April 16

Started the day by driving north a few miles to the town of Foyil, OK, the home town of Andrew Hartley Payne, who won the 1928 Transcontinental Footrace, LA-NYC, a 3,423.5 mile world record in 573 hr. 4 min. & 34 sec. The prize was $25,000, and he paid off the family farm with the money.

Also in Foyil, an industrial arts teacher, Nathan Edward Galloway, created the tallest totem pole in the U.S. It is 90' tall, and sits in Totem Pole Park along with various other Totems and sculptures. The colors were fading and paint chipping, but they have been painstakingly restored. There is an eleven-sided fiddle house, visitors' center, which used to house his collection of 300 fiddles, but thieves broke in and stole them.

Claremore is the hometown of Will Rogers and Rollie Lynn Riggs, playwright, who wrote a play which eventually became the musical, Oklahoma.

Twin bridges were built over the Verdigris river, which is now called Bird Creek. This is the new channel to Port Catoosa, the largest inland seaport in the U.S. Local refer to the bridges as Felix and Oscar.

At Catoosa we came upon The Blue Whale Swimming Park(1970-1988). The Blue Whale is one of the best examples of Vernacular Roadside Architecture on Oklahoma 66. It is 80' long and required 3,020 hours to construct at a cost of less than $3,000. The park closed in 1988. The whale was restored in 1997.

We follow old 66 all the way through Tulsa. At 11th and Yale, sits Tally's Cafe. We had lunch here. John had breakfast, and I ordered a BLT, which came with 3 slices of toast and enough bacon to serve a small army, a heart attack waiting to happen. Everything was tasty though.

In Supulpa there is a Frankoma Pottery outlet, but it was closed. Great old buildings in the downtown area and a neat sign on the side of the Central Drug Store. The model trolley and the train station were remodeled, but again they were not open.

We drove several of the old sections of 66, which are no longer used for more than local traffic, and proceeded to get ourselves turned around. But with the help of Susan, who lives in our GPS, we found our way to the next town, Bristow. Took several photos in town of Russ' Ribs, a couple of old gas stations, and the Gillespie home (1901), an old brick residence, which is now a medical center.

In Stroud, the Rock Cafe, is made of rocks, which were unearthed when they built Rt. 66. The cafe is known for its fried pickle spears, and its excellent American and Mexican cuisine. Took a photo of the Skyliner Motel sign. Wish we could have seen the neon lit.

In Chandler, the Lincoln Motel, individual small cabins lined along the road, is still in use. An old Phillips 66 station has been refurbished, but an old truck sitting in front of it blocked it, so I couldn't get a good picture. The Pioneer Museum is a nice sandstone building with arched windows, 1926. There is a very long mural painted on the side of a building and wall as you drive out of town. Seaba Station, a Rt. 66 gift shop, located outside of town, was permanently closed.

The ruins of the Rock O' Ages Conoco Station (1920s) is located west of Luther. The station was

closed in the 1930s when a set of counterfeit $10.00 plates was found in the back room along with the printing ink.

The Round Barn(1898) is located on 66 in Arcadia. The barn is 43' tall and 60' in diameter, and was built of burr oak timbers. The roof collapsed in 1988, but was restored in 1992. The first floor holds a gift shop. The second floor is rented out to groups for various activities. Looking up at the inside of the roof is amazing, and it is almost impossible to get a good picture because it is very dark in the room, despite the lights.

Something new in Arcadia along 66 is a gas station/restaurant called Pops. The entire front of the retro diner is glass with shelves, and every shelf is lined with various bottles of pop and other drinks. Seriously zonky.

This ended the Rt. 66 part of our journey.

We enter I35 just north of Oklahoma City, and got into a lot of traffic, plus it was raining hard,

but we finally made it south of the city. We are staying in a Comfort Inn in Paul's Valley, OK,

and heading for Austin tomorrow and more rain.

More from the road...

John and Elaine