Route 66 revisited, Sep 26th -Sep 30th, 2021

 

I found the picture below on one of the Facebook RV sites I follow. Yes, it looks like an ordinary container of jiffy pop popcorn, but it serves a more practical purpose in an RV, see below!

RV's have smoke alarms, and carbon monoxide alarms. This, my friends, is a fire/heat alarm! When it starts popping, its time to bail from the RV! And as an additional bonus, when the big disco looking ball happens, the light from the fire will be dispersed better to guide your way out, PLUS, if you hang by the exit, you can grab a handful of popcorn on the way out for something to eat as you watch it burn!!!  FYI, this will also work for stick and morder homes also, If interested, please comment and for one low payment of $50 I can fix you up! Keep following for more useful tidbits!

Back to the issues at hand!

On Sunday Sept 26th we left the brewery and continued our trek across Missouri. I am continually amazed at God's handy work and the varieties of landscapes he has given us! The hills going across Missouri are incredible! I always thought of it as flat, but no, it isn't, Bessy got a good workout!  We stayed on the I40 freeway all day, decided to get a hard day's drive in, plus, it’s very time consuming getting on and off all the different stretches of the 66 route. We spend the night at a Boondockers Welcome site in Mannford, Oklahoma, at the home of Edd Alex about a half hour west of Tulsa. We had the option here of spending two nights so we opted for that so we could do some laundry the next day. It was kind of funny, I missed Edd's place and had to turn around (I'm getting pretty adept in turning the rig around in tight spots!) we pulled into his driveway, I got out to introduce myself and to announce we had arrived. I rang the doorbell, no answer, rang it again, still know answer. Figuring that they stepped out somewhere, I went back to the truck, read the parking instructions and parked as per the instructions, unhitched and leveled the unit. This place let us plug into their electric and use their water so I connected those two up. Walked around the front of the trailer, and in my peripheral vision I saw this man, standing behind a garbage can in front of the garage, looking at me. Needless to say, it surprised the dickens out of me and I jumped and let out a gasp! After the initial shock ended, I said "Hi, you must be Edd, I'm Dennis Babcock" to which he replied, "No, Edd lives two doors down" After an awkward silence, he starts laughing and tells me he funning with me and welcomes to his place! It seems his doorbell doesn't work and he didn't realize we had arrived!

 

Edd Alexis' home and our parking spot!

The next day we had business to take of. We located a laundromat in a nearby town, found an urgent care for Starr… oh yeah, Starr had something wrong with her foot and was sure she was going to start dropping toes! Turns out she had a severe case of athlete’s foot. Seems all the rain we were in the previous few days got her shoes and socks pretty wet and never got a chance to dry really well! We ended up with enough salve for her feet for 100 people (8 tubes). She said she thought that was a little much but the pharmacist told that she might as well take it, that was the standard qty! So... if anyone needs salve for that sort of thing, we can fix you up! Sep 28th found us back on the road. We got back onto the Route 66 kick. We discovered it was a little better marked in Oklahoma then it was in Missouri! We found the Anchor Drive In at Bristow, OK. It was on the route and was active during the peak of the Route 66 era. Definitely a greasy spoon, but the burgers, onion rings, slaw and strawberry shake was great! Starr had fries, corn on the cob & a chocolate shake. Oh, and all the peanuts you could eat, I was in heaven!! Outside the Anchor In, Starr's adjusting her glasses or is in the process of slapping me! Interior and some of the memorabilia on the walls Yummy Food!! Not much left! We continued on to Chandler, OK and found a cute little route 66 museum. The most interesting item I found was a 15 min video of a guy who took the route in the early 50’s from Chicago to a university in Arizona. He mailed Mama a letter almost every day and lo and behold she kept them all in her attic and he discovered them after her passing. That inspired him to drive the route again and retrace his steps. As he was being interviewed he was reminiscing of all the things that had changed. Outside the museum! Building a little fuzzy, need to brush up on my photography skills! That night we stayed at the Texas 66 RV park in Shamrock, TX. We had a storm roll thru, looked like was going to be nasty, but turned out to be nothing! The next morning I found some friends on the other side of the fence, seems it’s also a wanna be cattle ranch besides a RV park! Texas RV Park sign Mural on one of the walls I thought was kinda cool Storm front coming in Our spot for the night Finally, the sunset after the clouds blew over! And our neighbors across the fence! Sep 29th we are back on the road. According to our route 66 book there is a vintage Conoco station/garage there that was the backdrop in the cartoon “Cars” (Disney 2006) so I had to stop and see it, besides, I had to run to town and fill the truck up! While we were there an old Ford panel van and a 66 Chevelle (I think 66) stopped by to take picture in front of the station. They were from Chicago and were driving the route in their vehicles, they looked to be having a good time. Since I’m a Ford guy, I only took pictures of the panel van! The guy assured me that it was all Ford parts in the rebuild!  Also, tucked in behind the station, Starr saw a C&H feed & supply building (C&H is where she worked at for 20+ years), she's thinking they expanded their business! (For those unfamiliar with that, C&H is a distributor/manufacturer of electronic components, highly unlikely they would open a feed store in Texas!)  (https://www.thomasnet.com/profile/01200757/c-h-technology-inc.html) Vintage Conoco Station. Ford Panel Van, very sharp New C&H building! Onto New Mexico! Again, I had pictured in my mind that New Mexico was a flat, barren desert, not so much, at least the northen part we were on! That night we stayed at a Walmart parking lot in Las Vegas, NM (NM not NV)! I’ve not had good luck staying in Walmart parking lots but we couldn’t find any spots in the area in Boondockers or Harvest Host so, whatta gonna do?? I spent the whole night thinking that our rig was being vandalized, so, not a lot of sleep for me! Come to find out, they were redoing the roof of the store and could only do it at night! Once I figured that out, I did manage to get a few hours of sleep!  Entering New Mexico Walmart Parking Lot, Las Vegas, New Mexico This bring us to the morning of Sep 30th and the end of this post