Day 12 - Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to Carthage, Missouri

We had a great time at Pat and Mike Bowlines.  We played cards every night.  Mike's Mom and Dad, Daughter, Son-in-law, granddaughter and good friend, Patti Williams came for dinner one night. They are like family to us.  We have been stopping once a year since 2008.  

Mike told us his Uncle owned a grocery store on Route 66 east of Tulsa.  His first job was working for his Uncle.  He received 1 penny for every 100 flies he killed.  He made enough to buy a bottle of pop and a bag of peanuts.  He put his peanuts in his pop.  It is now a "thrift" store.  

We followed them to Catoosa to see the Blue Whale. This has been on my "bucket list" since we decided to travel Route 66.  I had seen it in the books and on the maps.  I was sooooo excited!!

We had a fun time climbing on and in the Whale.  Port of Catoosa is billed as the furthest inland seaport in the US!

Near Foyil, Oklahoma, the book said to take a side trip to see the World's Largest Totem Pole. At 90 feet, it took 11 years to make by Ed Galloway.  I do not think the people of Alaska would agree that this is the largest.   It was a"Folk Art Alert."

Our next adventure was to find the Giant Penguin.  Luckily we stopped at the Packard Museum, because the Penguin was inside.

The museum was in a restored DX Station.

I could post the 50 pictures of cars that Mike took.  They were awesome.

Miami had a art deco building that was in very good condition.  We did our famous U-turn to get a good picture of it.

There is also a famous Route 66 Hamburger Restaurant. KuKu's.

Commerce, Oklahoma is the home town of Mickey Mantle.  This is his homestead. 

Now on to Kansas.  Kansas only has 13 miles of Route 66. Here we go with the U-turn.  I did not have the camera ready and took a quick shot out the window.  Mike turned around and we went back to Oklahoma and turned around.

I got a good shot this time.

We mailed a post card in Baxter Springs, Kansas and then went on to Galena.

There are only 3 towns along Route 66, Kansas.

Mike said, "There is a Marlin."  I was looking for a big blue fish.  We U-turned and he took a picture of an old yellow car?  Go figure.

On to Missouri.....

Right outside of Carthage, Missouri is a Drive-In Movie.  I almost missed the photo moment, because we were trying to figure out why all the cars were lining the road.  There were about 500 cars.

We were going to stay at Boots Court in Carthage, Missouri, but it was too "retro" for us.  It is an 1940 vintage.  No TV.  Debbie D, the manager of Boots Court told us that there were strong storms the night before and it broke several windshields of cars at the drive-in movie.  Also, hail came through the sun roof of some of the cars.  It broke the neon tubing around their motel.