Only 19 miles west of Weatherford, we roll into Clinton, OK, home of the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. Along the way, we stop at the Cherokee Trading Post, a nice replica of the old curio and souvenir shops that used to line the Mother Road west of St. Louis. Inside is a restaurant full of locals and a gift shop full of American and foreign visitors. All of these stops along Route 66 have a guest book for you to sign.
The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton is full of “scenes” recreated from the various eras of the Mother Road. Lots of wonderful old photos, autos, fixtures and artifacts have been donated to make the exhibits come alive. Splendid!
West of Clinton, the glorious old sections of Portland concrete roadway resume for another 30 miles. The concrete is in remarkable condition to be 70+ years old and never to have had a face lift for all those years. In places, beyond Elk City, the old, old road
can be seen trotting alongside the old road, struggling through the weeds that have choked it and leaping over the occasional barriers and lost stretches. Being made of indestructible 10-inch-thick concrete explains its stubborn refusal to disappear.
We are almost out of Oklahoma as we cruise through Sayre, Erick and into Texola, which is right on the border with Texas. Texola is effectively dead. Only a few cars are visible and there is no sign at the edge of town announcing how many people live there.
Suddenly, we are in Texas. The Mother Road treks 178 miles straight across the panhandle of Texas. The old road stays on the south side of I-40 all the way into Shamrock. At the junction of Route 66 and Main St., we find the magnificently-restored U-Drop Inn, a legend from the past. It has been converted to the home of the Shamrock Chamber of Commerce and is as clean as whistle. It really stands out at a mummified intersection in a tragically declining little town. Shamrock’s downtown area is not more than a half mile from I-40, yet that is enough to keep the interstate traffic from exiting and coming into town for a bite to eat or a place to stay. In fact, we cannot find a decent place to eat in Shamrock, so we drive west on I-40 to the Red River Steak House in McLean, 21 miles away.
The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton is full of “scenes” recreated from the various eras of the Mother Road. Lots of wonderful old photos, autos, fixtures and artifacts have been donated to make the exhibits come alive. Splendid!
West of Clinton, the glorious old sections of Portland concrete roadway resume for another 30 miles. The concrete is in remarkable condition to be 70+ years old and never to have had a face lift for all those years. In places, beyond Elk City, the old, old road
can be seen trotting alongside the old road, struggling through the weeds that have choked it and leaping over the occasional barriers and lost stretches. Being made of indestructible 10-inch-thick concrete explains its stubborn refusal to disappear.
We are almost out of Oklahoma as we cruise through Sayre, Erick and into Texola, which is right on the border with Texas. Texola is effectively dead. Only a few cars are visible and there is no sign at the edge of town announcing how many people live there.
Suddenly, we are in Texas. The Mother Road treks 178 miles straight across the panhandle of Texas. The old road stays on the south side of I-40 all the way into Shamrock. At the junction of Route 66 and Main St., we find the magnificently-restored U-Drop Inn, a legend from the past. It has been converted to the home of the Shamrock Chamber of Commerce and is as clean as whistle. It really stands out at a mummified intersection in a tragically declining little town. Shamrock’s downtown area is not more than a half mile from I-40, yet that is enough to keep the interstate traffic from exiting and coming into town for a bite to eat or a place to stay. In fact, we cannot find a decent place to eat in Shamrock, so we drive west on I-40 to the Red River Steak House in McLean, 21 miles away.
No comments:
Post a Comment