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Published: July 23rd 2017
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We were on the road by 10. We were feeling tired this morning. We wanted to cross Oklahoma, swing through Kansas and end in Missouri. We decided we would look for a campground to stay at for the night. We needed showers and to dump as well as a pool and air conditioning to sleep as a reward.
Jody grabbed her pack for the day to restock from last night to find that there were stowaway cherry cobbler desserts hidden in her pack. Alex had a special treat with breakfast.
Our first stop was the Route 66 museum in Oklahoma. The museum was very nice and air conditioned. It had a lot of the history and building of Route 66. It was neat that you could read about the transformation of the road as well as see the change in cars over the years. There was also a video to watch. We sat to watch some but did not see the whole loop. Grace enjoyed playing at the soda shop counter while we watched to movie. We shopped at the gift shop and then headed down the road. As usual we had been trend setters.
When we arrived the lot was fairly empty, when we left it was full.
Next stop, the round barn! Where we got onto route 66 to travel to the barn, we passed Pops. We stopped in for gas and some soda. Pops is a soda shop and café. The coolers were full of all kinds of soda from around the world. We purchased some build your own 6 packs of new and unusual ones to try. It was a cool building with soda bottles lining the glass walls. There was also the large soda bottle out front that we had our picture taken with.
The round barn was just that and we just took a few pictures from Sid, we chose not to get out since we had had a longer stop at Pops.
Stayed on Route 66 to avoid toll road but then had to get onto Route 44 to get to where we wanted to stop for dinner. We had to pay two different $11 tools to drive on route 44 in Oklahoma.
We stopped to see the iconic Blue Whale on Route 66. This was
built on a pond for weekend family fun. It has been maintained but you can no longer swim in the pond. You can however walk out into the whale and check it out. It had diving boards and slides that went into the pond. After using the unique bathrooms we headed to Commerce OK. We anxiously awaited having a meal at the Dairy King, a home place of Micky Mantle.
The Dairy King was a route 66 gas stop turned into a diner. It is very small with only 4 booths. The owners have run the diner for 30+ years. The location has actually been in business for 90 + years. We had burgers and fries or chicken fingers and fries. We got to talking to the owner and her son. They had spent some time living in Delaware. The son had actually been the first survivor of a bone transplant at DuPont many years ago. They reminisced about the hospital and Delaware as we ate. We purchased some of the Route 66 cookies you can only get at the Dairy King. They actually have a patten on the cookies.
We were very close
to the Kansas state line and had two brief stops in Kansas before heading to the KOA in Joplin, Missouri. On Route 66 on the way to Cars on the Route, we spied the Williams Store. It was one of the stops but we were not sure if we could find it. The parking lot was a challenge for Sid and the camper. This was a little mom and pop grocery with some route 66 souvenirs. It was the longest running store along route 66 and is a historical landmark. It is supposedly the inspiration for the Curious Shop in Cars. They actually had the Cars movie playing in the gift shop. Grace sat down to watch the ending. The owner had some cool old Pepsi bottles that Jody did not have but he was not interested in selling any.
At Car on the Route, a gas station off route 66, 4 Women on the Route, was turned into a novelty souvenir shop focused on Cars. They had two Maters, and a Red (the fire truck) in the lot that you can take your picture with. Grace felt like she was in Radiator Springs and in her
Hay Day.
We traveled the 10 miles down the road to Joplin, MO. We pulled in at 7:45. We were able to set up at the campsite and get to the pool before it closed at 9:00. Grace was glad the pool was cool, unlike the one in Utah which was heated. Jody called this the prewash. At the camper the girls had showers and the Alexis and Jordan worked on downloading episodes for the next leg of the drive. The WiFi was working a little better here. Alex was able to upload two more blogs. We were glad to have the air conditioning because it was still hot out at 9:00.
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