2geonomads

The Round Barn – Arcadia                    

Make our way into the city centre of Oklahoma City and make our first stop Lyons Indian store with a fine array of Indian Turquoise jewellery. Informed by the lady in the store that the temperatures are set to soar, along with the humidity. Moreover we are in a tornado belt with many houses in the area possessing tornado-proof shelters.
Joebots Coffee Shop – great coffee for once.

Gilcrease Museum exhibiting mainly Native Indian art is superb.

Doug driving with Fred navigating and I must acknowledge that both have been exemplary so far, with the exception of one shuddering halt at a red light, resulting with Fred in a foetal position in the front! Quite clear that there is a correlation between the excellent performance by Doug and Fred and the kindness, understanding and patience emanating from the two guys in the back seat.

Music by such as Patsy Cline, Kenny Rogers and Jim Reeves with singalong accompaniment from all 4 amigos enables us to while away the time.
Historic brick- paved 1925 bridge passed at 90 kms an hour and , dare I say it, the dreaded u-turn at Bristow.
Between Bristow and Stroud there is apparently an enormous, but invisible , underground cavity for storage of surplus natural gas. This snippet of useless information comes from Drew Knowles, author of the guide book on my Kindle. More on this later.
Supposedly famous Shoe Tree at Depew with many shoes hanging from the branches – nowhere to be found. Mick’ s theory is that someone nicked the shoes when he fell on hard times and sold them off. He is suffering from hallucinations after only one week!

Call in at the famous Rock Cafe , which does exist, for a coffee. The owner, Dawn Welch, was the inspiration for the character Sally the Porsche in the movie ‘ Cars’.
At Chandler we visit the highly informative Route 66 Interpretive Centre drive past the house of Jerry McLanahan, the artist and author of the Route 66 guide book which our navigators are using.

At Arcadia we call into one of the iconic sites on 66, the Round Barn. The storekeeper is virtually illiterate and is happy to admit it on a number of handwritten storyboards dotted around the store.
A giant Coke bottle on the way out of Arcadia ( put up in 2007) is singularly uninspiring.

Arrive at Days Inn east of Oklahoma City in late afternoon, $ 80 per room.

Mick had done his usual research and come up with the iconic( that word again ) Cattlemen’s Steakhouse in the Stockyard area of the city.
For once it deserved the above adjective and we enjoyed some fantastic steaks.

Meal also made more memorable when Mick starting coo-cooing at a baby girl being held by the proud mum at the next table. The little girl promptly responded by throwing up over her mum’s shoulder. Mick obviously hasn’t lost his special way with the fairer sex but it was remarkable to see such a level of perception in one so young!
Now a short comment on The two guide book authors, Drew Knowles and Jerry McLanahan.
We have come to the conclusion that Drew is an icon necrophiliac ( Mick’s term ) as he is constantly telling about things that used to exist but have long since died or deteriorated to the point where they are no longer recognisable. Jerry, being of Irish background, pretends that all of the Route 66 icons still do exist, knowing full well that they have gone to meet their maker.
Still it adds some spice to the trip

Finally, Mick, as our resident literary amigo has come up with the word ‘ abstruse’ which apparently means any of the following:
Esoteric, recondite, difficult to understand, requiring special knowledge to understand, all of which really describe Mick himself!
Another wonderful day with some fine driving from Doug and excellent navigation from Fred ( I have been asked to say this as I have apparently been unfair in my previous assessment of their performance )and hopefully many more to come as we head west in Oklahoma and on to Texas.
Cheers
The Obese Ferret.