Drive Friendly - The Texas Way

Day Five, Tuesday, August 23

We woke up in Oklahoma and, well, it was Oklahoma. Finally, we had some blank CDs, so I decided to throw some music and podcasts on them to supplement the radio surfing we'd been doing for the trip so far. Dana woke up eventually and got ready, and we were off.

I was pretty nervous on the drive over, as our first destination of the day was Stillwater, Oklahoma. It was a bit out of the way, but we were headed to a Thai restaurant to meet a friend of mine from THE INTERNET, Lauren. I'd known her for nearly six years online, but never actually met her in person. I wasn't exactly surprised by how nice she was, since she never led me to believe she was horrendously mean or anything, but it was nice to hang out and have lunch with her. I completely spaced getting a photo with her, but hopefully there'll be a next time!

After lunch we parted ways with our guest star and headed toward Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, Dana's friend never got back to her about hanging out, so instead we headed to the Oklahoma City Memorial, dedicated to the memory of those killed in the April 19, 1995 bombing. It was surreal to remember the event that happened over sixteen years and had a pretty profound effect on my understanding of the world.

The memorial was wonderfully touching and a great tribute to those who died, those who survived, and those who came to victims' aid. I took a lot of pictures, but they really don't do justice to how touching and great the memorial was. Check it out if you're ever in the area.

The bomb detonated at 9:02am - the other side of the pool reads 9:01

Tribute to those who died

Reflecting pool

Oklahoma City Skyline

Tribute to those lost

Letters from children

After spending an hour or so looking through the museum, we headed back out to the car and left Oklahoma City behind. We had a long way to go, but we had plenty of stops to break up the monotony of driving. We moved back and forth throughout the way between I-40 and Historic Route 66. It surprised me to learn that Route 66 does not actually exist officially, though many states post signs as below to mark the historical significance.

The next stop was on said Route 66 - a gas station that had been restored back to presentable condition. It's really cool to see these old buildings and imagine what life would have been like serving the folks traversing the Mother Road.

Fill 'er up

During our continuing drive, we had popped in the CD I had burned with part one of Craig Ferguson's American On Purpose autobiography - it was great, especially the part about the Scottish accent. Definitely a good time to listen to a book, especially one Dana and I both really enjoyed.

Our next stop was the National Route 66 museum, but unfortunately we were a bit late to the punch, arriving around a half hour after it closed. Either way, we wandered around the fake-looking storefronts that represented the way things used to be on Route 66.

ROAR

Although we were dejected, we were able to pick ourselves up with a trip to the Braum's down the road. Ice cream and good times were had by all, though it seemed like our servers were having a bad day. While mixing my "Freezer," the guy at the counter basically had lime sherbet explode all over him thanks to the mixing machine. Before we knew it, we crossed the border into Texas.

We continued down the interstate for a bit before pulling off to Route 66 and heading into the small town of Shamrock, TX. All the signs advertising it were of a decidedly Irish theme, and we had two sights to see in the town. Once off the main dragging looking for our first target, it became clear that Shamrock was one of the victims of the Route 66 decommissioning, much of the town just seeming incredibly empty. Our first stop in Shamrock was to see the "Blarney Stone," purportedly a piece of the original stone which had been chipped off and encased in concrete to stand in a local park.

Not too exciting, but seeing the town was pretty interesting, and a little depressing. On the other side of Shamrock was another old gas station. This one was rather ornate and known as the "U Drop Inn". It featured a diner in its heyday, flourishing in the days of Route 66, but quickly fell out of vogue once the road was decommissioned.

McLean, Texas was next, featuring the third and final vintage gas station of the day. This one had a kitty laying near it, so it was clearly the best of the day. The other neat thing about the area near this final station was that Route 66 was a ghost town; aside from us I'm not sure we saw more than two or three cars drive through town. This led to, of course, us running around in the street - it was weird to be on a town's main drag and not seeing anyone.

As the sun hid behind a gigantic cloud in the humongous Texas sky, we raced down the interstate to our final sight of the day. Since we had been doing nothing but driving west, it seemed that there was a lot more daylight to go around. We made it to the Bug Ranch with time to spare, and it didn't disappoint.

It's actually a one-off attraction, an homage to the Cadillac Ranch on the other side of Amarillo, which we'll be hitting up tomorrow. Before we go, however, we need to find a place to buy some spray paint to "make our mark" and take a photo.

Dinner was at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, a ridiculous tourist trap inside of Amarillo. All the waiters and waitresses were dressed in white shirts, bolos, cowboy boots and hats, all the tables were draped with holstein-spotted tablecloths, and they even had a 72-ounce steak challenge: if you can eat the 72 ouncer in an hour or less, you get it for free. I managed to eat about ten ounces of my steak, so I wasn't even going to try.

After dinner, we headed to our hotel and here we are. Overall, another great day with some great things to see. The most striking thing happened when we left Oklahoma City, where the predominant color seemed to pass the tipping point from green to brown. We had noticed the trees getting more and more sparse as we drove through Missouri and Oklahoma, but it didn't become evident that we were definitely in the Great Plains until the Oklahoma-Texas border. No doubt that tomorrow that this trend will continue into the desert.

States: Oklahoma, Texas

Cities: Tulsa, Stillwater, Oklahoma City, Amarillo

Tomorrow:

• The Madonnas return!
• Big booms
• More Route 66 goodness

See you in Farmington, New Mexico!