OK, it would take a week to do Tulsa properly so we decided that we wouldn't do anything in Tulsa, apart from drive through on 11th Street (Route 66)!! There is just so much to see in the cities that it is overwhelming and somewhat distracting from the Route 66 experience of driving through 'middle America'. So, we headed back to 11th Street this morning and drove all the way through Tulsa to Southwest Boulevard which had us heading off to Red Fork on Historic Route 66. On the way we managed to photograph the neon sign at the Rancho Grande. We drove south-westerly on the northern side of I-44 through Red Fork, Oakhurst and Bowden before crossing to the southern side of the interstate and into Supulpa where we took a photo of the Happy ... read more

Bernie got a jump start on the shopping when we we arrived yesterday afternoon, purchasing a new pair of Teva sandals when we dropped in to pick up a guide to the shops at the Osage Beach Premium Outlets. This morning we were in Osage Beach specifically to shop! It was just as well too, as our shopping coincided with a pretty intense thunderstorm. Instead of negotiating Route 66 in torrential rain, all we had to worry about was dashing between the shops in the rain!! By about 1.30pm we had pretty much done all of the clothing and footwear shops so we stowed all of our purchases in the Mustang and drove down to Lebanon to pick up Route 66. Our Osage Beach deviation resulted in us missing the section of Route 66 between Waynesville ... read more

We had a late night/early morning after Bernie watched the Richmond vs Fremantle game via the internet!! Unfortunately Richmond's winning streak was ended by the Dockers! After sleeping in a bit we ventured down to the lower lobby for our complimentary breakfast at the Hampton Inn. There was plenty of food to choose from, but we kept it simple opting for some fruit and a bit of cereal. After breakfast we took the car out of the Hampton's car park and headed off to Schiller's Camera Store. This time Bernie had called ahead to be certain that the lens was in stock before we drove right across town!! As we were driving to the store we found that we were actually travelling on one of the many roads designated as Historic Route 66. The Mother Road ... read more

Yesterday afternoon we kept seeing SAVE DWIGHT PRISON signs in front yards. Curious to learn what this was about we Googled 'Save Dwight Prison' and learnt that the prison employs 350 people locally, but its closure has been announced because the infrastructure upgrades that the prison needs make it unviable to keep it open. Apparently the prison guards received their notices on 23 May 2012 - a real blow to the local economy. After a self-catered breakfast of fruit and cereal in our room, we spent the morning in Pontiac. We started by photographing the Historic 1875 County Court House. We were hampered somewhat by the works that are being undertaken opposite the court house. The site building has been placed right in front of the court house which does spoil the street-scape somewhat!! Next we ... read more

Ha, we slept better last night because we discovered that we could open the windows in our room. On Sunday night it was too noisy with the air conditioner on and too warm with it off. We opted for too warm which meant that we tossed and turned a bit! It could also have something to do with our body clocks adjusting to local time?? After breakfast this morning we headed into the city again. Having walked straight past the Chicago Cultural Centre yesterday morning without realising it we decided that we should go back and actually visit it this morning to view the stained glass domes. When we arrived it was to discover that a Quality Risk Management seminar was being conducted in the Preston Bradley Hall. How can you conduct something so dry and ... read more