Wait a minute….what am i doing here? This was NOT in the plans!

There is a simple explanation; Route 66 cuts through a corner of Kansas on its way from as the song goes, “…Joplin Missouri; Oklahoma City is mighty pretty.” You can imagine my surprise!

I’m on the way home from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I have spent a week at a match cover collectors convention. I had four nights in Oklahoma City before that. I’m tired but very happy. There were some things I wanted to see on this portion of Route 66, despite the fact that I had a lot of miles to drive. But it’s a very good highway out here – very good, indeed!  I had been seeing signs telling me how far someplace called “State Line” was, and yes, I knew they meant Kansas, but still – I didn’t think they meant me!

As people in Oklahoma City said, there were certain things that were “must do’s”, so it was in Catoosa, Oklahoma just east of Tulsa – a suburb really. And the one constant was the Blue Whale. It is visible from Route 66, but interestingly, a group of us missed it – several times! I’ll tell you, locals have been laughing at us. So this morning, there was nothing to do but to stop and make sure I saw The Blue Whale. I feel somehow fulfilled. It’s not that old, having been built only in the 1970s. And yet it has become one of the most recognizable attractions anywhere along Route 66! It was built by a man, for his wife who collected well figurines.“Did you see the Will Rogers statue?” It’s a question you may be asked if you have driven through Claremore, Oklahoma – about 25 minutes east of Tulsa. As with the Blue Whale, for our group, again the answer was “Nope!” We did see it late at night on our way back to our hotel after a barbecue, and it turned out to be significantly smaller than we expected. But again today, I was able to stop and take a look. I’m not sure it’s 5 feet high, maybe seven with the base. What impresses me is the detail; look at the detail around his shirt and particularly on his lariat and saddle area.  Sadly, I did not make it to the Will Rogers museum; but perhaps that guarantees a return trip to this wonderful neighborhood.   A sidenote… The singer Patti Page was also born here! Folks out here really do take advantage of being on Route 66 all across its Oklahoma length. Here in Vinita, these markings are on the highway through town; this one is at the intersection of the highway and the main street – Canadian Street!In Commerce, Oklahoma, I passed the high school where Mickey Mantle play baseball. Driving Route 66 north of Tulsa, i was unknowingly headed for the Kansas border, and I’m pretty sure you’ve heard stories about how flat Kansas is. Well, the flatness starts just north of Tulsa. The sky is as big here as it is in Montana, the state that’s famous for that. The other thing I notice is the grassland, and the grazing cattle, snd the names of the ranches. This was the only one I actually stopped to take a picture of but there was Redbird Ranch and a number of others. I saw one herd of Herefords; everything else is Black Angus out here.

I’m resting my head tonight in my home state of Illinois; still a ways to go before I get to my home-home in Ontario.