After a good night’s rest it’s time for another day on the road. We don’t mind, we’re up and ready in time and head out of Springfield, MO, heading ever South-West. The first leg of the journey, from Springfield to Carthage, is described as very scenic, with rolling hills and little towns. This description is pretty accurate.

It is on this part of the trip today that we find Gary’s Gay Parita Sinclair station in Paris Springs. Gary built this out from an original stone garage building, on the remains of a burnt out gas station. Sadly, Gary passed away but volunteers keep the station open and running as a point of interest for travelers. We meet George, who is very kind and bids us a warm welcome. It’s another one of those meetings with special people who – without any gain to themselves – spend a great deal of time and energy and money to keep Route 66 alive.

Directly past this station, we find a very old and small part of the pre-1940 alignment. It leads past Spencer, another gas station. Where we can again give the C70 a “Route 66 service”.

It might be fun to note at this point, that only in some places we encounter fellow Route 66 travelers. It is quite often that we travel alone on the road, or are amongst local traffic. I think it will be busier in Arizona, since many people drive only up to there from LA and back. But out here, even in July/August, it is very quiet and relaxed.

Just before Carthage, after a small side tour, we find Red Oak II, which is called “II” because it is a town moved. |Lowell Davis moved away from the town he was born in (Red Oak), and when he came back many years later he found it deserted. He couldn’t stand that and bought the whole town (what was left of it) and moved it all from Illinois to Missouri. It’s a strange thing, to see all those old buildings restored and standing together, but not really being a town. The travel guid mentions correctly that it somehow hints of desperation to cling to the past.

In Carthage we find the famous Boots Motel. It is still in service and being restored. Every room had it’s own covered car parking spot, and for a 1960’s motel, this looked VERY much different and futuristic.

And that about concludes our Missouri Route 66 experience. We drive on into the next srate : Kansas!

In Galena, the first town in Kansas, we find the “Cars on the Route” establishment, which has the inspiration for “Tow Mater” from the movie Cars. This was a must see for Jonathan!

Route 66 in Kansas is not very long. In fact, it’s pretty short! So our next pictures are from Oklahoma. Where we find a most wonderful theater in Miami. It used to be a Vauedeville theater and one of the biggest and finest in this part of the country. The interior is absolutely stunning, and the outside clearly shows Spanish influences on it’s architecture. The theater was finished just before the great depression hit. But luckily it still stands and is used as it was meant to be used.

Our route continues to another famous landmark along the Route : the Blue whale in Catoosa It was built by Hugh Davis as an anniversary gift for his wife, who collected whale statues. It was built in the 1970’s and is somewhat dilapedated, but it’s still there and well known amongst Route 66 enthousiasts.

Our final stop for the day is just a bit further, in Tulsa. Here we find the famous “Blue dome station”, an old service station with a very distinct blue dome as roof. It was used as an office building and recently was in danger of being destroyed but it looks like it is going to be restored.

We have dinner at Hank’s Hamburgers, an old diner (it exists sincce 1949. We order a Big Okie, a burger with 4 (!) layers of meat, amongst other things, which we share. And I have to be honest, it is the most fantastic burger I have had in my life. Only the burger we had South of Calgary in another old establishment in 2012 comes close. This was a WOW burger!