Miles driven – 2200

Whoosh today was A LOT of driving. We crossed three states and saw A TON. You can tell it was a big day because of ALL THE CAPS I AM USING. 

But seriously, 12 hours including stops. Yeah let that sink in.

We woke up, got packed up and sadly said goodbye to our room at the Wagon Wheel. Womp. What a great place to stay. We are gonna miss it for sure. but onto the next adventure.

Our first stop was just a little down the road for breakfast at Shelly’s. Such a good place. Great food and great people. 

We talked a bit with Shelly the owner and an elderly couple next to us about our route 66 adventure. Also, food.

I got a pretty standard breakfast – eggs, home fries, bacon and toast. Standard. But delicious.

Nickie got a grilled English muffin and home fries. Which is less standard.

Myles got the chocolate chip pancakes. Somewhat standard. 

And Owen….Owen got the steak and eggs.

And they had this map in the back that showed places where all their diners were from. And incredibly there was no one from Boston. So of course we put a pin in it.

After lunch we hopped in the family truckster and headed a little bit down Route 66 to this bad boy…

Yeah. So as you can see this is the world’s largest rocking chair. Until 2016. Another bigger one has been built in Casey, IL and has therefore made this the  second largest rocking chair. And for some reason that kind of makes this one even more awesome.

Cuba is also the city of murals. So. Mural.

We then drove a couple more hours down the mother road to one stop we were all looking forward to.

Yep. The Uranus Fudge Factory. This place was like fun pic central 

But this one…..right here.

And I mean, of course we bought fudge. And in case you’re wondering, fudge from Uranus is delicious. And it contains M&M’s.

And I of course had to buy a t-shirt. Because Uranus.

Wow I just spent a lot of time on Uranus. So many pics of Uranus. Uranus is my muse.

Moving on….

After Uranus, we drove for a little while until we we’re out of Missouri and into Kansas. Now Kansas has a tiny little sliver of Route 66 cutting through a corner. But there was one thing we wanted to see for sure in Galena. Spoiler alert – it was Cars.

So yeah that was pretty much it for us in Kansas. 

Well actually there is this…

So this place was touted forever as a bordello where this murder happened. That claim was debunked and this place now sells antiques. And eh, I kind of liked it better when be it was s murder bordello. It just had a nice ring to it. 

Oh there was also this around the corner. 

According to Pixar, this wall was the inspiration for the Hudson Hornet garage on Cars. And this was right next to it. 

After that little stop in Galena we hit the road and were shortly in Oklahoma. Literally three states within like a half hour. 

We drove for a little bit down the road and into Miami.

No no no…..Miami OK. Dumny.

And we stopped for lunch at Waylans Ku Ku Burger. This place used to be part of a chain of restaurants in the Midwest but is now the sole survivor. And it’s become a 66 icon. And it was a really nice stop. Right on the route, it provided an inexpensive yet yummy lunch. 

I got a hot dog…

After lunch we had a little bit of a drive but saw some cool scenery along the way. The drive today was really pretty.

And we reached yet another Route 66 icon – the Blue Whale in Catoosa.

So I guess some dude built this thing as an anniversary present for his wife. And now it’s just sort of sitting out there right on Route 66. 

It’s become pretty iconic and is a big point for anyone driving the mother road. 

So after that we were planning on hitting the Rock Cafe in Stroud because of it’s strong connection to Cars. But time was getting away from us and we had to make some sacrifices. 

So we motored on into Arcadia instead and hit someplace we were ALL looking forward to. Pops in Arcadia is like a soda lover’s dream. Place has like over 700 different types of soda. Including gross ones like Ranch Dressing (though this was sold out when we were there.)

You can’t miss Pops on account of the giant soda bottle outside.

Myles, Owen and I each picked out some sodas…

My picks…

Myles’ picks…

Owen’s picks…

We decided we would try one each for the next few nights.

We then drove for about another hour and made it to our hotel in Weatherford, OK – the Holiday Inn Express. And this hotel was soooo much better than we thought it would be. Not only is the room nice but the restaurant we wanted to eat at is right in the parking lot. Amazing. 

Said dining establishment? Lucille’s Roadhouse. 

Yet another legit 66 institution. And believe me it did not disappoint. We started with some much needed liquid refreshment…

And a sampler platter of like fried everything…mushrooms, pickles and corn fritters.

Our waitress was really nice too. She asked us all about our trip and said we looked like we were in our 30’s. So. Nice.

For dinner I almost got this..

But Nickie threatened to not kiss me if I did. Plus the waitress recommended the chicken fried chicken so I got that instead. 

Which was awesome…

Owen and Myles both got steak. How novel, Owen got steak…

And Nickie got a turkey sandwich thing. It was much more than that but I forget everything that was on it and she’s sleeping now…

Anyways, dinner was awesome…if you couldn’t tell.

Then we walked back over to the room and had our soda challenge. I tried the peanut butter and jelly, Owen tried the apple pie. And Myles…pfft the blueberry cream. Which was obviously the best.

The peanut butter and jelly wasn’t really that bad. But i mean it wasn’t really that good either. It just sort of…was.

So today was great. A beautiful drive. Really fun stops along the way. A true sense of accomplishment at the end of it all. And lots of laughs and memories along the way.

We have been trying to rank our days from best to worst as we go but it’s getting harder and harder with every day being so incredible. It’s gonna be hard to see this vacation come to an end. Good thing we still have like over a week to go..

Onto New Mexico tomorrow…