Come on Okies!!!

We woke up in Oklahoma quite cold. As Route 66 slowly crept north the temperature as well as our sleeping arrangement became less and less desirable. Though still tolerable in Oklahoma, we could sense that soon we would be needing to hightail it to some place where we could stay indoors. The rest stop that we stayed at the previous night also happened to be the Oklahoma welcome center, which worked out really well for us. After preparing for the morning in our separate rest rooms, we converged in the welcome center and rifled through all the attractions that we could potentially see in Oklahoma. The best find at the welcome center was an Oklahoma Route 66 map and guidebook which replaced all of our other handbooks for our stay in the state. When we finally got on the road we had to backtrack a bit to the little hamlet of

Erick Oklahoma, which we unfortunately had to pass over on our flight from Texas the night before. Here, according to our books, was an old curiosity shop called the Sand Hills Curiosity Shop which aside from having a lot of fun stuff to look at, also is home to a group of bluegrass musicians who follow you around the shop playing music. The owner of the shop was also the inspiration for one of the characters from the Disney movie Cars. Sadly as we pulled up to the store it was as empty as

the town. We still aren't sure if it was just closed for the season or if we had arrived to early for the music to begin playing, but either way we were out of luck. Deciding that we should spend a couple hours off Route 66 and give her some time to wake up, we headed north. Our destination was the Washita Battlefield NHS, Oklahoma's only National Park Site. The word battlefield is sort of a misnomer in this case, massacre would have been nearer the mark. Here, under the leadership of General George Custer, the US Army attacked and killed a tribe of women and children which Custer mistook for a war party. Being the only visitors at the site we got the grand tour by the lonely park ranger, watched the informational movie, and did the interpretive trail around the battlefield itself. Aside from the subject matter, our visit was a lot of fun. It was the first time in a few days where we actually got out of the van and hiked for a

couple miles; needless to say it felt great. After the battlefield we headed back to Route 66, passing through small towns and stopping at the occasional diner as recommended by our guidebooks. Along the way, during one of the sections of open country, we spotted an

armadillo next to the side of the road. Katie was ecstatic! She had never before seen an armadillo so I turned around and she got and snapped some photos while creeping ever closer until she finally got creeped out herself and ran back to the car. We continued driving until nightfall. Outside of Oklahoma City we used some of the info packets we picked up to try and locate a brewery but we were unsuccessful. We found a couple but they both turned out to be just warehouses without any restaurant so we decided to get our fill for the night on peanut butter. Back on Route 66, the neon was now in full swing. It's interesting to think about how different some places must be during the night as opposed to the day. Our next stop, Pops, is a perfect example of this. Like many Route 66 attractions, Pops is covered in neon lights. During the day, the giant pop bottle that sits outside the diner must seem odd and boring in its all white shell.

At night however, it is a beacon seen for miles away as you ride along in the still night. Its neon lights flow up and down the bottle, pulsing and flowing as though it were alive. We have actually had lots of luck passing by the spots which are known for having great neon displays at night, but Pops is definitely a must to see after dark. Pops is an odd place. First off, it was not around during the years of the actual Route 66 and only came to life as part of the roads revival effort. It has won many awards for this, being a new addition to Route 66 yet fitting in so well. The place was packed wall to wall and had we planned on eating there it would have been a 45 minute wait. As it stood, we were just there to pick up some pop. They have over 300 different bottles of pop so we went to town raiding the fridge. We left with two 6 packs of soda and one of beer, appropriately named "Pops." About a mile down the road we came across another iconic Oklahoma Route 66 attraction, the round barn. The round barn represents the opposite side of the coin when it comes to night time travel along Route 66. Since this attraction has been around since the 20's, there is no neon gracing its sides and passing it in the dark, we almost drove right by. There was a private party being held there that night so we merely walked up to the front, were denied entry, then turned around. After that we headed south to pick up the interstate and settled down in a rest area for the last time on the first part of our trip.