The big one, or my west coast adventures. Day 7

Well, I can almost not believe that I'm on day 7. This will make a week on the road.  I splurged last night,  going for the $60 hotel. A little more upscale, but with the day I had last night,  it was worth it ;-). I'm up early so I could pack the bike, and get ready to go after the free breakfast buffet, which opens at 6:30 am. As far as hotel free breakfast ' s go, this was the best is far this year, that is except for the coffee.

Full and on the road.  Downtown Springfield, MO, is in the middle of being revitalized.  Not worth stopping for now, but give it a year and it will be great.

One rather large mural.  Nice. I'd thought I take some pics of one of the many cabin motels. I've literally have passed dozens of these, a few still used, others falling apart.

Ok, maybe not the best pic.

Next stop is the "Gay Parita" filling station. Ya, its old enough to be called Gay.  These places seem to be staffed by the " make the grandma work, projects ".

Still a great place even though grandma was a little off her rocker.

I met a couple of Irish girls who stopped to ask if they were still on Route 66, and the Germans.  Who acted like typical Germans.
It's a nice little tourist trap and the first place that that I've bought souvenirs.

Well I'm back on the road and here's a few more pics:

One of the many vintage bridges that you cross.

One of the better sections of the orgional road.

What a great name for a town.

Not much happening in Albatross.

If only I did more research,  I would have stayed here instead of where I was. Ultra cool.

The town also has a great drive - in theater.  Something that everyone should experience.  But then again, the cars back then had way bigger back seats. 

Well on to Joplin, MO where there's not much to see, but the coffee shop.

Anyway it gives me time to update the blog.  Well I've finally cracked why all the good coffee shops in little towns. It seems if your a hipster in a small town and want to start a business.  You open a coffee shop for all your hipster friends to hand out at. The coffee is finished and I'm back on the road. Kansas is just down the road.

You might not be in Kansas anymore,  but I am. What I'm learning is even though I've done the research,  so I know more or less what's on Route 66. You still get surprised when stuff pops up.

 That's the tow truck that inspired the tow truck in "Cars"

 Nicely restored pump.

 More vintage cars and trucks.

 This was in great shape,  if a little over priced.

I always wondered how people where able to take this great pic without traffic coming along.  The real road is to the left of the pic. This bit is a spir for us tourists.  Cheers, Kansas. 

Kansas may only be 13 miles on Route 66, but as you can see, there's lot's to see.  When I did my research,  the town was dead.  A few years later and they are starting to recover. It's one of the things that I've been noticing. Things are starting to pick up in America and that's a good thing.

Now on to Oklahoma.

Oklahoma must be big, it took at least 2 minutes to calculate.  Anyway off I go. Oklahoma is big, big and wide open. There's no pic's because you don't need to see more gas stations or motel courts. What I'm learning is there was either gas station or motel every mile or to all the way along route 66.

Ah, the Germans. This is the second day I've run into these guys. They are ok, but would you eat gas station pizza? These are eagle rider Harley's, but these guys are doing the self guided tour. I'll let you know if I run into them again.


Now on to Tulsa,  OK.  Not much to see here, though I did stop outside of town at this display.  I've see this train somewhere before. When I get back I'll look into it.

Every time I try and get rid of this pic it deletes everything,  so it stays. 

Some days I have a love,  hate relationship with this blog. Today it's just been acting up and taking longer to write stuff down. That and it updated while I was using it and I lost a bunch of stuff. Argh! !!

I've got a lot of miles to cover today and one thing Oklahoma has going for it is the secondary roads are 65 mph. Back in Ontario they are only 50 mph. This allows me to make some pretty good time. I did get forced of the road while this passed.

Who knows what it is or for. Next attraction to come up was the blue whale. He came up on me quick. 

I'm actually surprised on how close this is to a 4 lane highway. It looks like it's one of those attractions that charges to look around.  Hey I like it, but not that much. Anyway back on the bike. This has to be the stretch where I did about 100 miles and didn't really see much. That is except old gas stations and motels. There was one old gas station/bike museum I would have liked to stop at, but he was closed at 5 pm and I just missed it. The same goes for the round barn, but to be honest,  I'm not to worried about that one.

Just down the road is "Pops" a gas station and a pop lovers dream. This place has hundreds of different types of pops.

 Just a great looking store. The pop bottle is neon lit at night.

 Japanese pops

 Can't figure out this one

Everythings cool for you to try

 What is birch beer?

Send your kid to school with one of these great flavours.

 Well Steve does a coffee porter, so why not pop!

Cream my people,  it should be my people creamed me.

Kick ass judge Warner cola.

 Bug barf anyone? Come lick my windscreen.

 They do say bacon makes everything better, wanta try the soda?

I ended up with the grape Nehi and a Sarsaparilla.  Both good. This place is a mecha to bikers and I spent a hour and a half here.

This is on the outskirts of Oklahoma City.  So from here I'm into some rather nasty traffic and onto the motel.

Well it was a 13 hour day in the saddle but with the temps going to 90 ° it was a nice change over the cooler weather that I've been driving through.

Total mileage: 1829 miles/2943 km

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