Day 6, Tulsa to Clinton. Cowboy Heaven.
17/8/11 woke up in Tulsa, Oklahoma
After almost 2 weeks pretty much full on, we decided to take it steady and chill a bit, whilst still checking out the interesting spots, but not at the same pace. IHOP (International House of Pancakes) seemed like a perfect start of the day, and with a fajita omelette , I could not ask for any more. It was awesome , but the fat ass guilt killed the pleasure of eating it, so I consolidated my sorrows with the free pancakes that came with our order.
Time to move. We drove through a few small towns, but there wasn’t much to see. Even a 66 fanatics drive through this area quite quickly, with the first stope being mostly a town called Chandler. That is what we did.
Chandler, known as the Pecan Capitol of the World, is home to Route 66 Interpretive Centre.
We decided it’s time to hit some museums and find out more, to avoid missing some major attractions.
As I mentioned before, the museums in USA are probably one of the best ones I’ve seen. They are well looked after, and mostly free or really cheap. This one did not disappoint as well. Even though the space wasn’t too big, it was very well organised and informative. There were even beds where you could crash and watch short movies about the golden age of the Mother Road.
Back on 66, we were heading towards a small community of Warwick, mainly to see the Seaba Station Motorcycle museum. I couldn’t pick a better day for the visit. I was trying not to get there on Sunday, as this museum was supposed to be a real treat for all the motor-geeks, but turned out that the only day they were shut was.. WEDNESDAYYYY!!! WHY??? Not impressed.
I managed to cool my anger on the way to Clinton, in a town called Arcadia, where a new tourist attraction appeared lately (2007), in a shape of a gigantic, 66-foot-tall illuminated pop bottle, standing just a few yards from the roadway. Inside the adjacent building, Pops has countless brands and flavours of soft drinks to choose from, as well as a snack bar. Pretty cool if you ask me. I got a drink called “Diet Frostie”. Frostbox would be proud.
Around 4pm we’ve arrived in Oklahoma City, and out of all the places widely advertised in the Route 66 guidebooks, we decided to visit The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. We rocked in there a bit too late and the admission was no longer available, but the ultimate pledge of: “Please, we flew here all the way from United Kingdom..” seemed to work. Yet again.
The museum is a must see for anyone even remotely interested in wild-wild-west stories, and rodeo related movies, but even though I would,t consider me or Leah to be a pa of the mentioned group, we had a blast. I am pretty gutted we didn’t get there earlier. There was something for everyone: from gigantic sculpture of a horse with a rider on his back, to a Cowboy Hall of Fame. The best part of it was a life size replica of a wild-west town, done perfectly in every detail, with a stable, school, church..
There were also many items of clothing and saddles on show. A true gem.
After the enjoyable but brief visit in the museum, we started heading to Clinton, but managed to take some pretty cool pics on the road. The light and sunsets in America are pretty spectacular. If you haven’t seen one yet, put it on your Bucket List.