Day 6: April 18, 2010 Part Deux

After driving most of the day, we're dying to get out of the car and stop in Clifton, OK at another Route 66 museum. This was very well done. I thought the interpretation was really great. It was engaging, interesting and very educational, plus they had a great collection of material culture relating to the road. Some people are label readers, some are browsers, I go straight for the stuff. The artifacts are always the most interesting part for me.

Each gallery was dedicated to a different decade of the road which I thought gave a refreshing perspective on the road. Immediately upon entering each gallery there was a red button you could push that would play a song indicative of that particular decade. I really loved that the music wasn't just playing and they gave the visitor the choice of whether or not they wanted to hear the music. For some, like Katie and I, it added to the overall experience, but I'm sure for others would be a distraction. We woud hit the little red button and get our groove on. It was great.

I found the 1920's and 1930's the most interesting. There was one memory printed on the wall that I found particularly poignant and moving. Sometime in the 1930's the road was being constructed in this man's town and his father and other men from the town went to work on the road. 66 was really a godsend in these communities since everyone was dirt poor. He said he didn't realize he was poor until years later because everyone in town was in the same predicament as his family. There wasn't even any money for he and his siblings to get shoes to wear to school. Rather than bringing in work crews, the builders relied on local labor. One day his father asked him to bring water to the site and after taking his fill he passed it around to the rest of the crew. The foreman then said if this boy brought water to workers everyday he'd pay him a dime a day. Even 50 years later he clearly remembers the how that shiny dime felt weighing down his pocket the whole way home and how excited his mother would be to get the extra money. Maybe they would even get shoes!

I also loved the display of the Joad-esque truck laden with all a family's worldly possessions on their way to a better life in California. I was totally channeling Steinbeck. I know a lot of people find The Grapes of Wrath the most depressing piece of literature they've ever read, but I found it fascinating look at the Great Depression in a place that I didn't even know existed. I first read it in high school and it really broadened my horizons.

Here are a few more pictures of things were saw at the museum.

Our route

First armadillo sighting!

Real rattlers?!

Ha! joke's on us!

The best part our museum experience was while we were watching the worlds most depressing movie about disappearing Route 66 a couple asked us if were were traveling East or West. I answered West then they walked out. I was sure I heard a European accent so I left the theater and chased them down. Turns out they're from Killarny, Ireland and flew into Chicago and rented a car just to drive the Mother Road. You think that's crazy? Many International visitors to the US are crazy for Americana and Route 66 is full of it. We saw a quartet of 20 something guys from Norway at lunch one day and today in New Mexico I saw a Japanese couple touring Old Town Albuquerque. I knew they were tourists when they took pictures of each other in front of a wooden Indian. I excitedly told Katie I was going to got talk to them and shecounseled me not to because in my overexcited state I might scare them. Thanks for looking out for the tourists, Katie. You're a real friend to man. Anyway, looking at guest books and chatting with owners of Route 66 business, we found that people come from England, Belgium, Germany (lots of Germans!), Australia, Japan, and Russia and more. Who knew? I can see why they do it. Traveling on 66 is a really great way to see the country.

After the museum we make a beeline for Amarillo, Texas and the aforementioned Sleep Inn. Here two other fun things we saw in Oklahoma that I didn't post yesterday:
The famous blue whale in Catoosa, OK. The home of our beloved Port City Diner. The whale started out as a private amusement for the family that owned the land. Later, in the 1970's it was opened to the public. Can you imagine driving down dusty, hot Oklahoma roads and come across this? It would have been heaven! Off to the left side of the photograph there are concrete tables and benches with most of the brightly colored yellow and red plastic umbrellas still intact.

This was a quirky road side attraction right in someone's yard! There were a bunch of brightly painted totem poles and other Indian themed folk art. The large one cut off on the left side of the picture claims to be the largest totem pole in the world. I really liked this white one that was in the shape of a spear point.

Soon after this we were in Texas. I think Katie found her people here. She wants to move to Texas and marry her a cowboy. People told us Amarillo is very windy, freezing in the winter and hot as hell in the summer. I don't know about the weather, but I would definitely say Amarillo is a land of extremes and in more ways than one. We could tell it was windy without anyone having to tell us- all the trees along the median of the highway were bent in one direction.

The entire way to Amarillo we saw sign after sign for the Big Texan Steak House. And cows. Lots of cows. The combination of the two plus our friend Phoenix Jon's recommendation made it an impossibility to skip eating a steak dinner. The steak house got it's start in the 1960's as an eatery along 66 and over the years has grown into quite the tourist attraction. They advertise a FREE 74 ounce steak if you can eat it, a baked potato, salad and shrimp cocktail in under an hour. Katie and I did NOT take them up on their challenge, but we did have a great dinner nonetheless. I was looking forward to a sirloin and Katie got a fillet. They had a 9 ounce sirloin for $15, but for only $5 more you got 9 more ounces and two sides. The side of me that loves a great deal couldn't resist a 18 ounce steak, but my eyes were waaaay bigger than my stomach. Here is the size comparison between my steak and Katie's. I couldn't even eat half of it. I wish I could of. It was delicious.

In keeping with the tourist trap theme of the place here is Katie in the giant rocking chair. There were tons of hokey photo ops and lots of dead animals on the wall. I kind of loved it. They even have a western themed hotel, but the reviews I read were not positive. I'm glad we looked elsewhere and found our friend the Sleep Inn.

The restaurant also had a huge gift shop complete with a real rattlesnake. I felt bad for the little guy because his tank overlooked various and sundry items made from rattlesnake parts. I felt like is was a little like torture for the old guy. Our book says it's a throwback to the roadside reptile attractions of days gone by. I just thought it was creepy.

So, remember how I said everything is bigger in Texas? Check this out: the world's largest cross. I can't remember where in Texas this was, but it was on the way Amarillo. Surrounding the complex are the stations of the cross. It's difficult see just how enormous this thing was because everything around it is flat. Trust me, it's freakin' huge. Like skyscraper huge.

Just like Missouri, Texas loves Jesus.

By the way, speaking of skyscrapers, cites out here don't really have them. Mr. cowboy himself, Zach from the Sleep Inn said that he didn't realize Amarillo didn't have skyscrapers until he traveled to Michigan and saw how big they are there. Glad we're not the only ones who noticed. Katie has banned the Deep in the Heart of Texas song. I guess I sang it at full volume one too many times.

Bed time. Even though I'm blogging about our time in Texas we're actually in Flagstaff, Arizona and we're going to spend the entire day at the Grand Canyon tomorrow!!! I've wanted to visit the big ditch my whole life. I can't believe we're almost there! I looked at the weather earlier and its supposed to snow tomorrow. We're roughly at the same elevation as Denver and it's COLD. I'm going to have to break out my UD sweatshirt tomorrow.

Peace Out People!

Music: Dixie Chicks, Toby Keith, Joan Baez, MORE Dixie Chicks.