You know you’re in Texas when there’s two men in the breakfast room wearing ten gallon hats and Spurs! The two gents left the room and headed out to their cars which led Neil to ponder how they could drive with spurs digging into the accelerator and brake?
The rain was falling again as we left the hotel so we were very glad we hadn’t postponed our visit to Cadillac Ranch until this morning. Back on the interstate we headed east towards our first stop , the Leaning Water Tower of Groom. The tower was the feature gimmick of a long gone Route 66 restaurant and motel. Only the tower remains. We stopped by to take a few photos and a couple of gents pulled up in a gorgeous old Cadillac , they reminded us that the classic shot here was the same “holding up the tower” shot that’s been made famous in Pisa.
A little further east and we stopped in to see the U-drop-Inn cafe which is located at a beautifully restored Conoco gas station. Inside there was a gift shop and replica 1950s diner with complimentary tea and coffee dispensed by a couple of delightful ladies. They were so friendly and interested to hear where we were from. One of them had visited Sydney in the 1980s and she was keen to chat. They invited us to slide into the corner booth ( where Elvis once sat!) to enjoy our coffee.
Not far down the road we crossed the border into Oklahoma, our 30th state! Of course the first thing I did was to break into song , dredging up memories of my performance as Ado Annie in “Oklahoma” from 30 years ago.
I think Neil was glad we arrived in Elk City before I could work my way through the whole score. Here we made straight for the National Route 66 Museum. This turned out to be far more extensive than we realized. We watched a short movie about the early days of transport in the USA and the rise and fall of Route 66. Then we walked through several excellent displays in a number of buildings that covered not only Route 66 but an entire “Old Town” with the schoolhouse, Drs office, railroad station and undertakers premises …amongst many others.
Neil and a Studebaker
Visiting all the buildings in the Old Town Museum
The highlight of the experience was when we walked into the building that housed the restored drug store. There was another lovely lady in charge and a couple of retired gents relaxing in a booth playing checkers. We were greeted warmly and fell into conversation a about where we’d been and where we were going and they had lots of questions about Australia. Here we were invited to dress up as old time soda jerks for a couple of photos behind the counter. I’m really enjoying this second childhood stuff!
Our final Route 66 stop of the day was Lucille’s Historic Gas Station at Hydro, Oklahoma. It’s another lovingly restored and maintained relic of the Mother Road.
Back on the road again we had a couple of hours drive to Oklahoma City. As we approached the city the sky ahead grew blacker and blacker and the lightning speared down. Just as we reached our exit the skies opened and it absolutely bucketed down. Many cars ahead pulled in to the side of the road but Neil carried on and we made our way ( cautiously!) to the hotel through streets that were overflowing with water. It was only when we stopped in the hotel’s carpark that Neil picked up his phone and noticed he’d received a “Flash Flooding Alert” message! I’d read that they use the cell phone system to alert people of Tornado risks but didn’t know that they had them for floods as well. Personally, I’m glad I didn’t know about it til we were safe at the hotel!
We had planned to visit the Oklahoma City memorial first ( the memorial erected for the victims and survivors of the terrible bombing of a Federal Govt building here in 1995) but we figured we’d wait at the hotel first to see how the weather went. The rain finally dried up at around 4pm and we went for a walk along the “Bricktown Canal” that is near our hotel. Bricktown is an entertainment district that has been constructed south of the city downtown, near the river, in what used to be the old warehouse district. They’ve done a great job of turning it into an attractive area with many restaurants and a lovely green park running along the pretty canal. The canal looked close to overflowing and as the clouds rolled over again we decided to head back to the hotel.
We are also very close to the Chicasaw Bricktown Ballpark and we’d planned to go and watch the game tonight, with the Oklahoma City Dodgers playing the Memphis Redbirds but as I type this ( just after game time) the rain is still falling persistently. We decided that we aren’t that keen on baseball to sit out in the rain and watch the game! Maybe some other year…. ( Update: I’ve just checked the Ballpark website and the game was cancelled! So we really weren’t meant to watch the game tonight!)
Chicasaw Bricktown Ballpark under threatening skies.
We’ve checked the weather reports and hopefully in the morning it will be finer so we will visit the Oklahoma City memorial on our way out of town.