Oklahoma Route 66 Two

I talked to a bunch of people on this section of Route 66 and man do I have some stories, so I hope the four people reading this blog enjoy them as much as I did.  

Shannon Miller Statue

There's a really cool place in Arcadia called Pops, it is a soda shop/gas station.  At any time they have 600 different kind of sodas all in glass bottles: strawberry, root beer, black cherry, ranch, barbecue, lime, and so on.  You can even make your own six pack, most expensive six pack I've ever bottle.

Pops

I got to meet the artist and writer of my EZ66 guidebook Jerry McClanahan at his studio in Chandler.  He is a really nice guy and even signed my book, he also gave me some updates for my Illinois drive.  At his studio you can buy prints of his Route 66 art and basically ask him all the questions you want.  He's been travelling the route since 1987 and has never actually done the whole drive all at once, but does chunks when he can.  He used to do the drive with his dad who once drove 28 hours straight (which blew my mind).

Jerry McClanahan

Another interesting spot on the road is Shoe Tree, which is basically what it sounds like; a tree with a bunch of shoes in it.  I stopped at Shoe Tree Trading Post and spoke to LaVonne Plute and she told me how the tree got it's start.  She said there was a homeless man that used to walk up and down that stretch of Route 66 in the 70's and they decided to throw one of her husbands old pair of boots on the tree for him to take.  Once people saw that they started throwing their shoes on the tree, and it continued from there.  The tree has been in different newspapers and she was eventually interviewed for a tv show.  I asked her if the man ever took the boots and she said no he just left them up there.  The original tree recently fell, but a new tree took over the shoes.  Side note she gave me a free Pepsi.

Shoe Tree

Blue Whale in Catoosa used to be a really famous swimming hole, but has been closed for business since 1988, due to the neighboring water park and floating, the owners could not afford to keep it open and soon after they closed beavers dammed up the hole, so clean spring water was not able to come in; now the water is very unclean and not safe to swim.  I talked to the woman running the souvenir shop and she said hopefully one day they can reopen.  That's the sad thing about Route 66 cool things like this are closed because bigger and better things move into town.

Blue Whale

Next stop was at the World's Largest Totem Pole carved by Ed Galloway.  His old workshop is located on the property and it houses many of his carvings.  He carved 300 fiddles in his life and after his death 150 were stolen from his workshop (never recovered).  The many that were stolen had faces of the Presidents carved into them.  Side note I got a free post card because I didn't have enough change (people are really giving here).

Foyil, OK

I stayed in my first theme motel and was super pumped.  Chelsea Motor Inn is ran by Frank & Trudy Jugler who were really friendly and nice (they gave me a bag made by her mom and a couple postcards).  I was originally suppose to stay in the Native American room but the air conditioner wasn't working properly, so they moved me to the Route 66 room.  She did show me the room and both are really nice; all of the bedspreads are made by Trudy Juglers mom.  There are only six rooms and the motel is way under priced (in my opinion).  

My room

I met Ron Jones "Tattoo Man" at Afton Station/Route 66 Packards that used to be a DX gas station, but now is a gift shop and houses David Kane's antique cars.  He has 132 Route 66 tattoos and was actually going to get another one that day.  He as most people I've met on the route was really friendly and had no problem with me taking pictures.

Tattoo Man

His face

I made a stop at Buffalo Ranch which is you guessed it has buffalo, located right next to a gas station.  I hung out and just stared at the buffalo for a good 20 minutes, and was really surprised no body else cared that there were buffalo at a gas station!  I mean come on they are buffalo!  BUFFALO!

Buffalo Ranch

I made a detour to a place called Spooklight which apparently has some paranormal activity, you can see "ghostly" lights or as my book put it "para-headlights" I didn't see anything, just an open field, cars, and random dogs.

Stroud, OK