CA to MA - Day 7 Shamrock, TX to Carthage, MO

Longest day ever! Not really, we drove 412 miles from about 9:30 am to 7:30 pm though, and most of it was on route 66 but we were all tired by the time we got to Carthage MO. We drove into four states today... Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri.  That's one of the reasons this blog is late in posting.

We started with a breakfast consisting of a waffle in the shape of Texas!

Luckily, Thursday was one of those clear big blue sky days. We drove almost straight into Oklahoma and noticed that this was the first state that didn't have a welcome sign.

Oklahoma's route 66 has mainly concrete surfaces so they have stood the test of time but they are bumpy in places, however, there are also some of the longest uninterrupted stretches of the road too. The roads are often quiet and you can drive for miles and only see a car or two. It's probably different in the summer months when more tourists are traveling route 66. It's also unusual to be traveling west to east too. We haven't met anyone doing this trip so far!

Our first stop was in Sayre for a short dog walk and a look at the historic courthouse.  We've decided that this blog should really be called Dottie's trip across America, as we've tried to include her in so many pictures. She loves getting out of the car and exploring.

There was also an old theatre called Stovall  and that happens to be the name of a guy at work, and so I sent him a picture. It turns out his dad is from there!

When we reached Foss, OK we think we were about halfway in our journey- around 1750 miles, although I think it will be further because of the meanderings of route 66.

We stopped at a Cherokee Trading post for lunch and a dog walk and there was a pair of buffalos there!

I was feeling sad for them but they had an enormous space and seemed to have chosen to stay just in one spot.

We saw three really old bridges over the course of the day but the 'pony' bridge was by far the longest at 4000 ft long- so called because of the 38 one hundred feet long pony trusses.  

This one was my personal favorite though, an old iron bridge:

Our plan had originally been to avoid Oklahoma City but for a lucky accident we ended up going through, and we saw some interesting things- the gold dome

 and the state buildings, to name but two.

However, it did throw us off time wise. It was already past lunch time and we were only a third of the way through Oklahoma. 

We followed route 66 as much as we could but ended up jumping on I44 a couple of times where the route ran alongside the freeway to make up some time. At one point it was a turnpike (toll road) though Tulsa.  When we came off we hit a lot of traffic through Claremore which slowed us down again. 

After Claremore, we stopped at a very modern tourist spot called 'Pops' - a gas station that 

 "would look more at home in the Jetsons" than on route 66.   A beautiful steel structure with a huge steel LED lit sculpture. We had a 'pop' and Dottie had a roll around on the grass.

We also saw many of the iconic neon marker signs- probably more in good condition that we have ever seen before:

And a few other characters that were not really around at the time...

There was almost too much to see, and we probably planned to go farther than we should have in one day, however, we couldn't change our mind as we had to book hotels ahead of time because of the need to find pet-friendly hotels.

There is also a tiny stretch of route 66 that steps into Kansas for just thirteen miles, and so we had to do that, and by that point, we felt we might just as well keep going on route 66 into Missouri where we had planned to stay the night. It was worth waiting for as we stayed in the Boots Motel which was built in 1937 and is in the process of being brought back to its formal glory, complete with neon!

As it was so late, and Friday night, we went straight out to get a pizza and a beer, but due to some funny laws, were not allowed to drink the beer on the same patio as the dog!

We had driven 2102 miles so far.