Travels with Kris

Spent last night in the OKC I-35 Motel in Oklahoma City.  Spending tonight here too.  The weather is horrible again today, to the point that I waited forever to go out to my car (6 feet from the door) to get much needed supplies.  I went out and got food and drink and a few other things and when I came back in my room the temp had dropped 10 degrees inside the room.  Ugh, its cold.  According to my weather app, its 43 but feels like its 36.  The rain and wind just make it all so much worse.  But tomorrow is supposed to be wonderful and I'll be back on the road.  I cracked into one of my Pops sodas and it is delightful:  Lemon Meringue Soda.  This is awesome, I can't believe this isn't a normal flavor of soda.

Started the day off at the Route 66 Interpretive Center.  This one wasn't free, but my app said it was something special, and it was.  The museum was designed by the same person that designed the Oklahoma City Memorial and it is brilliantly done.  There are multiple station and each station has specialty seating and a video.  The seating could be a plastic "bed" to represent the motels or original seats from a classic car.  One area had original seats from a movie theater.  Part of the floor was a map with Route 66 highlighted.  There were photos have famous Route 66 places landmarks and glass etchings of book pages.  It was really creative and well done.  I entered with a family but they left after about 30 minutes, so I had the whole museum to myself.  I explored and then went to find the manager to ask a million questions (cause that's what I do).  This was a great stop and I'm glad I made the effort. I left the museum after...

Woke up around 6am this morning and enjoyed some laying about watching Netflix for awhile.  Eventually, I got up and picked up my list where I left off.  Took photos of diners and motels and street art.  Made a little detour to check out the Center of the Universe and stood in the center and listened to my echo.  Up until this point, I was loving Tulsa...it definitely embraces the Route 66 culture.  Driving in downtown Tulsa sucks though and up until this point I didn't really get the big city feel from Tulsa, but it is.  Enjoyed the art exhibit though and headed back to the 66.  Kept knocking things off the list and had a late lunch at Her Meltdown Diner.  Got a fantastic grilled cheese sandwich and a great conversation with the owner. She showed me photos of the renovation of the building and talked about the process to turn it into a diner.  It was built in 1949 as a service station and was a number of other business after the service stat...

Up early on this lovely Tuesday morning and back to where I left off last night.  First POI was the Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park which has been a staple of Route 66 since the early days.  Construction started in 1937 and continued until 1961 when Ed Galloway passed away.  Currently the park is owned by a local historical group and they are maintaining the property.  Knocked a few more things off the list while I headed back to Claremore.  Found a free museum J.M Davis Arms & Historical Museum.  Its one of the largest collections of guns you'll ever see.  Hand guns, shot guns, military guns, toy guns, garter belt guns, hidden guns....a crazy amount of guns.  They also had knives and swords and violins and dead animal parts.  It was a weird museum. I had heard that the Will Rogers Museum was worth stopping but I decided to go north and check out the Will Rogers Birthplace instead.  It was a quick drive up and the ranch itself is s...

Finally tied things up with Joplin and hit the road.  I did make one stop on the way out of town, the Joplin History and Mineral Museum which is right on the state line.  Unfortunately, it was closed on Mondays, so I took some shots of the outside and hit the road. Kansas was right around the corner.  Route 66 only covers a tiny corner of Kansas (13 miles) and I was able to do it all by mid afternoon.  Met two interesting people in Kansas.  The first one was at the Galena Mining & Historical Museum.  She was very knowledgeable and very enthusiastic about the museum.  The museum isn't that large and not that busy and I was able to ask a million questions about the things in the museum and the history of the town.  It was very fun.  The second was a gentleman at a Baxter Springs Visitor Center.  He was more socially awkward that I am, but also very enthusiastic about his topic of expertise and ask me a bunch of questions and then sta...

Last post from Joplin.  After my last post, I still have a few hours of daylight left, so I searched the internet for a nice place to get some steps in.  It listed a Cunningham Park as a nice place to walk.  I checked my GPS and it was reasonably close.  Set my map and off I went.  The park was very populated, which was nice, I like to see communities using their green spaces.  There was park on both sides of the road, and I started on the side where I parked.  The walking path was paved and seemed to lead to every major highlight in this section of the park.  It didn't take too long to figure out this wasn't just an everyday normal park.  This park contained a number of memorials from the May 2011 Tornado disaster.  There is a reflecting pond built for the lives of the children lost.  There is a plaque listing all the names of the lives that were lost.  There is a fountain declaring a "Proclamation of Restoration".  There...

Still in Joplin, MO.  I didn't get all my work done, so I'm here for another day or two.  Library is open on Sundays from 1pm-5pm, so I decided to do some hiking today.  Spending multiple days hunkered over a laptop is causing my back to lock up.  I need more movement.  So this morning, I googled nice hiking places and I headed out to Grand Falls.  Not so much hiking, but kind of.  It was only a short distance from the road, so I didn't get much exercise.  I did get some beautiful photos though.  Then back to the library.  As of today, my Facebook photos are 100% up to date.  My blog is 100% up to date.  My photos are saved on the hard drive.

Day 11 was an easy day.  I woke early and bin watched some NCIS for way too many hours.  Then worked my way over to the library and worked on my blog/photo sorting until they kicked me out.  Then went to Chilis and drank $5 margaritas and worked on my computer a few more hours.  I really need to keep up with the blogging and not wait so long.  But the Joplin Public Library is lovely and I really like it here.

Started off with a great breakfast back at the Hangar Kafe followed by a $25 airplane ride.  It was fun and I got to see Route 66 from the air along with a lot of cows.  After I left the airport, I worked my way to Carthage, MO and into Webb City.  I ran into a number of places I wanted to enjoy but are closed for the season and although its not the first time I've run into this, its the first time it was something I wanted to do.  The Superman Museum and Ice Cream Parlor in Carterville and the Route 66 Drive In Theatre in Carthage.  I was able to catch an early showing of Maleficent 2 in Webb City at a classic movie theater, and that was pretty nice.  Spent a few hours at the library in Webb City awaiting my movie time and got caught up on some computer work.  I expect I'll be spending a lot of time in libraries in the near future.

Third night in Branson went well.  Up early, got some breakfast and headed in the direction of Top of the Rock about 10 miles outside of Branson.  There was supposed to be a cave here and a nature trail.  It was really beautiful, but it was so manufactured that it kind of lost it for me.  There was no hiking, you did the nature trail and caves on a golf cart.  There was a bar in the cave.  And the nature trail was landscaped professionally and felt like a botanical garden and golf course had a baby.  It was beautiful.  But it wasn't really what I was looking for and it was way to expensive for something I didn't want. When I left Top of the Rock, I headed to the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield.  It was the first one and it was supposed to be huge and had an aquarium.  The aquarium was an additional $30 and I wasn't going to give them any more money after the Top of the Rock experience (also owned by Bass Pro Shops).  They didn't ...

Day six, I entered Springfield and knocked off a few list items.  This was the last city on Route 66 before heading south to Branson and I wanted to hit Branson early.  I wasn't sure what all I would do, but I figured I'd drive around a bit, take some photos and maybe take in a show if I could find something within my budget.  I hit the Branson Welcome Center (one of many) on the way down ( had to use the bathroom) and managed to get talked into a Travel Club sales pitch.  I got a free night in a fancy hotel and a free show.  I knew I wouldn't sign up for it, those clubs are not my cup of tea.  But I could sit and watch a sales pitch.  As a bonus, I got a second night in the hotel and a second show for another $20.  Two nights in a hotel and two shows for $20 and a 90 minute sales pitch.  How could I say no? I spent almost the entire time in the hotel.  Hot breakfast, hot showers, Food Network, laundry service and a pool/hot tub that ...

Day 5 started out early.  It was also a Sunday, so many things that I could have caught open at a different time or day...were closed.  Still was able to cross somethings off the list and ended up at Uranus Fudge Shop just while it was open.  This is a kooky little shop ping area and a fun stop.  The  bar and grill is closed for refurbishment and rebranding.  The ice cream parlor is closed for the season.  But the Fudge factory was open and after about half an hour, the Circus Sideshow Museum was also open.  The Fudge Factory is way more than a fudge.  You could buy dozens of different candy there along with local jams and pickles.  They had old school roadtrip toys for the kids...the kind of thing my parents would buy for me before a vacation.  In the back they had a huge selection of guns.  Cause what's a Fudge Factory without hunting gear.  I made a few passes and then went back to the car for the camera.  Photogra...