The Route 66 Chick

Sunday began with light rain, a stiff breeze (it was Oklahoma after all), and a pretty morning sky, which cast a flattering light even on the campground at which I'd stayed. I had passed up the super nice Elk City/Clinton KOA, which is actually at Canute, because I wanted to get more miles behind me.  But by the time I got to Elk City I was feeling tired and decided to stop. I had found a nice-looking RV Park online called Elk Creek RV Park. Thinking I'd found it, I stopped. As I paid, I found I was at Elk RUN, not Elk CREEK. Darn, I was at the wrong one. I hate it when that happens. This one had the most atrocious bath/shower rooms I've ever seen. Suffice it to say that I don't plan to stay at that one again. Do yourself a favor and don't you stop there, either. In Texas, I made just two stops - one at a book store in Amarillo for another audiobook, and one at the Mid Point.  When I'm on the way to visit my kids, I just want to get there!  On my way bac...

On Friday I gave myself a tour of Tulsa. I love all the art deco architecture and also the commemorative Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza and love to photograph it in different light. The oil boom and the art deco craze flourished at the same time here, coming together in a huge array of types and sizes of buildings in the various nuances of art deco style. If you'd like to know more -  http://www.tulsapreservationcommission.org/artdeco/ I had stayed in Oklahoma City the night before and woke up feeling a bit lazy. The morning disappeared with some writing and some shopping and then I made up some time on the interstate for awhile. From Sapulpa I took 66 right on up into Tulsa to the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza. There were lots of heavy dark clouds to give things a moody look. In 2004, the old 11th Street Route 66 bridge was renamed in honor of national highway advocate and "father of Route 66" Cyrus Avery and closed off with a memorial gate. The "East Meets West...

The interstate system bypassed cities and towns in seven Route 66 states, but the interstate bypassed the whole state of Kansas! Good old Route 66 meanders through the very corner of southeastern Kansas – 13 miles in all. It's 13 miles full of interesting sights and stops and one of my favorite stretches. But before I left Joplin, Missouri, this morning, I drove by the apartment on Oak Ridge Drive where the famous shootout occurred in 1933 between the Barrow gang and the Joplin police. Brothers Clyde and Buck Barrow were seriously wounded, but they managed to get away. Two police officers were killed. I'd never gone by the apartment before, and I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this lovely neighborhood. The street that the main house faces is lined with bungalows, Ozark Giraffe, stone cottages, and pretty lawns. The place is on a corner lot, and the apartment with garage faces 34th Street. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places ...