Thursday, August 05, 1999
Day 5: Claremore, OK - Clinton, OK
Today the air was so thick with humidity that when I first took my camera out of the car to take a picture, it instantly fogged up. Evidently, it rained overnight, but it had stopped by morning. We stayed in Claremore, Oklahoma as I said yesterday. We went to the area of the Will Rogers museum looking for a statue of him (Will Rogers, that is) in order to take a picture. Well we took a picture of a statue of a guy, but I'm pretty sure it's NOT Will Rogers. Oh well, I'll label it "not Will Rogers". We passed on the Will Rogers museum because we wanted to get going on the road, and Chris wasn't interested in learning more about Will. I told him he will need to write a paper on Will Rogers next year in school. He says, no, he still wants to write a paper on the Times Beach Government Conspiracy thing he's convinced is going on.
The drive through Tulsa was pretty dull, though we saw lots of old motels, gas stations, and other vacant buildings sitting empty, slowly deteriorating.
After Tulsa, we were able to follow a number of short sections of original 1920's route. These sections would wind away from the more "modern" route through farmlands and countryside, over old rusted bridges with trees sometimes forming tunnels over the road. Once again we noticed the 45 degree curbs along these sections. The difference in Oklahoma is that the old concrete roads have an almost orangish-red color. This no doubt comes from the fact that the dirt here in Okie-land is RED....no kiddin'.....RED!!! I've never seen anything like it.
We even traveled down a section of Route 66 that was the route for only 2 years--1925 & 26 that was dirt.....not gravel.....just red dirt.....cool.
In Arcadia we stopped at the "Round Barn". The story is that this is the only round barn in Oklahoma. The guy staffing at the barn was "Butch." He was a guy probably in his early 60's who lived next door to the barn. He was full of stories about the restoration of the structure which had taken place several years ago. On one wall in the lower level of the barn there were many pictures of round barns from around the United States and the world, actually. I told him I was from Michigan, and he said there's one round barn in Michigan that he's been trying to get a picture of for years.....guess where.......EVART!!!!! Yep, less than 20 miles from home. I told Butch I'd get him a picture of that barn as soon as possible after I get home. Upstairs, he said that's where the man died......yep, died going round and round trying to find a corner. (It was a not-too-funny joke) They hold dances, wedding receptions, and other functions in the upstairs round room. There were some T-Shirts for sale that had been dyed with that red Oklahoma dirt......on the back they said "older than dirt". I was going to get one for Cindy, but my better judgment prevailed, knowing how sensitive she is about her age, so I passed. I bought a couple of postcards and gave Butch the money, and he said he'd give me my tax back, and he put a "wooden nickel" in my hand, along with a card with a picture of the barn and his address on it. All in all, a great guy. Chris wasn't too impressed with the round barn, but the talk with Butch made it all worthwhile.
As we continued through Oklahoma we continued finding old alignments, or routes, of the highway. Oklahoma City was a major pain to navigate through. I had wanted to see the Murrah Building memorial, but after fighting my way through traffic trying to follow inaccurate directions from 2 different sources, I gave up.
After Oklahoma City, it was on to Yukon, hometown of Garth Brooks....didn't see Garth. Yukon was otherwise not interesting.
In El Reno we were going to stay in the Big 8 Motel which was featured in the movie Rain Man. Unfortunately, the Arab owners changed the name of the motel to the Deluxe Inn and said there is "no more Rain Man room" (speak this with an arabic accent) Thank goodness we had canceled this reservation, because this place was now a MAJOR dive.
From El Reno it was on along more old, old road.....like a step in time back to the 30's or 40's along miles and miles of old portland concrete....still orange.
In Hydro, Oklahoma we stopped a a Route 66 landmark....Lucille's Historic Route 66. Lucille Hamon is an 86 year old woman who has owned this small store/gas station on Route 66 for 57 years. She's well known along the route and has had numerous articles written about here in different publications. Though in ill health, she still runs the store all by herself. It looked closed at first, but as we began to pull away, Lucille came out from her house behind the store and unlocked. We then spent over 45 minutes talking with her about her store, her life on the route, and our travels. She was wonderful to talk to....she's going to be inducted into the Route 66 Hall of Fame at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma. We bought a couple of pops, and some postcards, a bumper sticker, and a T-shirt. She autographed a postcard, the bumper sticker, and a magazine put out by the Oklahoma Route 66 Association that has a picture of her store in it. I then took a picture of her with her arm around Chris, and another with her in front of her store.
People like Butch and Lucille and the Henry's are what makes this road special. It's not a rush, fast food world out here, but a road very much alive with people who care about what they're doing and take the time to talk to people. In each of the places today we signed the guest books and looked through who else had signed, seeing signatures from people from Denmark to California to France to New York.
After leaving Lucille's, we headed on into Clinton, Oklahoma where we checked in to the Tradewinds Motel, room 215.......why room 215 you ask? Because THAT's the room where Elvis stayed on several occasions when he passed through this way. This room is unbelievable. It's decorated in cheesy 1960's kitsch----red velvet bedspread on the king sized bed, a large curved black Naugahyde couch/seat where Chris is currently sleeping, and white French provincial-styled furniture. Even the curtains are red velvet. (say the following like Elvis) Thank ya, thank ya very much! I am the kang!
Tonight I took Chris to his very first drive-in movie. The theater was showing Deep Blue Sea, a new "Jaws"-like movie about sharks eatin' people. The air was hot, humid and hung in the car like a blanket. It was really warm, and the rental car couldn't be started to turn on the A/C because the headlights come on automatically.....bad drive-in etiquette. Instead of the old drive-in speakers, we tuned into a special frequency on the FM radio and heard the soundtrack in FM stereo surround sound! Drove back to the motel along old 66 again, this time in the dark doin' 65 mph. Quite an experience. Didn't pass one car the whole 15 miles.
Tomorrow it's the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, then on to Texas with a stop in Amarillo for the night.
The drive through Tulsa was pretty dull, though we saw lots of old motels, gas stations, and other vacant buildings sitting empty, slowly deteriorating.
After Tulsa, we were able to follow a number of short sections of original 1920's route. These sections would wind away from the more "modern" route through farmlands and countryside, over old rusted bridges with trees sometimes forming tunnels over the road. Once again we noticed the 45 degree curbs along these sections. The difference in Oklahoma is that the old concrete roads have an almost orangish-red color. This no doubt comes from the fact that the dirt here in Okie-land is RED....no kiddin'.....RED!!! I've never seen anything like it.
We even traveled down a section of Route 66 that was the route for only 2 years--1925 & 26 that was dirt.....not gravel.....just red dirt.....cool.
In Arcadia we stopped at the "Round Barn". The story is that this is the only round barn in Oklahoma. The guy staffing at the barn was "Butch." He was a guy probably in his early 60's who lived next door to the barn. He was full of stories about the restoration of the structure which had taken place several years ago. On one wall in the lower level of the barn there were many pictures of round barns from around the United States and the world, actually. I told him I was from Michigan, and he said there's one round barn in Michigan that he's been trying to get a picture of for years.....guess where.......EVART!!!!! Yep, less than 20 miles from home. I told Butch I'd get him a picture of that barn as soon as possible after I get home. Upstairs, he said that's where the man died......yep, died going round and round trying to find a corner. (It was a not-too-funny joke) They hold dances, wedding receptions, and other functions in the upstairs round room. There were some T-Shirts for sale that had been dyed with that red Oklahoma dirt......on the back they said "older than dirt". I was going to get one for Cindy, but my better judgment prevailed, knowing how sensitive she is about her age, so I passed. I bought a couple of postcards and gave Butch the money, and he said he'd give me my tax back, and he put a "wooden nickel" in my hand, along with a card with a picture of the barn and his address on it. All in all, a great guy. Chris wasn't too impressed with the round barn, but the talk with Butch made it all worthwhile.
As we continued through Oklahoma we continued finding old alignments, or routes, of the highway. Oklahoma City was a major pain to navigate through. I had wanted to see the Murrah Building memorial, but after fighting my way through traffic trying to follow inaccurate directions from 2 different sources, I gave up.
After Oklahoma City, it was on to Yukon, hometown of Garth Brooks....didn't see Garth. Yukon was otherwise not interesting.
In El Reno we were going to stay in the Big 8 Motel which was featured in the movie Rain Man. Unfortunately, the Arab owners changed the name of the motel to the Deluxe Inn and said there is "no more Rain Man room" (speak this with an arabic accent) Thank goodness we had canceled this reservation, because this place was now a MAJOR dive.
From El Reno it was on along more old, old road.....like a step in time back to the 30's or 40's along miles and miles of old portland concrete....still orange.
In Hydro, Oklahoma we stopped a a Route 66 landmark....Lucille's Historic Route 66. Lucille Hamon is an 86 year old woman who has owned this small store/gas station on Route 66 for 57 years. She's well known along the route and has had numerous articles written about here in different publications. Though in ill health, she still runs the store all by herself. It looked closed at first, but as we began to pull away, Lucille came out from her house behind the store and unlocked. We then spent over 45 minutes talking with her about her store, her life on the route, and our travels. She was wonderful to talk to....she's going to be inducted into the Route 66 Hall of Fame at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma. We bought a couple of pops, and some postcards, a bumper sticker, and a T-shirt. She autographed a postcard, the bumper sticker, and a magazine put out by the Oklahoma Route 66 Association that has a picture of her store in it. I then took a picture of her with her arm around Chris, and another with her in front of her store.
People like Butch and Lucille and the Henry's are what makes this road special. It's not a rush, fast food world out here, but a road very much alive with people who care about what they're doing and take the time to talk to people. In each of the places today we signed the guest books and looked through who else had signed, seeing signatures from people from Denmark to California to France to New York.
After leaving Lucille's, we headed on into Clinton, Oklahoma where we checked in to the Tradewinds Motel, room 215.......why room 215 you ask? Because THAT's the room where Elvis stayed on several occasions when he passed through this way. This room is unbelievable. It's decorated in cheesy 1960's kitsch----red velvet bedspread on the king sized bed, a large curved black Naugahyde couch/seat where Chris is currently sleeping, and white French provincial-styled furniture. Even the curtains are red velvet. (say the following like Elvis) Thank ya, thank ya very much! I am the kang!
Tonight I took Chris to his very first drive-in movie. The theater was showing Deep Blue Sea, a new "Jaws"-like movie about sharks eatin' people. The air was hot, humid and hung in the car like a blanket. It was really warm, and the rental car couldn't be started to turn on the A/C because the headlights come on automatically.....bad drive-in etiquette. Instead of the old drive-in speakers, we tuned into a special frequency on the FM radio and heard the soundtrack in FM stereo surround sound! Drove back to the motel along old 66 again, this time in the dark doin' 65 mph. Quite an experience. Didn't pass one car the whole 15 miles.
Tomorrow it's the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, then on to Texas with a stop in Amarillo for the night.
