ROUTE 66, STAGE 4: MIAMI - OKLAHOMA

We were especially excited to travel a part of the original road and pointed the section between Miami and Afton in red and well marked on our map. What was our surprise to see that it is completely covered with gravel and that the old asphalt does not appear through any hole. We asked ourselves if we were really in the right place, the sign indicated it and all the maps and apps told us the same thing… were we wrong? Have you screwed up this part of the route? Was it turning right instead of left on the road? Well, after searching and searching the answer is YES, we were in the right place and YES, the road has been covered with gravel ... damn!

For those who want to visit it, the section is not of the road that runs between Miami and Afton, but there is a turnoff to the left (the junction with the E 140 Rd before reaching Narcissa), which crosses fields and farms and that In theory it is the original route. You will see a sign on the right that indicates the detour and another explanatory one at the entrance of the road.

In Afton there is a small Route 66 museum with a merchandising shop at the entrance and an interior warehouse with route objects and old cars ($ 5) that we didn't enter. But we stay with the old one U-Haul pickup what's in your parking with a mural Very cool of the route on its side, invites you to stay a bit dumbfounded studying the rest of the remaining stages and the ones you already have on.

Before arriving in Chelsea there is an iron bridge of the most beautiful that are still standing on the route. Is he 1926 Bridge (Pryor Creek Bridge). If you go through it and continue straight ahead, you will pass through a town that looks like being half Indian. On the bridge we met a very nice family from Chelsea who was telling us a little about the history of the Indians in this part of the country, and recommended us to visit a place not far from there (well about 70 miles, ahem), where We could face real buffalo. Unfortunately, it deviates quite a bit from the road, although with the effusivity with which we recommended it, it is his property, or it is really cool. Although we would not be left with the thorn of seeing buffalo for a long time ...

In Chelsea there are some minor attractions, but a few miles later we find the Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park, a park with 11 Indian structures, including the tallest concrete totem in the world, 30 meters high. The park was finished in 1948 and has its roll, it is also free! It shows that we are in the land of Indians, in the land of Cheerokis!

When we were looking for information on Route 66, many times photos of a blue whale in the middle of a park ... How can a concrete whale be one of the most representative places of the iconic Route 66? Well, that's right, gentlemen ... A damn blue whale in a little park in a mini park where people even go fishing is one of the most photographed things of all of us who travel more than 2,000 miles. Okay, we get tough ... but deep down it took us a lot to get to this place, and I especially climbed to get my big head through one of the holes in the Blue whale!

We arrive at oil capital, Tulsa, where the best price per gallon of the entire United States is found (well, of all the United States that we know at least). Here, in addition to filling up the tank (although the big one sucks an egg and has a huge deposit, so filling it costs us almost $ 100, to see when it lasts ...), there are several recommended points of interest, such as Bluedome, the hamburgers of Hank's Hamburgers (which was closed in the afternoon being Monday and cut the roll), and some of those mythical signs.

Although the one we liked the most is leaving Tulsa, it's called the Route 66 Village, an open-air museum with a gigantic train, a gigantic iron tower placed on the site where oil was first extracted in Tulsa on June 25, 1901, and a gigantic sign of Route 66.

A few miles later in Sapulpa there is a museum that can be recommended for lovers of old cars. We didn't go, but if you're curious, it's about Heart of Route66 Auto Museum, (entry $ 5).

The route passes through the town of Sapulpa as we said, Bristow and Stroud, with some less interesting crops and reaches Chandler, where there is one of the thematic museums (the Route 66 Interpretive Center, $ 5) to which we do not enter and we cannot tell you how it is, and the Chandler Phillips 66 Station, another mythical gas station of the year 1930 restored and very flirtatious, to this one we went clearly because it is free, and we loved it!

For us the day ends up going through Arcadia. And here one of the visits of those rare stars is the Pops Arcadia, a cafeteria with thousands and thousands of glass bottles on display inside the premises, and with a piece of Coca-Cola bottle (or whatever comes to you head) at the entrance. It will be very difficult to skip the exit ... you will see it km away!

Although we had planned that this day would end a little later, in Oklahoma, the truth is that we messed up a lot trying to follow the original route, getting on crossroads with crosses every 3 miles, getting lost from time to time and ended up crossing a huge plain with ranches of cattle and fields, with the sun falling in front of us over the far west, with the windows open letting in the breeze of the deep United States and with that feeling of full freedom that only the improvised road trips give you.

And here the picture of the John Hargrove House Museum, "OK County 66", but yes, we have to recognize it ... WE WERE NOT! You don't have to see it all the first time, right? So we leave things for a future trip. The site itself is a mythical place on Route 66, there you will find the miniatures of the most emblematic places on the route (the Twin Arrows, the Jackrabbit Trading Post logo, the Wigwam tipis-shaped motel, or even the Blue Whale!

We arrive at Quapaw Casino, and if we thought that last night was unsurpassed we were wrong. This even has a tank to empty the dirty waters of the van. We already have homework for tomorrow. Do not think that ours with casinos looks bad, that today we have not spent a dollar on little machines 😉