Ooooklahoma ...

... where it pretty much looks the same as the last state. ;)

I think that, with the images of the Dust Bowl and the story The Grapes of Wrath (neither of us have read/seen this), we both expect OK to have some barrenness to it. We may see this today, but at least in the Eastern part of the state, it was very green with lots of trees; though not as many as we saw in the Ozarks of Missouri.

After a great breakfast at the Little Brick Inn (part of your stay there), we headed south of the town and out of Kansas. Kansas has the shortest segment of 66 with 13 miles... so we made sure to take an older part that now goes around a McDonalds and WalMart. At this point, we also noticed that the south part of town was definitely busier than "Downtown" Baxter Springs.

We traveled through a couple of smaller towns until reaching the town of Miami (pronounced My-Am-A). At this point, we went off the main route and drove 2 sections of 9-foot 66, nicknamed "The Sidewalk Highway". This section was paved in 1922 and served as 66 until 1937. Very unique and very cool to see (and feel with the bumps in the road). As evident with the farms along the way, this road is still in use today.

We backtracked a bit to get to the Buffalo Ranch; however, the Buffalo were a bit shy this day and we left a little disappointed. We then found the Afton Post Office (just off the Route) and mailed the 2nd postcard of the trip to Ilana's mom (Hi Toni!).

The next town we drove through was Vinita. There were some great relics of former businesses along the route, but we were NOT disappointed we missed the world's largest calf-fry festival, held in September. Next, we headed into Foyil, and we took an option that drove us past the Andy Payne Statue. Andy Payne was the 1928 winner of the "Bunion Derby", which was a footrace that went from New York City to Los Angeles and included all of Route 66.

Our next stop was Claremore, which is home to the Will Rogers Memorial and Museum. Both of us had a vague idea of who Rogers was, but we left the museum with a much deeper understanding of the man, and what he was able to accomplish in his lifetime. We had no idea he was such a humanitarian and we also spent much longer at the museum than we had imagined we would. The museum is run entirely on donations, and was built on land that Rogers had bought for his retirement. It is well worth a stop here!

After this, we headed towards Tulsa. We drove over the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System, which is a 445 mile waterway that links Tulsa to the Gulf of Mexico. This makes it the country's inland-most port. We also stopped to visit the Blue Whale - a restored concrete whale that used to boast a swimming hole as well.

In Tulsa, we had an incredible lunch with our friend Robn (not a typo!). He recommended a great barbeque place called Elmer's. While it is about 30 blocks off of the route (on Peoria), we had a scenic drive, and the food was well worth the detour. The atmosphere was fun, and the barbeque was great. Thanks again Robn for coming out to meet us!

After lunch we drove through several small towns. In Depew, we took a windy option through Downtown, and enjoyed the old buildings there. We also passed through Stroud, and took a quick look at the Rock Cafe. Our drive continued through Luther, and into Arcadia - where we took an option to drive on 1920's 66. It was here that we passed by the house of Route 66 author and historian Jim Ross, who has a new home built to resemble a classic cottage-style service station.

Finally, to end our driving for the day, we headed through Edmond, and into Oklahoma City, where we checked in to the very nice Whitten Inn, which is directly off the route. For dinner, we headed to 39th Street, and visited Ann's Chicken Fry House. They are famous for their chicken-fried steaks, so of course we had to try them. Yum! There is also a fun 50's atmosphere to the restaurant, and we had a blast. We also drove to the Oklahoma City Memorial, to pay our respects there. The Memorial is breathtaking, and we will be returning today to visit the museum there.

Today should have us continuing through Oklahoma and on to Texas. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Ilana and Jeff