Category: Travel Stories

The next stretch of Route 66 was exactly what it was supposed to be – a giant open-door gift shop and amusement park, where you pay with time and miles, and take home priceless memories and photographs.  Had the rain and inclement weather of the first part of the trip not made its corrections to our sightseeing itinerary, this is what it was supposed to have been all along.  We cannot complain, though – even in the rain and wind we enjoyed the beginning of The Adventure, and were hungry for more!

Route 66 Museum in Elk City

Our schedule after Oklahoma was packed full with places to go and things to see, and the weather was playing along. The skies were bright blue, the sun was shining, and for the first time since leaving Chicago, our rain gear was safely packed away in our side bags.  The next stop on our agenda was the Route 66 museum in Elk City with a big figurine of a Giant Kachina up front.  Truth be told, it was the Kachina that was on our list, and the museum itself came up as an additional and well-worthy surprise!

A Kachina is a spirit deity from western Indian Pueblo mythology.  Interestingly, a Kachina can represent anything in the natural world or cosmos, from a revered ancestor to an element, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon, or even a concept.  Although they are not strictly-speaking worshiped, each is viewed as a powerful being who, if given veneration and respect, can use their particular power for human good, bringing rainfall, healing, fertility, or protection.  In Pueblo mythology, Kachinas have human-like relationships – they may have uncles, sisters, and grandmothers, and may marry and have children.

This particular Kachina was single and childless, had a nickname of ‘Myrtle’, an unidentified gender and a rather menacing look of a warrior in full headdress.  It was made out of oil drums and scrap metal, and painted in bright cheerful colors.  Despite appearing menacing from a distance, upon closer inspection Myrtle did no look at all scary and was grinning at visitors to the museum with a cheerful semi-toothless smile

We coughed up $5 each for the entrance to the museum, and found ourselves in a meticulously recreated village of the era – complete with a gas station, a school, a prison, a doctor’s house, a pond with a bridge, and a mad collection of old cars inside the main building.  The cars – from an old fire truck to half a Cadillac, from the wide back seat of which one could watch a short horror film (of all things!), were in impeccable state, and definitely added to the visitors’ experience.  All in all, this was $5 well spent!

The U-Drop Inn

Most of the way in Oklahoma, and Texas, Route 66 is covered by the Interstate (44 in Oklahoma and 40 in Texas), so this part of the road was mostly not about the journey, but the destinations.  From Elk City, we made it out of Oklahoma into Texas, and within an hour, the route took us to the next destination on our agenda – the U-drop Inn.

A beautifully restored 1936 art-deco building would be the last to be suspected of being a gas station, yet, this was exactly what it was intended for, when first built.  A gas station and a motel – a winning combination in the days of the Neon Highway craze.  The place was operational for as long as 1990, when it was completely abandoned, and subsequently restored.  Nowadays it houses a museum, visitors’ center, an inevitable gift shop you enter and exit the place at, the city’s chamber of commerce, and even a Tesla supercharger, proudly unveiled in 2014.  The diner part of the complex features live-like and slightly creepy wax figure of a waitress, and a carefully preserved fake leather booths with hats on the hangers next to them, and a plaque commemorating the fact that Elvis once sat his ass in one of them.  The place was cool and quiet, and provided a welcome respite to the Texas midday heat.  And they had free drinks!!!!  Nothing of alcoholic content, but hot and cold tea, coffee and water were a nice surprise.

While we were walking around the gift shop and the diner, enjoying our complimentary beverages, a truck with 2 bicycles in the open back pulled over, and two sporty Asian guys in cycling gear jumped out, followed by the scruffy-looking farmer-type driver.  We chatted with the guys, who happened to be from South Korea, and doing Route 66 on bicycles.  The scruffy guy was an occasional help, hauling their bikes in places where the Route wasn’t “cyclable”.  And we thought we were crazy!… 🙂

The Leaning Tower of Texas

The next stop on our agenda was The Leaning Tower of Texas, also known as Britten Leaning Water Tower, on the side of the highway by the town of Groom, Texas.  While many passing motorists attributed the leaning nature of the otherwise most ordinary water tower to tornadoes, earthquake, or other natural disaster frequenting the Texas panhandle on a more or less regular basis, the real cause of the tilt is much more prosaic and straightforward: marketing.  The tower is much younger than your typical Route 66 memorabilia, and dates back to 1980-es, when the Neon Road was already in decline.  Originally, it was meant to serve a very simple purpose – water supply for the nearby truck stop and restaurant owned by one Ralph Britten.  Britten bought it from one of the nearby towns, moved it in one piece to Groom, and proudly painted his own name on it instead of that of the town.  The business must not have been thriving, for Mr. Britten found the need to not use the tower for the originally intended purpose, but set it up as an attention-getter.  Sitting at an 80-degree angle and balancing precariously on just 2 legs without any additional support the tower quickly became the talk of I-40 and the aptly and quickly re-christened Leaning Tower Truck Stop could no longer complain of the business drying out – from that point on, the place was booming.  As years passed by, the truck stop closed down after a fire, but the Tower survived, and can still be admired in all its glory just off the highway, still balancing on 2 legs only.

The Big Texan

The next place on our agenda was of a more popular touristy variety, as there hardly is a traveler or resident of the Texas panhandle, who have not heard about The Big Texan, “the home of the free 72 oz steak”.  The source of joy for all gluttons and everybody who was punished for playing with their food as a child, and the source of loathing for everybody else, the place is as cheesy, corny, kitschy and touristy as one can imagine, and an absolute must to visit.  It sits right by the side of the interstate, and is really hard to miss – huge billboards warn about its appearance for miles in advance, and when you finally close in on the place, the giant bulls sitting in the parking lot and on the roof of the building, monstrous lizards in cowboy boots, flags and other super-sized attraction-getters (eat your heart out Mr. Britten!) are right there in your face.  If anything embodies America, “the land of plenty”, in all its bold and shameless glamour – to me it is The Big Texan with its steak challenge.  

The rules of the game are simple: a $72 meal of a shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad, bread roll with butter and a 72 oz (roughly 2 kg) steak must be eaten in its entirety in 1 hour.  The contestants are not allowed to leave the table, or have anyone help them with the challenge.  Upon successful completion in accordance with the rules, the full amount of the meal is reimbursed.

According to the information available on The Big Texan’s Hall of Fame page, some people manage to do all this in under 9 minutes.  I am afraid to think what they look like…  The Hall of Fame records are an interesting read all on their own.  Contestants who finished the challenge are welcome to leave a message to the world, and these range from “Jesus help me do it” and “Sorry, Mom!” to “Where’s the dessert?…”, “All washed down with a diet Coke.” and an honest “I would not recommend this to anyone!” revelation…  An anthropological experience all in its own…

We entered the depths of The Big Texas prepared – it was well past 2 in the afternoon, we did not have breakfast or lunch, and although we were never in our wildest dreams thinking about putting our names into the annals of steak-eating history, we fully intended to sample the more human-sized portions of Texas beef.  

Our regular rib-eye steaks looked humongous to an un-trained eye, came with the salads, chips, fried tomatoes and bread rolls, and covered the whole table.  I have to admit, that while the steaks were lovely, I was disappointed – my expectations pictured an out-of-this-world steak experience, but all I got was decent piece of meat.  Unfortunately, it also ended up medium-well instead of the requested medium-rare, but I was too hungry to argue. Well, what do they say?…

“Too many fucking disappointments are usually a sign of too many fucking expectations“. 

Ain’t that true?!…

While we were struggling with our regular orders, a skinny guy on a podium table was doing the steak challenge.  The piece of meat on his plate looked bigger than the table, but he was going strong.  No idea whether he succeeded in his fight or not, but we were full enough to stay and watch the poor git eat.  We rolled onto our bikes (can people who finish the 2 kg of meat with all side dishes even move????…), and made our way to the downtown Amarillo, Texas.  Parking the bikes, and hauling our stuff up into the room definitely helped work at least some of our meals out.

Warmed up by the evening sun, we waddled to the nearby lovely Crush Wine Bar, where the day ended on a very tasty note.

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The next morning we woke up to something quite unusual – the blue sky!  So far, every morning greeted us with rain and shit, so not having to put on the waterproofs was a welcome change.  Hoping it would stay like this for at least a couple of hours, we defiantly packed the waterproofs in our side bags, said good bye to our unwelcoming digs in Galena, eat breakfast in the only town’s diner that we could not locate on the map for love or money, but that was pointed out by several friendly locals the night before, and continued on our way.

Ed Galloway Totem Pole Park

With the weather continuing in the non-rainy mode, we actually stood a chance of doing the sightseeing plan for the day.  Our first stop, just an hour away out of Galena, was the Ed Galloway totem pole park.  A wacky collection of concrete totem poles, decorated with elaborate and colorful wood carvings was set on a green field off the road. Lit by the rays of the morning sun, with a backdrop of piercing blue sky, the poles looked absolutely magnificent in their grandeur.  Built by a retired manual crafts teacher, the totem pole park quickly became one of Oklahoma’s landmarks and a Route 66 icon.

It’s a tribute to Native American culture, and the imagination of its creator.  The center piece of the park is a giant Totem Pole building, built on top of a huge concrete turtle that seems almost squashed by the weight and size of the main building.  The place was not overrun by tourists – together with us only two other visitors were walking around – a retired couple that tried to park their car as far away from our bikes as the tiny parking lot would allow, and kept shooting us worried looks from across the field.  The looks were totally unprovoked – even though we skipped the shower for purely hygienic reasons this morning (an oxymoron in itself, I know, but the Galena motel did not really call for a more intimate acquaintance with its facilities…), I don’t think we started smelling just yet.  We were also friendly, and smiled reassuringly across the field at the old couple, but maybe just the size of our bikes, and predominantly black clothing made them cautious…  We did not test their nerves, and having taken a couple of obligatory tourist photos went on our way, waving the couple good-bye.  Despite the loud pipes of our bikes I could almost hear their sighs of relief…

Iconic as it became, the Ed Galloway totem pole park can rather be attributed to the lesser-known sights of the Mother Road, known only to the initiated individuals.  Our next stop definitely made it to each and every book about the Main Street of America, and became one of the most recognizable attractions on Route 66.

The Blue Whale of Catoosa

The famous Blue Whale of Catoosa was part of a recreational park, built by Hugh Davis, a wildlife photographer and curator of the Mohawk Zoo in Tulsa between 1970 and 1972, and together with canoe rentals and a small zoo served the entertainment needs of the people of Catoosa.  Initially an anniversary present of Hugh to his wife Zelda, and built on their private property in a small pond, the whale became so popular with the locals, that the Davises opened the place to the public, and adorned it with picnic tables, said little zoo, and other entertainment options.  They only managed to keep it running till late 1980-ies, when it closed to the general public and after the death of first Hugh and then Zelda, fell into disrepair and abandon.

The whale was too good (and famous) to let it disappear into oblivion, though, and at the beginning of the 21^st century the local community restored the blue giant to its original glory.  It is now open daily, “from 8am till dark”, has a tiny gift shop, and welcomes visitors and Route 66 enthusiasts from all over the world.  The pond has not been cleaned since 1970-ies and grew over with algae and grass, so even the big “No swimming” signs aside, one would hardly think of dipping into the brownish-green waters, and the whale’s slides have not been used for a long time, you can still imagine how much fun the place was back in the day!

The Blue Whale of Catoosa also got forever engraved in our memories for the best tacos in the world we got from a colorful little shed with the name of “Molly’s Taqueria” perched on the side of the Whale’s car park.  We ordered two helpings, and were so impressed with the amazingly flavorful and beautiful food that forgave the owners for the blatantly pro-Trump stickers decorating the shed and the car parked next to it.  Which was the second oxymoron of the day – considering the man’s views and politics, the last people you would imagine supporting him would be the taco food truck owners…  Yet, here we were – America, the land of contrasts… 
But anyway – fuck politics!  We were just here for the tacos.

Roadkill Musings…

When travelling through the United States on the road, the easiest way to observe the change in landscape and climate zones is through the roadkill.  Somewhere around Tulsa, the possums and raccoons of Illinois and Missouri started getting mixed up with the armadillos of Oklahoma and by the time we hit Texas, this was the predominant species decorating the sides of the road in a variety of ran over and squashed forms.  But I am getting ahead of myself – Texas was still at least a day ahead, the stop for this night was planned in Oklahoma City.

Rock Cafe

Not before stopping for yet another roadside attraction – the Rock Café in Stroud, Oklahoma, known to general public by the Pixar Animation Studios movie “Cars”.  Here we blended right in!  A group of large rough-looking men on shiny giant motorcycles, more resembling motorized sofas than transportation vehicles, watched us park our own sofas next to theirs, offered compliments on my parking skills, and commented on how great it was to see a woman riding her own bike instead of being on the back.  Finally!!!!  The validation I’ve been craving!!!!  I was so glad I did not drop the bike, or did anything stupid in front of this appreciative audience! 🙂  While we definitely missed on the body size (it will [hopefully!] be a while till our general physique will fit in with the more mainstream biker crowd), we were accepted and recognized for the riding skills and engine size.  Well done, us!

With the beautiful Trump whale tacos still warming our stomachs, we weren’t particularly hungry, and stopped at the Rock Café for its memorabilia value, but once there, we decided that coffees were definitely on the menu.  Coffee in, we also got tempted by snacks – a chili hot dog for Nic and a portion of fried green tomatoes for me.  Why can’t you find the fried green tomatoes in Europe?…  Is it against some obscure EU rule to cook unripe vegetables?…  I have no clue, but state this fact with regret, as this simple and easy to prepare snack definitely deserves to headline European menus!  Snacks or no snacks, the portions of food we ordered were gigantic.  Nic braved his chili dog, but I barely made a dent in the pile of fried green tomatoes in front of me, and had to apologize profusely to the homey waitress, who was genuinely concerned with my lack of appetite.

By the time we waddled out of the cafe, our biker friends were long gone, and the weather changed.  It was still sunny, but strong winds were blowing at gale force, and we mentally thanked the giant portions that definitely contributed to us not being blown off the bikes on the way to Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City

Traumatized with our Galena Motel experience and longing for a proper hot (and hygienic) shower, I scraped together the hotel points, hard-earned over the past dozen years, and booked us a night in the beautiful Skirvin Hilton in Oklahoma City.  In addition to the said hot shower, the hotel also advertised free parking, which cemented the deal in our choice of accommodation for the night.

The hotel was, indeed, beautiful, the parking spacious and free, the room grand and spotlessly clean (which was a welcome change from Galena, and did not necessitate sleeping in our riding gear), and the shower hot.  We were in heaven!

After enjoying the facilities and washing the road off our faces and bodies, we were ready to explore the neighborhood.  A quick walk through downtown, proved Oklahoma City to be a nice and agreeable place, full of wacky sculptures, and a huge botanical garden near our hotel, which was, regretfully, closed.  

The Sidecar Wine Bar

We consoled ourselves with searching out the nearest wine, bar, and promptly landed our asses in the middle of the local party and dining scene in the Sidecar Wine Bar.  The evening was spent nipping into Zinfandel, watching people and life go by, and later in the evening making friends with the locals.  A couple sitting at the bar next to us, somehow gravitated into the orbit of our conversation (or, maybe, we butted into theirs – after 2 bottles of wine, who remembers?…), and provided the entertainment for the evening.  The guy was chubby, puffy, quiet and paid for the drinks that the girl kept steadily ordering.  The girl was beautiful and loud, spending the better half of the evening (the one that was not dedicated to consuming endless cocktails), trying to prove to the surrounding world that she was not trash, achieving the absolutely opposite effect.  Together, they presented an odd couple, and we could not help but wonder what brought them together.  Even after 2 bottles of wine, we were too polite to ask, of course, but having compared notes the following morning, we agreed that they must have been a stripper and a client on an out of work date.  Good for them!

The evening was definitely memorable, and we were proud to have found the way back to the hotel well past midnight.