Tuesday, April 22nd

[1736 miles | Oklahoma City, OK 73131] OK, so the Motel 6 didn't have internet access (which is why I'm a day behind on this blog), but the room was comfortable and a real bargin. I didn't get started til very late morning, so I stopped next door for a large coffee and a grilled chicken sandwich and headed back east to see one of the landmarks I had missed the night before, the Round Barn in Arcadia OK, which was built in 1898. There, I got to talking with the curator, who also happens to live next door. I bought one of his pieces of art for my Collen, if you really stretch the definition of outsider folk art. The weather was great - overcast and now 65 degrees. There was an interesting modern gas station just a few miles down the road with a milk bottle, which didn't mean much to me the first time I passed it. But after visiting the Round Barn, I realized this was probably paying homage to a milk bottle that used to sit outside of a dairy farm across the street from the round barn, which was torn down when they decided to straighten out a sharp curve on Route 66.

Now, I'm driving into Oklahoma City, OK and for the first time I see an interesting pavement marking consisting of squiggly lines, which apparently means that the speed limit is being reduced and you should slow down (usually near schools). At 1:30 pm I get my first look at the state capitol building, which is quite massive and impressive. Getting a late start and spending quite a while at the Round Barn, I didn't stop, but still managed to get lost and spend more time than I wanted to in the city. I did see an interesting bank with a Buckminster Fuller inspired geodesic dome (in a not so great part of town). Also in getting lost, I did get to see the Saint Louis Arch, although this was a scale model in the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. 2:30 pm on the way out of town, I glimpsed the famous sign of the 66 Bowl. I cross a great old bridge along the old 2-lane alignment and make it to Yukon, OK where there is this great railroad-siding factory for Yukon's Best Flour and a mile further, an old Standard Oil Station sign in great shape. [1800 miles | 3:20pm] I'm driving past Fort Reno, but the long driveway to the historic site tells me this is gonna take too much time, so I move onward. Shortly afterwards, I am rewarded with the best, almost forgotten 2-lane stretch of 12-foot concrete right-of-way from the old highway. This goes on for about 15 miles, and I'm worrying since there are many signs posted saying "Local Traffic Only". I don't want to have to drive back these 15 miles to regain access to the modern OK 66 highway. Luckily, it reconnects with the modern highway.

[Bridgeport OK | 3:50pm] I'm crossing a 2-lane, 3/4 mile long, 38 arch Pony Bridge built in 1933 to cross the South Canadian River. Definitely a site to see in person. I stop yet again in the next town of Hydro, where I get a great pic of an old Philips 66 gas station (Lucille's est. 1941) and a roadside marker of the Will Rogers Highway. I drive by a wind farm with some of the largest turbines I have ever seen. Got some interesting video of that.

[1850 miles | 4:40 pm | Weatherford, OK 73096 | 78 degrees] I stopped at a Carl Jr.'s on Main Street (Rt 66) for my first truly not-good-for-you meal. I had an order of their Chilli Cheese Fries (no, Collen - there were no beans). Also realized today that I've been donating to charities or nonprofits every day of this trip. Not much, but justa buck or two. I guess this offsets my guilt for being a SOV (single occupant vehicle) this entire trip.

[1863 miles | 5:10 pm | Clinton, OK] It's hot, my EPC light is now glowing again on my dash (along with the triange exclamation point thingy too), and I get to the Route 66 Museum - which just closed 10 minutes ago. If I didn't have so many good things going for me in life, it's things like this that would have made me just give up. I call ahead and find a Motel 6 in Amarillo that has Wi-Fi internet, then jump on the freeway (can't drive local route with both dash lights on - there is no power). A few miles out on the interstate and the EPC light goes out, which means I can switch back to using cruise control (don't ask - I have no idea why one controls the other). About 30 miles on the interstate and I decide to get off at Elk City for the National Route 66 Museum. This one was much more expansive than the last, with some outdoor displays, but yet again, the museum was closed. After a brief walk around, I got back in the car and magically, all the warning lights went away. Good for me, right? NOT. Just 16 miles down the road in Sayre OK, I hit a small bump in the road and both lights came back on and the car will hardly get out of its own way. I cancel my plans to visit the National Historic Site and make my way to the Elk City Railroad Museum I've seen so many signs for. This was clearly a joke that the locals have for unsuspecting tourists like myself, since the "museum" was nothing more than some guy's backyard where he proudly displayed old RR signals and signs that he probably stole when the RR went out of business. Oh well. I stop the car on Main Street hoping the EPC light will go off, and after a 10 minute wait (and multiple starts) the light went off and my cruise control was back, so I'm heading back on the interstate and into Texas.

[1904 miles | 7:30pm | Texas State Line] Hoping this song is not prophetic, as I enter into the Lone Star State, "Crucify Me" by Moev is playing on my random mix of music. Yikes! I know they don't like open-minded liberals like me down here, but that is extreme. I'm hoping for the best. Dispite wishing to impress my Irish-American girlfriend, I forgo staying in Shamrock TX and press on to Amarillo. An interesting thing to note: just after passing the town of Shamrock, the interstate seems to pass in and out of Donley and Gray counties at lease half a dozen times. Perhaps the engineers laying out the road spent a little too much time at the bars in Shamrock ;). Also interesting to note, the landscape finally gets interesting as soon as you get into TX.

At 8:30 pm, in Groom TX, I am 2000 miles into my trip and I pull the car over to take a picture of the 2nd largest cross in the Northern Hemisphere. My trip odometer also apparently doesn't go any more, so it resets itself to 0.