September 13

Day 4! We made our way into Shamrock Texas to marvel at the art deco wonder that is the Conoco Tower! Everything is green is this town btw.

Green glazed ceramic tiles, mmm...

 More art deco details

Next stop, the Devil's Rope Museum in McLean TX.

At first glance it seems to be a laughable roadside curiosity. Turns out, you could spend hours in this place, it was quite interesting!

 Who knew there were so many types of barbed wire? And ways to splice it? And attach it to posts, and materials to make those posts, and machines to make the wire, and spools to hold the wire?

We saw all the brands for different ranches, as well as the different ways to tattoo, clip and tag the ears of cattle.

There was also a very somber section dedicated to telling how barbed wire has been used against humanity. How it changed combat in war, and how it has been used to contain humans.
So...on to something less depressing...

Like this water tower in Groom, TX.

No one seems to be able to agree on the history of this water tower, does it/did it ever function? Why is it there? Did it ever stand strait? The most popular version I've heard, is that it was intentionally built this way so that rt.66 drivers would stop into the nearby gas station to ask about it. And likely fill up their gas tanks and bellies since they're already there.

How you know you're in Texas.

So, today we decided that we were going to plan ahead, buy some bone dry firewood, and find a campsite early on in the day. We got this beautiful, secluded campsite in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. We had our own picnic shelter and everything. Absolutely wonderful, the park itself was beautiful, and we would finally be able to take our time setting up in the daylight, and enjoy cooking some delicious pudgie pies over the fire.

Well, that was the plan at least.

See those bushes right at the back of of the teardrop? And that brush in the foreground on the right? And the greenery just behind and to the right of the fire ring? There was a fucking rattlesnake trifecta. Set to overthrow our campsite, and prevent us from partaking in delicious pudgie pies, or any enjoyment whatsoever of our campsite. We didn't see them, but we definitely heard them. Oh, and not to mention the giant spiders everywhere. Seriously, there was one on the side of a dumpster 100 ft away...you could clearly see it from the campsite.

So instead, we retreated to the fallout shelter, armed with a couple bottles of wine contraband (alcohol wasn't allowed in the park). We watched movies on the lappy and had our own little party :)

See look, you can stand up and walk around inside!

September 12th

We had a dry, restful night at a campground on the edge of Oklahoma. They didn't have any fire rings. We asked a ranger about it and we were told that they were stolen...ok, so no fire tonight. I was pretty bummed because I was really looking forward to using our new pudgy pie irons. Oh well. We packed up in the morning and were on our way again.

We found this dinosaur of a sign for Rest Haven Motel. The motel itself appears to have been converted into rental apartments which didn't seem to be in much better shape than the sign.

Further down the road, we found this old auto court motel. I believe the spaces between the buildings used to be covered, and were a place to park your car

This is one of my favorite pictures.

A few miles off of rt. 66 is Totem Pole park, built by Ed Galloway. This is where you will find the tallest totem pole in the world!

There were a lot of owls on the totem poles and other sculptures. This guy was my favorite.

At first glance, the place just seems so kitschy and silly, just some fun yard art of enormous proportions. But upon further inspection, you find this guy really was an artist. There were 300 handmade fiddles on display. Ed Galloway made each one with a different type of wood.

Sign number 24 of 879,33

Further down the road we spotted the infamous Blue Whale of Catoosa! This guy serves as a dock(in his mouth and down the tail), water slides (flippers on either side), diving platform (from the tip of his tail) and loft (second floor at the top of his head). A man built him as an anniversary present for his wife, how romantic!

Earlier I mentioned our list of "must sees" from Aunt Nancy, our Rt. 66 expert. Well we couldn't miss this "roadside attraction" in Tulsa Oklahoma! We dropped in for a visit with Aunt Mary, Barb and Bob. And by "drop in" I mean we called them and said "What are you doing? We're in Tulsa, how do we get to your house?" I'm so glad we were lucky enough to catch them when they weren't busy. We had a great time looking at old pictures and catching up. They treated us to meal at Freddy's, and helped us find our next destination, Red Rock Canyon state park.

The campsites were all down in the canyon. So maybe it doesn't look that steep in the picture, but I was driving and had to sit up to see the road over the hood. Kind of scary! We don't get much of that in Indiana.

So it was late in the day when we arrived, but at the bottom of the canyon the sun had set and it was getting dark. We tried to start a fire but it had apparently rained the day before. Everything including our firewood was damp. No pudgy pies. But we did make a friend, there was this cute cat who kept us company all night. He followed us everywhere, and would have slept with us in the teardrop if we let him. He tried to jump in many times! The park was gorgeous and true to it's name. It's also a popular place for rock climbing. In the morning we took our quarter showers. My new pet peeve. We're paying for camping, now you're charging us for 5 minutes of warm water? Ugh. All we had was a 10 dollar bill for the change machine so we got like 12 pounds of quarters back.

Sept. 11th

A few miles east of this Sinclair station is where I learned to always have my camera. We drove by this old antique shop and pulled over to take a look. Inside the place was completely crammed with old junk and oddities, hardly navigable, exactly what an antique shop should be. There was a sweet old lady behind the counter who we chatted with for a bit about international motorcycle clubs. Upstairs in this old building was just the most beautiful interior, I wish I had my camera. Maybe a more accurate descriptions would be beautiful decay. Something you would see urban exploring except with out the legal risk of trespassing. Further down the road we found this old Sinclair station.

Interesting trusses

We sat and talked with the daughter of the station owner for awhile. She told us stories about the area and the history of the place. She asked if we had stopped by the antique shop further up the road. "Why yes, we did." She told us an old man and has wife ran the place for something like 30 years. But a few months ago the wife died and the man was left alone to care for the place. She said a few weeks ago a traveler came by and said she just stopped by the shop and there was the nicest old woman there (do you see where this is going?) she described the man's wife who had recently died. We just half-smiled and said "Oh my..."

This one's for Nancy

Love these art deco machines

An original Route 66 sign

Pan out, and this is the building it swings from

I have a thing for abandoned buildings and peeling paint if you haven't noticed

Further down the road, we found Red Oak II (a suggestion from the woman at the Sinclair station) It's hard to describe the place, it's kind of like traveling back in time. Check out this link for a bit of it's history. It's full of charming little buildings and art.

A gate made out of old gears and tractor parts

Some of the houses are privately owned. 

There were a few of these chairs scattered out in the lawn...they looked like they were grazing.

This sculpture was called "Plumber's Nightmare"

In the the little old church

Sept. 10, 2010 - We Embark

So we left home at 6pm on a Friday, to find ourselves in a traffic jam 30 minutes out of town. Great! We drove into the night, trying to get as far away from home as we could. 1:45am we stop for the night in a truckstop somewhere in Missouri for our first night on the road in the teardrop. It rains. Torrentially. We found our leak! And lucky for me it was on Ed's side. Actually we both tossed and turned all night just getting used to the idea of sleeping in a shoebox on a trailer in a truckstop in Missouri. So Ed's feet got a little wet but we patched up the leak in the morning. But not before being awaken by strangers talking about us just outside our window...

(read this in the thickest southern accent)

Mr: That's a tiny little camper right there, the back opens up and they got a kitchen and storage.

Mrs. A camper? You mean a trailer for camping supplies?"

Mr. No, no, that's a camper, you can sleep inside of it.

Mrs. No way, that is too tiny!

Mr. No it's not, I betcha they just got tired and pulled off to rest, I bet there's people sleeping in there right now.

And so it begins, seldom will we make a stop and not have an admirer or two. Literally not a day went by in our two weeks on the road that we didn't have someone strike up a conversation about our teardrop. "What is it? Where did you buy it? Do you really sleep in there?"

Sept. 11
After brushing teeth and cleaning up a bit at the truckstop, we finally hop on Route 66 at 9:30 am.
Here is our very first roadside oddity, you see we were quite excited.

In case you were wondering, this is the Route 66 Rocker.
Erected 4-1-08
Stands 42'4" tall
Weighs 27,500 lbs

We spotted the rock frog! Aunt Nancy, Americana expert and enthusiast, had given us a list of things to look out for. This was one of them, it was a like a scavenger hunt, looking for everything on her list and finding a ton of stuff in between.

Our very first neon stop, the Munger Moss Motel

Our first diner stop, the Bell Restaurant in Lebanon MO. We enjoyed a most satisfying breakfast at 11:30am. Love that ceiling!

Edit: I missed a page in our travel log! More to come from from our adventures on the 11th - I can't believe we did so much all in one day...part 2 of day 2 coming soon.