ours through, but it got stuck, too! She called her husband from the back room and he came out to take the back off the machine and get the pennies unstuck. He had a stroke not long ago, so it took him a little longer, but we didn't mind, they were great people. We told them we understood and that Dad had one, and we understood things taking a little longer. We were just happy that they were so willing to try to fix it! Soon enough, her husband pushed the two pennies through and then the lady gave us back our quarters and penny and we tried it again. This time it worked! We thanked them, and Mom bought some jam from them and we headed on.
In just a couple miles, we crossed out of Kansas and into Oklahoma, and Jon says "Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" We all died laughing at the perfect timing of his comment. I think he had waited since hearing we were going through Kansas to say that!
Next we got to Commerce, OK, the hometown of Mickey Mantle of New York Yankees fame. We found the Mickey Mantle Field and the statue. As we walked a long winding walkway to the statue, I thought to myself, Dad sure would have enjoyed seeing that. He always did love baseball, and passed along the love of the game to me.
We continued on and saw a house that was from the Sears and Roebuck catalog. The entire house! The person who bought it had seen it at the Chicago World's Fair and ordered it. It was delivered by rail as a kit, that was assembled on site. The story goes that only one single board was not cut right as they put the kit together. Not bad when you think about it being a 2,400 sq ft house!
We went on to Totem Pole park, which is just outside Foyil, OK. It was one of those places that you just have to see to appreciate. We learned about Ed Galloway, the creator. The lady at the museum and gift shop sat us down on some chairs he had made nearly 100 years ago, and told us all about Ed being a woodworker by trade, but that he had always been a creator. He made fiddles out of wood from all over the world, and on them are intricate designs made by using small pieces of different types of wood to make pictures.
The large totem pole took him 11 years to complete. It is 90 feet tall, 18 feet in diameter and the base of it is 54 inches thick. He used 100 tons of sand and rock, 28 tons of cement and 6 tons of steel to build.
He mixed it all in a 5 gallon bucket.
The next stop was in Catoosa, OK. Jon had been waiting patiently to see the Blue Whale.
This whale was built by Hugh Davis as a "surprise" for his wife for their anniversary in the early 1970's. It became a swimming hole for locals and travelers who were driving Route 66. We met back up with the Australian bikers there, and Jon climbed up in the whale to get a look out the port hole windows on the second level.
We then pulled in to Broken Arrow, OK, where we met my Dad's best friend (who each considered the other their brother) for dinner. It was nice to see him again, he and his family used to live in Smyrna, but moved several years ago for his job. The last time I saw him was when he visited Dad when he was sick.
As for the hotel, I would like to make sure that those reading my blog never consider staying at the Best Western in Broken Arrow, OK. We have stayed in some nice places, and some ok places, but that one was horrible. I do believe they built mattresses out of plywood and 2x4's because there was absolutely no give what so ever in them. The lady at the front desk was rude, acted like we were inconveniencing her anytime we walked by. Asking for an extra blanket got me a long drawn out sigh since she had to get off the lobby couch and stop watching Chopped on the Food Network. Boohoo!
Oh well, she won't rain on my parade. On to Elk City, OK next!
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