town we passed through seemed to embrace the road and each one had a small little niche that makes it easy to pull over and experience. After a morning of sipping the Sioux City Sarsaparilla we picked up from Pops, we pulled into the town of Stroud in the heart of Oklahoma's wine country. Since it was still early and none of the wineries were open yet, we decided to have some breakfast at the Rock Cafe. Diners on Route 66 have not yet let us down, and this place was no exception. The food was amazing and
cheap to boot. I ordered 2 pancakes, (which turned out to be an inch thick and the size of my head) a side of bacon, and a large orange juice and paid only 5 bucks. Both Katie and I ate for under $15 including tip
and neither of us could finish our meals. The Rock Cafe is home to another Cars inspiration. This time its the character of Sally was directly inspired by the owner and cook of this little gem. After breakfast we headed back 1 mile, clear across town, to the Stable Ridge winery. Like many times before, we were the only people visiting the winery on this cold December day, and thus got the royal treatment. After we received a free tasting to any wine we desired, the owner came around and gave us a tour of his operation. We talked with him for about 20 minutes as he told us the story of his winery and we shared with him the story of our travels. Afterwards we couldn't help but buy some wine to help us remember this Oklahoman gem. We drove a bit longer and eventually ended up being the final car in a holiday parade. The last three floats became Santa, a cop car, then CJ. As you can imagine, we didn't plan this. Here we are, driving down Route 66, minding our own business when we come across a cop blocking the road. She was rather disgruntled at the time and at first refused to talk to us, standing at a distance and gesturing imploringly for us to turn around. Once she realized we weren't moving, she came over to the car and told us about the parade that was about to begin and how it would be smart for us to turn around. We expressed our need to travel every mile of Route 66 and told her we would be glad to wait until it was over. She agreed and allowed us to follow her in the parade. After watching all the floats go by, Santa finally came and we took our place in line, waving and occasionally honking at the kids who all seemed confused as to whether or not they were supposed to be waving at us. After
about a 1/4 mile of crawling through town, our directions led us off the parade route and we continued down to the Blue Whale. The Blue Whale is now just another roadside attraction but in its hay day it was a full functioning water park. It shut down in the late 80's and is now just another relic of the road. Still the slides, ladders, and diving boards are all along the whale and would have seemed inviting if we had been there in summer. As it was, Santa was sitting in front of the whale and taking pictures with kids for a nominal fee. After visiting the Blue Whale we made a stop at the Nut House across the street. It was obvious to us that this place was a giant tourist trap but
we couldn't help ourselves. We stopped in and enjoyed all of the free samples, again and again, then made a stop at their deli, enjoying some of the best deli sandwiches I have ever had. The rest of the day continued as Route 66 does, driving through small towns and taking pictures of
their murals and other goofy stuff. We did pass a brush fire along the way which was pretty neat to see. All throughout the day we had heard from folks that a storm was coming. Katie and I are disconnected from the news and have to rely on word of mouth to hear things. Luckily weather is one of those topics that someone always brings up at some point in the day. We heard a cold front was coming but didn't see any evidence of it all day. We hoped that we would stay ahead of the storm but after night fell and the temperature dropped, we were pretty sure that it was catching up with us. Right before it began to snow, we crossed into Kansas for the 15 miles of
Route 66 that skirts its southeastern corner. Here the main attraction is their big blue trestle bridges, the highest concentration along Route 66. With Missouri came the snow. By the time we got to Springfield Missouri it was evident that we couldn't stay the night in the van. We pulled into a few motels looking for a Route 66 classic only to find creepy surroundings that looked like they had hourly as well as monthly rates. Finally we decided to go to the Radison down the street and just cut our losses. The wind was so strong and the weather so cold that one huge gust stalled out CJ as we were pulling into the parking lot. We spent the night warm inside yet our hearts were heavy, fearing that in the morning we would be calling a tow truck rather than continuing down the mother road.
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