Route 66 - Day 17 - Bristow, OK to Edmond, OK

Route 66 - Part 1

Day 17 Bristow, OK to Edmond, OK

 

10/10/2012

66.6 Actual Miles / 2,460 Actual Elevation

The day started early today with a trip to Oklahoma City Will Rogers World Airport to drop of Maureen N who had to return home because of a previous committment. After dropping her off it was back to the Carolyn Inn to pick up the pies which were safely stored in several room refrigerators and hook up the trailer so that I could be on my way to catch up with the riders. As luck would have it, I couldn't get the trailer to seat properly on the hitch, but I was lucky enough to find a big strong cowboy to assist me. Made my day! Once the trailer was securely fastened it was off down Route 66 to find the riders and get to the hotel so that I could make sure all was in order. Mission accomplished.

 

Rich forwarded this photo of Bill being Bill.

Depew

 

Stroud

            Ozark Trail - Actually a network of highways--rather than a single route--mostly in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, which predates the numbered Federal Interstate Highway System of 1926. Parts of the Ozark Trail network were superseded by US 66, and there is evidence of this in the form of an Ozark Trail marker (a stone obelisk) still standing just outside the town of Stroud, OK.
 

 

            Rock Cafe - 114 W. Main Street [918-968-3990] Restaurant dating from 1939 and constructed from native stone unearthed during the excavation and paving of Route 66 through the area. The cafe's owner, Dawn Welch, was the primary inspiration for the character of Sally the Porsche in the Route 66-themed movie Cars. The bathroom  features original graffiti by Toy Story creator John Lasseter. Burned on 5/20/2008.

 

            Skyliner Motel - 717 W. Main Street [918-968-9556] Classic, old motel, vintage neon.
 

 

            Shoe Tree - A tree just east of Stroud, OK, festooned with several shoes hanging from its branches.

 

“Home of Daneka Allen, Miss OK 1999.”

 

Davenport

 

Gar Wooly’s Food-N-Fun – Old pumps and signs

 

Chandler

             Lincoln Motel - 740 E. 1^st Street [405-258-0200] It is still as neat and tidy as the day it opened in 1939—two dozen two-room cabins, each with an American Flag and a pair of yellow lawn chairs for watching the world whiz by. An example of cottage style tourist courts.

 

            Phillips 66 (Chandler, OK and McLean, TX) A brand of gasoline and other automotive products manufactured by Phillips Petroleum of Bartlesville, OK. The brand uses the number "66" and a highway shield as its logo, which is a close facsimile of the official US 66 road signs of the mid-twentieth century. The story goes that the idea for the name came about when some company officials were out in the field road testing a new fuel formula. Impressed with the performance of the vehicle on the new fuel, they observed that they were traveling 66 mph on Highway 66 at the time. notable examples of vintage Phillips 66 stations can be seen today in McLean, TX and Chandler, OK.

            Valentine Diner

   

Lincoln County Museum of Pioneer History  – Striking red stone exterior and an interesting Route 66 collection. Showcases Chandler’s colorful early history with an emphasis on their legendary sheriff, Bill Tilghman.

 

  

            In 1948, Les Paul, stratospheric guitar player and inventor of the solid body electric guitar, was seriously injured when his car went off the road and down a embankment along Route 66. Recommended that he have his right arm amputated, he instead asked that his arm and elbow be permanently fused at an angle that would allow his should to do the work.
 

1937 Armory – Has a Route 66 Interpretive Center with videos and exhibits.

Warwick

            Seaba Station - Brick building that served duty on Route 66 both as a NevrNox gasoline station and as an engine-building shop, and named for its owner, John Seaba.

Wellston

            Pioneer Camp - A former tourist camp on the eastern outskirts of town, the site is currently occupied by a restaurant specializing in barbecue. Most notable is a small totem pole whose whimsical figures have beaded eyes. Also remaining on the property from its days as a tourist camp is a pair of stone foundations, which formed the base for an archway that once spanned the entrance to the compound.

Luther

            Folk Art – John Hargrove’s fantastic “Oklahoma County 66 Auto Trim and Mini Museum” Replicas of the Blue Whale, Twin Arrows, and much more.

Arcadia
 

   

            POPS - A gas station and soda fountain that opened in the summer of 2007 to considerable fanfare. About 400 varieties of soft drinks are available on premises, and the building is set off by a 66-foot-tall tower in the shape of a pop bottle, which illuminates at night. There is also a collection of more than 12,000 bottles on display inside. The building's architect, Rand Elliott, also designed the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton. Built by Aubrey McClendon, the Oklahoma-born coal-mining millionaire who funded the “Swift Boat” attacks against John Kerry in 2004. Pops opened in 2007.

 

 

            Round Barn - [405-396-2761] Built in 1898, this barn with a circular floor plan sits alongside Route 66 and was fully restored and rehabilitated in the 1990s. There is now a gift shop inside to welcome Mother Road travelers. The ground floor is now a mini museum .

Guthrie

   

            Elmer McCurdy [1880-1911] - A small-time Oklahoma outlaw who gained fame posthumously for his corpse having seen duty as a carnival prop. According to the story, he was killed in 1911 and, due to odd circumstances, was mummified rather than simply embalmed and interred. His mummy changed hands several times over the years, and was finally discovered in the 1970s in a Los Angeles-area fun house. He was finally laid to rest in a Guthrie, OK cemetery in 1977.

 

            Beacon Drive In had an appearance in the movie Twister.

 

 

            Blue Bell Saloon – Second at Harrison – Tom Mix used to bartend her and just outside the Blue Bell staged gunfights are held in the street for much of the year.

Edmond

            Sanders Camera Shop - Second and Boulevard – Notable for occupying a building that once housed the first schoolhouse in Oklahoma Territory (1889).

 

Edmond Historical Society Museum – 431 S. Boulevard [405-340-0078]

 

   

Replica of the Statue of Liberty – 2^nd and Broadway

 

 

            Blue Hippo at the AAA Glass Company - (1129 S. Broadway)  - Unofficially named Buddy.

We are staying at the Best Western, 2700 2nd St., Edmond, OK.  Tomorrow we are off to Hinton, OK via the Oklahoma City Memorial.