Oklahoma, OK!

 

It was a beautiful sunny morning an we walked to the Pancake House for breakfast.  We moved out of the really nice Boots Court Motel and were on our way by 10:00. We swung by the Carthage town green to take a photo of a statue of native son Marlin Perkins and we were on our way. 

The Chicago Coin's Band Box, a mechanical band plays big band tunes in the Pancake House restaraunt

A speed trap in Carthage MO

Murals in Joplin MO

Carthage's hometown boy, Marlin Perkins.  Just like the lioness protects her cubs, Mutual of Omaha is there to protect your family

Soon we were in Kansas which only has 13 miles of RT66 as it cuts off the south east corner of the state.  We stopped in Baxter Springs Kansas at the RT66 information center, which was closed. As we were leaving an elderly gentleman drove up and offered to let us in and give us some literature. As we were leaving he asked who our favorite character from the Disney movie Cars was. Turns out he’s Dean “Crazylegs” Walker, inspiration for the character Tow Mater. And Baxter Springs was (supposedly) the inspiration for Radiator Springs in the movie. We passed a few replicas of Tow-Mater and whatever the sheriff’s car was on the way into town.

Sherriff from Cars

Tow-Mater and friends

Sue and Crazy-legs Walker, who can turn his feet 180 degrees around so they're pointing straight back. Check out his right foot

Back on the road and on to Oklahoma.  We stopped in Commerce OK to see the house Mickey Mantel grew up in and the statue of him at the local high school.  We had lunch at the 50’s themed Hi-Way Café and took more photos of more Muffler Men.

Lost count of all the Muffler Men

World's largest concrete totem pole. But if it's concrete, is it even a totem pole?

Mickey Mantle's childhood home

The tin barn that Mickey's father Mutt Mantle used as a backstop to teach Mickey to hit

Mickey's house

The Commerce Comet

This guy was brought all the way in from Massachusetts

Lunch time!

We stopped in Claremore OK for an hour or 2 to see the Will Rogers Museum, which was a great place. I didn’t know a lot about Will Rogers, like the fact that he was part Cherokee Indian and that he died in a plane crash in Alaska, or just how popular he was in his heyday.

Dozens of families were taking prom pictures on the grounds of the Will Rogers Museum.  It seems a black cowboy hat and jeans are standard Oklahoma prom attire.

The grave of Will Rogers and his family

We made it to the Campbell Hotel, a nice little boutique hotel right on Rt66, before 5:00.  After checking in we went out to get some dinner at Tally’s Good Food, again right on Rt66.  After dinner we drove around town a bit for more photo ops, then went back to the hotel bar and got some good advice from the bartender about things we shouldn’t miss before we leave town tomorrow. 

The Catoosa Giant Blue Whale. Of all the "Giant" roadside attractions we've seen on this trip, this one is actually a miniature, being much smaller than an actual blue whale

Tally's Good Food restaurant

Tulsa Rising schlpture

The Golden Driller statue at the Tulsa Expo center

The last 2 days were much more reasonably paced and I was able to enjoy the trip much more. We need to time the rest of the trip so we end up near Vegas in another 8 days, so we’re trying to keep it around 150 or so miles a day.