We start the day with snapping some pictures in Elk City, which hosts an old hotel (now closed), from brick, as well as the largest non-operational drill in the US. It was originally built to drill holes in which atomic bomb tests were performed. Later it was used for oil drilling too.

From Elk City we drive to Sayre, where we find another famous roadside sign – the one for the Western Motel. It is kind of strange, many of these old motels still exist, but it is unclear whether they are open or not. Most look deserted but they still have an office, and often there’s a few cars in the courtyard in front of some doors. But things look a bit dilapidated and deserted overall.

Next on we go to Erick. It is here that the Sandhills Curiosity Shoppe is located. It’s owners, Annabelle and Harley, wrote songs and performed for travelers. Sadly, Annabelle passed away in 2014 and according to our guide the shop has been closed since. We still wanted to take a picture outside though, so we went there. And to our surprise, the shop was open, and Harley was present. He was most welcoming, and told us all about the many items in the shop. He is quite proud of the pictures of the Pixar team visiting the shoppe, and the invitation to the world premiere of “Cars” he and his wife were invited to. And he even performed for us! I can’t upload the video we took but he performed “Get your kicks on Route 66” and it was awesome. We gave him a good tip and left with a firm handshake and a loud ring of his bell above the front door.

After Erick, the last town in Oklahoma is Texola. This is not yet a ghost town, but it comes close.

Texola literally ends at the state line with Texas, which we quickly cross to find ourselves in the lone star state.

In Shamrock we find the U-Drop Inn Cafe, a very famous building which also inspired Ramone’s body shop in Cars. It is also special because it was built during the Great Depression and pretty decorative for that period. When it opened, it was the ony cafe in 100 miles.

A couple of years ago, it was meant to be destroyed, but the local bank and residents stepped in, and raised money to buy the property. Then, they gifted it to the town, and the town administration could officially apply for a federal grant to restore the building.

The road in Texas goes pretty straight and pretty much always West. The next town we encounter is Groom, which has a leaning water tower. It was put there as a kind of joke by an Army Corps Engineer who is from Groom. It is, of course, not really falling, and also not really very much “leaning” either. Only 10 degrees!

In Conway we find the “Bug Farm”, some burried bugs in a tribute to the Cadillac Farm near Armadillo. The empty buildings surrounding it are kind of creepy.

Once we visited the Bug Farm, we of course had to visit the original too : The Cadillac farm! Now before I post some pics of that, I want to share something I learned about the Cadillac Farm. At present, it seems like everyone is spraying paint on it. But this was never the intention, as expressed by Hudson Marquez, one of the creators of the site. Also, when we walked around, I was kind of appalled by the number of spray paint cans, and plastic lids that were all around the cars. Well….cars…..they are barely recognizable as cars. The paint on them is so thick they not really look like cars anymore.

Nevertheless, we’re glad we found it and visited it. From Amarillo, the next logical stop is Vega. There’s a good example of a 1940’s style motel here. No longer in use I think, but it’s become tradition for us to take a pic of the neon sign. I didn’t include it here, because there are already so many pics, but we did take it!

After Vega we approach a very import location on the road : the midpoint! There’s a cafe here, where we stop to celebrate that we’re halfway Route 66.

Before we leave Texas and enter New Mexico, there’s the almost ghost town of Glenrio. As the travel guid describes it, it is as if the buildings here slowly sink into the plains. And this is true if you look at them. It’s a desolate spot. But there still live some people here. I can’t imagine why, because it is so far from everything else, and hot.

We stay in Tucumcari today. There’s an interesting legend about the name of this town. I’ll try to write it down summarized. There was a Chief Apache with a daughter, Kari, and 2 possible successors, Tocom and Tonopah. The Chief told both men to have a fight to the death to decide who would succeed him. And so they did. But Kari, who watched the fight secretly, when she saw that Tocom lost, jumped up and killed Tonopah with her own knife. For she loved Tocom. And then she took Tocom’ s knife and killed herself. When the Chief, her father, found them like this, he was wrecked with grief, and took Kari’s knife, and while killing himself, spoke “Tocom-Kari”.

Whether this is a true story or not, we sleep in the Safari Motel. The sign of this motel shows a camel, to remember the expeditions organized by the Army to map the land here to find the best place for roads, starting in 1857. They bought camels and used those because in this climate, camels would work best. The motel was built in 1959 and is still open! A true Route 66 classic.

Today we will spend fully in Oklahoma. We drive from Tulsa to Elk City. It’s pretty hot, just like yesterday, but that is to be expected this time of year. I was warned! Strangely, today we keep missing things. It starts out with Depew. We just totally miss it. When we realize it, we’re already in the next town, and decide not to turn around (later we will turn around for other missed locations, not to worry!). In Chandler we look for McJerry’s gallery but we can’t find it. We decide to move on and proceed to drive past Warwick without realizing it.

This time we turn around though, and we’re glad we did! In Warwick we find the Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum. It houses a large collection of motorcycles, some pretty antique. I see some Indians and although I am not a motorcycle expert, I do know these are rare. Most motorcycles in the museum look to be in very good condition too.

Just when we’re about to leave, another car pulls up. Someone gets out and – like so often happens – we made a new friend and are talking about Route 66, our trip, and roadtrips in general. And once again I realize that the Us is nothing at all like we are told it is in the media. Even in Canada, we only see a certain prepare image, through the filter applied by the media. In The Netherlands, this is even worse.

The US is a great country, and we as Western world have our freedom and wealth for a large part not despite but because of the US. And in the US live great people. The majority of people here want to do what we all want : live a happy life in a good country. This is my opinion of course, but it’s based on personal experience, not on what I have heard on the TV.

Ok, enough about my opinions, back to Route 66! Our next stop is the Round Barn in Arcadia. It’s a huge wooden structure and when the builder expressed his plans to make it, back in 1898, people said it couldn’t be done, that his plans were too big. But he did it, and when Route 66 passed his barn, it became one of the most photographed locations along the Route.

We lunch at “Pops”, a new addition to Route 66, since it was built in 2007, and it’s a huge success. It certainly looks futuristic and I think it fits in well with some of the older architecture we’ve seen along the Route.

Next on the Route is Oklahoma City. We mostly drive through, but we do manage to stop for the Gold Dome buildingi and the Milk Bottle building.

In the afternoon, we drive through ever more arid landscape, and near Geary we encounter the imposing Pony Bridge. This bridge was built in 1933 and is the greatest truss bridge, spanning almost 4000 feet. The trusses are called “Pony trusses”, hence the name of the bridge.

Close to Hydro we find Lucille’s Service station. It looks a bit desolate, and it is almost unbelievable that Lucille managed to live here and operate the station for 59 (!) years, till 2000, when she passed away. She bought the station with her husband in 1941 and operated it till her death. She was called the “Mother of the Mother Road”.

After working our way through Clinton and Canute, we arrive at Elk City, where we enjoy some prime Mexican food in Lupe’s Mexican restaurant before heading to our hotel for the night for a well-earned rest! Tomorrow, we once more travel through three states (Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico) AND we’ll pass the halfway point on Route 66!

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!

We are glad to see that today we start with a clear sky and sunlight. We’ll traverse into Missouri today, and aim to reach Springfield (not the one in Illinois, but the one in Missouri). To this end, we head South on Route 66 and encounter Mount Olive. Here we find an old service station where we manage to park the Volvo right in front for a nice picture.

The next location of notice we encounter is Henry’s Rabbit Farm. This is another of these spots you find along Route 66 where people who live here are passionate about the Mother Road and actively help make traveling it a special event. Henry is a pensioned guy who operates his bunny ranch as a hobby, and with passion. He takes care of rabbits from the shelter and also his “”Rabbit” Volkwagens (in The Netherlands we know them as “Golf”).

He also tells the story of Montana, the rabbit who ran for president in 2008. You can read more about that here : http://www.henrysroute66.com/montana.html

We stay at the Ranch for at least 45 minutes and leave with a smile on our face. This is what Route 66 is all about. Driving the road and finding all these special spots and people.

From here on it is unavoidable to encounter St. Louis if you drive further along Route 66. St. Louis is a bigger city, and although it has the lovely Gateway Arch, it does not come across as a nice city. We first try to find the Chain of Rocks Bridge (which we do) but we cant find the lookout point, the only way to look at the bridge would be to park the car in a shady location and walk for a mile or so, which we don’t see as a good plan. Once we are in downtown St. Louis and walk around the Arch (we don’t go up, Jonathan prefers to stay below), we get hit by nasty smells all the time. This city stinks! We move on.

Luckily, on the Western end of St. Louis, where we find Ted Dewes Frozen Custard, it does smell better so we can enjoy a delicious and famous frozen custard.

South of St. Louis we take another break just past Pacafic where we eat some lunch. Here we also see rocks again for the first time since we left Alberta.

Slowly, the landscape is changing. We no longer drive on the prairies, and are entering the Ozarks. Rolling hills with loads of forest. A totally different landscape, and feeling when driving.

We drive off and on the interstate here. At one of the stretches where we do not drive on the interstate we encounter a memorial for the Trail of tears. The man who lived here got someone knockin on the door often, but there was never anybody there when he opened the door. Eventually, a Cherokee Chief visited him and told him his house lay right on the Trail of Tears, and the knocking on his door was ghosts of the deceased natives who died on the trail and couldn’t move on because his house was in the way. So the house owner built a stairs over the roof of his house, and the knocking stopped. He got interested in the history of the Trail of tears and started working on a memorial around his house. After he passed away, the property was sold and now it stands empty.

The Trail of Tears was a forced move of thousands of Native Americans from their lands to Oklahoma, where they were forced to live in reserves. Many died on the march, hench the name “Trail of tears”.

The last stretch to Springfield we drive on the Interstate, but we work our way into the city to Steaks ‘n’ shakes, another classic Route 66 diner, where we have …well…..a stake and a shake!

Today will be our very first complete day spent on Route 66. And it’s going to be a beautiful day, even though we start out in a downpour. We leave Joliet after doing some necessary stuff like shopping for drinks and lunch, grabbing some cash at an atm and filling up the car with gas. Our first stop today is the Gemini spaceman at the Launchpad Drive-in in Wilmington. The drive-in doesn’t really exist in authentic state anymore but the spaceman is still there. It is a relic of a time when these statues were used in many places as a roadway sign and advertisement.

We drive on, past the Polka-dot Drive In, which is sadly closed, so we can only take a picture on the outside. With Jonathan included of course!

In Gardner, we take a quick look at the local oddities, like the 2-cell jail and the Streetcar Diner (no longer a diner, but the car is still there).

Our next stop is in Dwight, where there is a fully restored Ambler’s Texaco Gas station, one of the longest operating stations along the Route, it was open for 66 (!) years. We speak for awhile with Jerry, a volunteer who mans the station now and welcomes guests. We’re the only ones but we don’t mind. It makes for great pictures and Jerry is really nice! As a kid, he used to hang out at the station and look at the cars coming in to be serviced.

The next stop is Pontiac. And that name might ring a bell. Indeed. The car brand. So it makes sense that there IS a Pontiac museum. Its really nice, and free. There’s even a pontiac station wagon from the 60’s from Calgary, with original plate, on display!

This little town is very…I don’t know how to describe it. Imagine Back to the Future, the little town of the first movie. It is very much like that. Square with the town hall in the center. Shops around it. It is a typical, idyllic, classic American town. It gives a small peek in how the US looked and felt like in the 60’s.

Since we pass through it anyway, we stop quickly at the Chenoa Pharmacy in …well…Chenoa. It is open since 1889 (!) and is still located in the original building where you can see the original wooden chests with the white knobs, as well as the original ceiling and counters in the back.

Next up is Lexington, where we have lunch while sitting ON the original Route 66 pavement. A special experience!

We drive through many more small places but the next real stop is in Atlanta. The above pic shows the C70 in Main Street, with Route 66 sign on the road. It is here that Jonathan faces a very difficult choice : which license plates to buy? He found about 20 he likes, but that’s simply too much. Eventually we settle on 3, which makes the total 5 plates bought so far (he bought 2 in the Pontiac museum too).

The picture below is taken at a gas station we encountered which isn’t in any of the guides we have with us. It is in Elkhart or Sherman, I forgot the precise location. But we could drive the C70 in front of it which makes for a fun sight!

And that brings us to Springfield IL, a bigger city which we traverse until we encounter the Cozy Dog Drive in on the South side. It is the perfect place for an early dinner. This establishment is run by the Waldmire family. One of the Waldmires, Bob, traveled along Route 66 and drew murals and post cards and is the inspiration for the Cars character Fillmore.

And that about concludes this day! We push on towards Litchfield, because initially we had hoped to go to an old Drive in theater there but it only is open on Friday and Saturday. Our alterntive, the famous Ariston cafe, is closed on Mondays. Luckily, Jonathan has his plates…..

Today we head out from Eay Claire with destination : Chicago. We’ll make our first few miles on the Motherroad today and we’re excited about that! The morning is the same old : miles and miles of Interstate 94 and later on 90. But on these interstates we make splendid progress and we find ourselves in the vicinity of Chicago around 2pm. It takes us another full hour and some searching to find a parking garage right underneath Milennium park. Having parked the car safely (we hope), we first walk around the Millennium park a bit, specifically to the Cloud Gate sculpture.

This is a truly remarkable piece of art and it’s great to have seen it with our own eyes. We wander on and look at the famous rail system above the streets, known from many movies and novels.

And then it is time for our main goal : the start of Route 66! We find the locations but really any signs or other special items. Except for a type of hotdog stand with the R66 logo.

A bit disappointed we head back to the car, and after some turning left and right manage to come right to the same point, the start of Route 66. And lo and behold! This time we see a (small) sign on the OTHER side of the road as from where it was supposed to be, marking this as the start of Route 66. I manage to take a (maybe unclear) picture with my phone. It is actually strange and a bit sad that the start of this iconic road is so…. unmarked. Just a very small sign on a street corner. But maybe, if I think some more about it, that is perfect. Route 66 is special, in every way, this included. Not many people will venture all the way to the start with their car anyway, I guess.

Jonathan is driving, straight from the very center of town, on Route 66. With a smile he sits behind the wheel and we soon leave downtown Chicago behind us. We travel along Adams Street and then Ogden Avenue. Initially we had planned to go by train to the starting point from the outskirts of town, and we would have missed all of this, so we are very happy that we took the car! We even find the famous “Castle” carwash building, and can take a very nice picture with the car in front! Rumor has it that Al Capone himself hid here when he was on the run for the police.

After that, it’s on to Joliet (these names might sound familiar if you’ve seen the Blues Brothers movie. I think we drive past the prison where Jake or Elwood was released (I think I recognize it, should have taken a picture but oh well, will watch the movie again :-). We sleep in Joliet today, and tomorrow will be our very first day on Route 66. Looking forward to that!