Day of 3 states

Started the day in Springfield in a giant Walmart to get a cool box for the car. We stocked up on bread, ham, cheese fruit and car snacks and then returned to the motel to use their ice machine :)

Back on the road the ‘EZ’ guide book I had bought became actually ‘EZ’ as Route 66 runs uninterrupted without any daffy directions for a really good stretch.

First stop, a converted gas station which was called Gary’s Gay Parita. Unfortunately the eponymous Gary died a few years ago, but they have kept it running like a museum. Nice guy told us to explore wherever we like and take lots of photos. Think he was called Geoff..

We enjoyed the scenery (and the solitude) as we often could not see another car for miles around.

Next stop was Red Oak II. A town that has literally been transplanted in the middle of nowhere by an artist who had lovingly restored many elements. We ended up going there twice as we were 10 miles down the road Rich realised he didn’t have his glasses. He remembered he had put them on top of the car whilst applying sunscreen!!!!!
We quickly drove back and drove all round the little town again very slowly retracing our steps. We were just about to lose hope when low and behold there they were in the middle of the road with no discernible damage. We could then laugh a lot and count ourselves lucky for the day!

Next stop was Joplin. This is a larger town which probably has lots to do but we just took some photos of a mural and carried on for the sake of making up time.

We continued on into our 3rd state: Kansas. Route 66 only cuts off a small 13mile corner of Kansas but it has a couple of towns. We enjoyed Galena where they have Cars on the Route- see additional pictures of Rich with Towmater and friends.

Depressingly, apart from these one off attractions most of the route is terribly run down and abandoned, towns long bypassed by the dawn of the Interstate.

I took over driving after Cars so I can say I’ve driven in Kansas, and took us into Oklahoma, our 4th state of the trip. Here the route becomes OK66 and is again easy to follow. First stop in a tiny town called Commerce (a bit of a misnomer). Had a quick stop at a tiny little diner called Dairy King and had some cokes. We actually went in as they advertised Route 66 sheild cookies but sadly the man informed us he had sold out his batch that day.

Next we carried on to Vinita to fuel up ($35 a tank!!) and swap over driving again.

Stopped at a totem pole park and saw the worlds largest totem pole . 90ft! And also eat our cool box sarnies.

Then on into Catoosa, home of the famous blue Whale. We were also excited to see turtles swimming around in the lake in contrast to our road kill count of the day : 11 Armadillos, 2 raccoons and a tortoise, plus something that could have been any of those things...

Our hotel is in Catoosa : Hampton Inn, so we did not get into Tulsa yet. Our hotel provided a free shuttle to the nearby Hard Rock hotel and casino. It would be rude not to so we decided to go. It was quite impressive and a good intro to what Vegas might be like but on a smaller scale! Had a couple of drinks and then lost $40 on slot machines...oh well....