All I can say is Tulsa has a ton of Route 66 history! We drove by countless old gas stations, motels, etc. on 11th Street. We snapped a shot of a tiny old station, and it turns out it is owned by a friend of one of my Route 66 Facebook friends (kudos to Eric). We also saw the famous Gold Meadow sign. Thank goodness it was saved for future generations to view. It is too bad the Cyrus Avery (11th St) bridge is closed, even to pedestrian traffic. It would have been something to walk across it. We found the Happy Burger in Sapulpa, as well as the 1925 Ozark Trail alignment over the Rock Creek Bridge.
Much like yesterday, the distances between towns seem to increase, but there were some great early alignments in between. The tank farm loop was pretty cool. We took a wrong turn after the northern Bellvue alignment, and ended up driving north on OK 48 for about 20 minutes! We figured out our mistake and turned around. The southern Bellvue alignment (which is used as a dump as described in the EZ 66 Guide) now dead-ends but is worth it if you have the right vehicle!
We made it to Stroud and the Rock Café too early for lunch, so we continued on and found the Ozark Trail dirt alignment and one of the few Ozark Trail Makers remaining. In Chandler, we stopped at the gallery of Jerry McClanahan, author of the EZ 66 Guide. Jerry is another great individual with many interesting stories about the Mother Road! Jerry and I had a nice conversation about Glenrio and he showed me some items from the First/Last Motel and Texas Longhorn Café! He was gracious enough to autograph my copy of the EZ 66 Guide!
We made our way to Arcadia and the famous 1898 Round Barn and headed into Oklahoma City. It took forever to get through OKC! I wanted to see the now boarded up Owl Courts, and to get there and then out of the city, we followed the Beltline option. This 66 alignment seems to take you back and forth around the city. Eventually, we made it to 23rd, May Ave., and the 39th Expressway out of town.
While, Bethany, Yukon, and El Reno were cool, we really enjoyed the old two-lane alignment west of El Reno to Weatherford. You can almost close your eyes and find yourself driving the Mother Road in the 1940’s or 1950’s. We were running behind schedule, but we had to try (and we tried like crazy) to find the remnants of the Key Suspension Bridge on the south side of Bridgeport, but we realized too late that the original alignment on that side was obliterated and there are no trespassing signs posted everywhere! We did stop at the original Lucille’s before hitting Weatherford where we are staying for the night. Tomorrow we finish Oklahoma and enter Texas!
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