Not in Kansas Any More
(Baxter Springs, Kansas to Chandler. Oklahoma)
The first thing we did this morning was our laundy, in a laundromat pretty much directly opposite the motel. Dull stuff, but the laundromat turned out to be a bit of a videogame museum, with a Roadblasters, a Turbo Out Run (not a patch on standard Out Run) and a Street Fighter II Championship Edition all in operation , not to mention a Twilight Zone pinball table.
Our bags full of clean clothes, we headed West again. Because the Interstate is largely toll road in these parts, Route 66 is still quite heavily used for long stretches. The downside of this is that it's been improved beyond all recognition, and retains little character.
North of Foyil, is the Galloway totem pole park, where Ed Galloway made a load of Indian-inspired artworks in the 40s and 50s as a hobby after his retirement. The centrepiece is a 90 foot totem pole, allegedly the tallest totem pole in the world.
Not much further down the road in Catoosa is the abandoned Blue Whale pool. A few decades ago, this would have been a popular rest stop where families would picnic, and the kids would play in the pool. The whale has several slides and diving boards all around it.
The Tom Snyder book says that the whale is in complete disrepair. It appears to have been given a lick of paint since then, and there is new woodwork inside the whale, so something is going on. The boat shaped building next to the whale is falling apart, and there was nobody around.
Just over the road from the blue whale is the double entendre highlight of the trip: Spunky Creek!
We bypassed Tulsa on the Interstate, because it's a big city that's hassle to drive through, and there didn't seem to be much to see there.
In Sapulpa we turned off Oklahoma 66 onto a stretch of old road. You can see where the new road was built on top of the old:
The side road leads to Rock Creek Bridge, which is fantastic because it has a red brick road surface.
Almost immediately after that, we came upon a disused drive-in movie theatre. Everything was boarded up, and the speakers were all gone, but someone had been mowing the grass, so who knows what might happen to it?
Now we're at another classic motel, every bit as classy as the Munger Moss was a couple of nights ago. This is the Lincoln Motel in Chandler, and it has a bit of parking surface at the front that looks suspiciously similar to the old Route 66 road surface. We have a stars and stripes hanging outside our door.
