The personal authentic travels of a world-wide drifter, you'll always see pics of me at the locations being described (if the other blogs you're reading don't do that, odds are they were NEVER there, just saying…)
This is what it says it is… within the borders of Joplin (MO) there is a fairly well hidden marker (not far off the old 66 route) that marks a spot where three states meet: Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. That said, it is seriously NOT easy to find. My car’s GPS couldn’t find it, and ultimately I had to resort to google maps (which won’t work if you don’t have data coverage in that area)
It is located down very old heavily pot-holed (seriously, watch out or you’ll screw up the alignment of your wheels) road that is more gravel than asphalt, just off a roundabout. And alongside a large pillar (there’s nothing ON said pillar to explain why it’s there).
I have a feeling that the reason the road is in such disrepair is because it’s sort of a no-mans land… the road to the monument lies RIGHT on the Missouri/Kansas border… although google maps puts it JUST at the edge of Missouri.
[Am I the only one who always get confused between Missouri, MO…. Montana is MT … Massachusetts, MA and Mississippi, MS]
Just as you enter Miami Oklahoma you see this really nice Route 66 sign
The Miami in this case is not the Miami of Florida, rather it denotes the land that had been assigned to the Miami tribe, a people that had originally lived in what is now Indiana [where they are no longer recognized as a tribe] but were forcibly moved here when the white populations in Indiana wanted them gone. This relates to other places I’ve visited such as Tippecanoe Battlefield, where after the battle of the same name the Indians who had followed Tecumseh, were forced to move to here, to Oklahoma (i.e., which literally translates to Indian Territory — discussed in greater length on this blog post) while the ones who did not support him and had decided to live like white men were allowed to stay in Indiana.
The word Oklahoma actually translates in the Choctaw language to “red-person,” specifically, ukla=person and huma=red, and the entire territory had initially been ‘given’ by the US government as a territory intended solely for the tribes… and it is where the tribes from the southeastern states were marched towards on the Trail of Tears.
This Memorial located directly upon the old Route 66 route marks one of the boundaries of “Indian Territory” a continually shrinking zone that the American government promised to leave to its native populations that at this point is more easily observable via the names of places than on the faces of its occupants.
The Rainbow Bridge in Riverton KS, (Baxter Springs is the closest town) dates back to the two lanes period, and is directly adjacent to a much newer version of 66.
One of the things you realize driving route 66 is it developed in stages. There’s the original one, which was generally two lanes and existed in a time when there wasn’t much traffic… then increased usage necessitated wider bridges, or that the road be moved entirely… and then there’s the most recent version some of which I’m beginning to think was organized AFTER the road had been decommissioned, when it started to become a tourist destination.
View from 66’s newer route and the new bridge
Apparently, in a fight between the county, which wanted funds from the government to build the new bridge whose rules demanded demolishing the old bridge, and the Kansas Route 66 Association… who clearly wanted it preserved, a compromised was reached. And now the bridge is listed with the National Register, so it will never be demolished, and has since been used as local for filming route 66 specials on TV.
Yet another historic gas station repurposed to take advantage of renewed interest in 66 that the Pixar Movie Cars generated. Every car has been anthropomorphized, and the police car is claiming to be from Radiator Springs. (From what I read they also serve sandwiches and stuff to generate income.)
As is clearly obvious from the photo, it was approaching 7pm by the time I got here, and it was raining, and the temps were dropping precipitously … I think it was already like 47 F according to my car’s “outside” thermometer (in MID October, i.e., unusually cold).
The website I had looked at said they were open on Sundays….AND, I got there on a Sunday (this part of the country seems to close down on Sundays…), but apparently not so much.
I TRIED to see this still functioning Drive-in theater on Route 66. UNFORTUNATELY google maps lied to me yet again… the drive on 66 rather than on the freeway, so slower (especially when you add stops along the way) had me showing up here past 7pm and with it being overcast and raining….
As it turned out, it was actually closed for the season, and THIS was all I actually managed to see of this old-fashioned Drive-in theater (and it was Sunday night and raining, so even if it had been offering a movie it wouldn’t have been showing anything that night). That said, this section of 66 is profoundly back roads and rural. VERY little traffic and more than a few deer (be careful). AND the temperature were dropping. By the time I finally managed to get to gas station (I was in dire need of a pee) the RAIN, as in floated in the air was clearly behaving more like tiny snow flakes than rain… so from that point on I opted for the highway as the much safer option to get me to my hotel.
I’d also driven right past The Gay Parita Sinclair Station on Route 66 (they got a National Geographic write up!), but it was SO dark there was nothing to really see or take photos of… no nice neon or anything
While a 66 roadside attraction, Pops Soda Ranch, having opened in 2007, is most clearly NOT so much an icon of Route 66’s heyday, so much as one of its rebirth. This ultra modern ode to the soda pop includes a 66 foot bottle of pop, in Neon (would love to see it at night, but didn’t manage that, maybe next time).
Pops has a fairly impressive selection of of drink options (I didn’t see any alcohol)
They have these 6 pack cases, and you can either buy 6 of one or mix and match them as your heart desires
I’m sad to say these were the ONLY ginger beers I found that weren’t diet… the Sioux city one was a bit better (more ginger burn) than the “extra ginger” Cock and Bull, ironically enough. And for those who really don’t want soda there’s hot chocolate or mocha coffee
Of course the place sells gas (I only saw a handful of folks filling up there) and they have a large selection of things to eat (I didn’t eat there)
odds and ends you can buy (many of them route 66 oriented)… but let’s face most people are there to try all the different flavors of pop.
This is one of those seriously iconic Route 66 things. Numerous times along the route people had asked me had I seen it yet, or was I intending to go see it. It’s a barn, it is old, it is red, and unlike most barns it is round…. that’s about it
When I first arrived I was a bit excited about what I was going to see.
But, other than some placards on the walls that talk about it’s history….
From which I learned that back when they were building this there was a folk-belief that round barns were tornado proof, and that there had been a huge preservation movement in support of the barn that began in the 1970’s, which resulted in it being placed on the Register of Historic Places, … really not much of major interest was offered.
currently, the ground floor, for the most part…. it’s a great big shop full of junk… no seriously, the sort of stuff you find at flea markets in poor neighborhoods. (I didn’t bother taking photos of it) Well, that and some obligatory Route 66 stuff you could easily find on Amazon and pretty much EVERY other 66 stop, but that said… it is mostly junk. As a potential marketing space it is being completely wasted. WHY the community doesn’t make it gallery for promoting local artists or something of the like, I don’t know.
That said, the UPSTAIRS is GORGEOUS, and is rightly used a venue for weddings.
Another photo taken using the camera app on my watch
Located in Chandler Oklahoma on Route 66 in a beautiful building that once served as their national guard armory, is a museum dedicated to the Route 66 experience. Smartly, its designer looked at the other museums dedicated to 66 (the good and the not so good) and opted to compliment them rather than to repeat them … So, this exhibit is about the experience of some of the local high-points, rather than the road itself — for the low price of $5
I have got to admit, this is one of the better local attempts at a museum I’ve seen.
It has a docent, who, as soon as you walk in…. gives you a little tour of the place. First she talks a bit about the history of the building and it’s construction
Picture of workers mining and working the stone that makes up the walls
Then she showed us the drill hall which has now been repurposed by the community for things like a wedding venue
and finally she took us into the exhibit hall and explained how the interpretive center works. She told us (me, and two women I had run into previously at Pops), about how they had hired a curator to design the space, and I could have told her that just based on layout. (As you guys all know nothing pisses me off more than museums that don’t even TRY to curate themselves). Less is more people, less is more…
The suggested way to start the exhibit, is a 20 minute movie (assuming you have the time) about a man originally from IL who made about his first trip on 66 in his 20s (in 1939 going road-tripping with a buddy to their university in Arizona). On that trip he had written letters to parents at every top along the way, and had taken photographs. Years later, when it was time to move his mom into managed care, upon clearing out the family home he found his mother had kept all the letters and post cards… and this stimulated in him a desire to do the trip a 2nd time, in 2000, now that he was retired. He did so, making a point of trying to stop at all the same motels (or finding out what had happened to them) and focusing on the differences between the two trips. With the help of a friend, a documentary was created which is being shown only in this museum (I looked for it on-line and couldn’t find it, other than references saying it was showing at the museum.
Then you move into a section where you can lie on beds (as though you were staying at one of the Route 66 motor homes), or sit in chairs (which were pulled from classic cars), And watch from a large selection of shorts (about 5 minutes or so each) on a variety of different topics
This one showed either a movie about renovating the Round Barn, that I had visited earlier that day, or a movie about the former icons that are no more — and the changing awareness of local communities and the government that these road side attractions actually need preserving as they are part of our history.
From which I learned that back when they were building this there was a folk-belief that round barns were tornado proof, and that there had been a huge preservation movement in support of the barn that began in the 1970’s, which resulted in it being placed on the Register of Historic Places, … really not much of major interest was offered.
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