Erick to El Reno

We had a lot of fun this morning in Erick. It's a little town known for being the home of Roger Miller ("King of the Road") and Sheb Wooley ("Purple People Eater").  Now there are Annabelle and Harley, "the Mediocre Music Makers".  They have an amazing little museum of sorts with just about everything imaginable in it.  They were closed but invited us in for photos and some crazy interaction.  The photos tell the story.  Fun people; alas, they didn't sing for us.

We found a huge kachina at the museum in Elk City (and of course Elk City has a statue of an elk as well).  Clinton has a really good Route 66 museum, sponsored by the state of Oklahoma.  We had a very informative and interesting visit.  It's organized by decades, with appropriate music to accompany your tour (ie Glenn Miller playing "In the Mood" for the 40s) and has lots of exhibits.  There is also a video that shows the history of the road from construction on.

Along the road, we saw cotton fields and cattle.  On parts of Route 66 you can still drive over the original Portland concrete, which has seams and is quite a bouncy ride.  Tuna does not like bouncy nor winding roads.  She tolerates them for a bit but then comes the snarl: enough!

We stopped at Jiggs' Smoke House for lunch.  It's an old place on the side of the road, quite popular with locals and truckers.  Mark had a barbecued beef sandwich that looked like it had two pounds of meat.  It was served on a paper towel - no plate.  Just potato salad and a soft drink for me but Mark loved his carnivore's lunch.  We continued driving, alternating between I-40 and old Route 66, to El Reno, our stop for the night.  We dropped off Tuna at the motel and went to visit and have dinner with our friend Matt, with whom Mark worked at Apple, and his parents, Don and Marie.  It was nice to visit and catch up with old friends.