Sun Moon Stars Girl )-(

Welcome to my little place to vent…

Last of Leg 4 - Branson, MO - Oklahome City, with stops in Carthage and Joplin, MO, Kansas, and Tulsa, OK

We drove through Oklahoma to Tulsa, where we made a lunch stop at an old Route 66 restaurant called “The Metro Diner.” The place was very nice, and gave an old the right atmosphere while still in “today.” I know this sounds weird, but after being in Branson, MO for two nights with all older people, and then making a stop at a diner with people my age waiting on me was a nice change. The restaurant has lots of signs from the old highway, or with 66 sayings/logos on them, as well as Mad magazines from the 1950’s, Lucielle Ball pictures and plaques, and even a counter in the front that’s an old chevrolet tail end. It almost seemed like an exploitation of what “used to be” but much like Branson, it was not that at all. It geniunely embraced the fact that it’s an old known stop along the Mother Road.

The final resting place of today’s journey is Oklahoma City, where it’s “oh, so pretty.” We took a dip in the pool (yes, unbelievable as it is for us East Coast natives, it’s been nice pretty much every day of our trip) and went out for a quick dinner at Sonic. “The place that’s got the name of that hedgehog…Kris, I can’t remember it…from that video game…with the rings?” Yes, you’ve seen them on TV, but had no idea where you could find one. C’mon out to the Midwest, because there’s none east of Chicago. It was yummy.

We headed out, off the main highway (44) through Joplin, Missouri (as mentioned in the song) to the old Route 66 so we could head through Kansas. The info I got off the internet on Rt. 66 places of interest mentioned that Kansas held the best-marked road still left. I agree. There’s signs every few turns. There’s the old painted markings on the road. We even went over one of the old bridges (which is now a historical marker, and only one-way). I really enjoyed actually traveling the old route. I’m sad that we don’t have more time to enjoy traveling the WHOLE old road, but Kris said something very true. “The spirit of Route 66 is still there - we’re taking a road trip from Chicago to LA.” He’s great about putting things into perspective like that sometimes.

Anyway, it was a quick journey through Kansas, and once back into Oklahoma we traded seats and got back on the major road in Miami, OK.

We started off the morning quite early because we had a big day of stops planned. Luckily we didn’t drive the car into any “grandma gorges” - what we affectionately named all the valleys that we joked a dozen Buicks rolled into each year.

Our first was Carthage, MO - a town that looks like Hill Valley in the “Back to the Future” movies. It was creepy-deepy. But cool. As a bunch of my friends know, those are among the top 10 of my favorite movies (part II is my favorite of the trilogy). I demanded that we stop there, but I think Kris got a pretty big kick out of it too. He definitely got some good pictures, but it was hard to capture the full effect of the atmosphere the town held for us. The interesting part was that it wasn’t on the main drag through town - not on the old Rt. 66. You had to go down a side street to get to the main “loop” road around the courthouse - aherm, the Clocktower. It was definitely better than any backstage lot tour or setup that I’ve seen before.