Route 66

January 8, 2016

                        

I've wanted to drive a section of Route 66 for many years now.  It's a Bucket List Thing.  Affectionately known as "The Mother Road", it cuts across the country from Chicago, Illinois through the states of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, ending at Santa Monica, California.  Route 66 is the most famous road in this country and is also known as "Main Street America".

We loaded up the car in the early a.m. and picked up Route 66 just outside of OK City.

We saw a lot of derelict buildings and gas stations along the way.

Several places have been restored, others left to crumble.

  This beautiful (new) bronze sculpture really caught my eye and 

is visible from the highway.

If you look up Ghost Towns of America, Texola, Oklahoma will be definitely make the list.  

Only 36 residents are listed on the 2010 census.  

Abandoned, overgrown buildings adorn every street.  

A tiny cinder block "jail" sits on a lot near the center of the town.  

Being lovers of Ghost Towns, we had to check it out:

Comfortable lodging for those Scalliwags in the photos above:

There was a cool-looking diner at the far end of town named 

The Tumbleweed Cafe.  

                        

We wanted to stop for a coffee, talk with the locals and take a photo of the place but a small, scruffy lone black dog in the parking lot started alert barking in a weird way and suddenly, it was like a scene from 101 Dalmations.  All sorts of frothing, frenzied dogs zoned in on our car and started barking frantically. Two yips and a woof.  They were the dogs from the other side of the tracks, the gangstah dogs.  (Pit-Schnoodles, Border-Doodles, whatever, you know the type).  Zuma, who flops out on her puffy bed and never makes a sound when we're on the road, suddenly sat bolt upright and looked out the window to see what all the ruckus was about. The car-chasing crazed dogs were speeding alongside us and didn't even see Zu.  This is their sport, chasing cars.  And they are real athletes.  I told Doug just drive or they'll jump all over the car.  The dogs were nothing short of Olympic sprinters and they basically, uh, ran us out of town.  It was pretty funny really.  The dogs were having a good laugh, for sure.  I'd have taken a photograph, but I could see the teeth from my window so I didn't.  Zuma laid back down on her comfy bed and blew the whole thing off.  Good thing we weren't planning a breakfast at The ole Tumbleweed Cafe.  

The roadside towns of Route 66 have always offered mechanic/tire or towing services for travelers.  We don't recommend waiting around for a service man here.  That ship has sailed, honey.

                           

I don't know about you, 

but I'm lovin' all the shoes that have been humorously flung up 

into the trees behind this sign.

We crossed into Texas, heading for Amarillo and found Conway, another "Ghost Town".  

This one has a larger population and we stopped to take photos and look into a gift shop.  The owner was sweet and friendly.  We had a nice chat about her soon-to-arrive 13th grandchild, the upcoming baby shower and the weather.  I got the feeling she doesn't have many conversations a day.

We were pleased to find this wonderful Art Deco Conoco station in Shamrock; it isfully restored and treasured as a roadside attraction, one of the multiple old gas stations that has served travelers for decades on Route 66.

                  

"Fill 'er up?"

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