Route 66: CA to MO

CA to MO on Route 66:
Our first venture on to Route 66 out of Barstow we encounter a washed out bridge. OK, back onto Hwy 40. Down the Hwy we again took Historic Route 66. Well, the road had weeds growing in the cracks. We then knew we should not be there. We were parallel to Hwy 40, but could not find a place to get back on. After a few miles, there was an on ramp and on we got!
We decided to spend a few days in Lake Havasu. One day we drove up to Oatman AZ. It was really fun! It’s a funky little town. Burros wander in the street and you can buy carrots and hand feed them. There was a baby burro resting on the ground with several motor cyclist guys keeping watch over him. Korkie barked and tried to scare them but they ignored him. There are a lot of motorcycle groups in this area. Great scenery and fun roads.
Then back on our Route 66. We followed our book maps, checked out some old towns, stopped at some interesting sites, gift and Indian shops. Saw many old filling stations, old cars and old motels. Pretty soon they all looked alike and we started to get a little bored with it.
Then along came the “Meteor Crater” by Flagstaff AZ. We had wanted to see this for years. The crater was formed nearly 50,000 years ago by a meteorite. The crater is 550 feet deep, 2.4 miles in circumference and nearly 1 mile across. The meteor, estimated to have been 150 feet across and weighing several hundred thousand tons slammed into the rocky plain and left a crater. NASA once trained Apollo astronauts here. The tour was really good.
After driving for 2 days in a row, and windy conditions, we decided to rest for a couple of days and found ourselves in Santa Rosa NM a nice small town with several lakes in the area. It also has the “Blue Hole.” This is a sink hole in the desert fed by an underground water supply. The hole is 80 ft. diameter and over 80’ deep. You can swim and scuba dive in it. Of course when we got close to Amarillo TX we had to see Cadillac Ranch.
Oklahoma is beautiful! Green pastures, lakes and ponds. Quite a change from the desert plains we had been on. We drove around Oklahoma City. The roads in Tulsa were all under construction. We had lost track of time changes. We thought it was 2:30 and it was actually 4:30, so we got mixed up in the rush hour traffic. We arrived in Claremore OK at 5:00PM. Either the RV Park we tried to find was not there or Garmen was truly mixed up. So we kept on driving. About 20 miles north in Big Cabin OK we spotted “RV Park”. It was a great find. It was a combination RV Park and Diesel Service garage. Bob had wanted to get the oil changed but the place and time were never compatible. We arrived on Thursday night and on Friday he checked into the office for an appointment. The earliest they could get us in was Monday at noon. Perfect. We had a great view of green grazing fields and cows. So much open grass around that we would let Korkie off the lease and he would run all around and in circles. At one point, Bob came in and said “Korkie got himself in a pickle and I cannot help him.” I came running out and there he was in the field barking at the cows. He finally came back under the fence. We made some trips into Claremore where the play and movie “Oklahoma” was based on. We went to the Will Rogers Memorial and Museum and the J M Davis Museum where the world’s largest private firearm collection is housed. Very interesting town. Well Monday came, the RV got serviced and we left Tuesday AM.
We had met a couple in Santa Rosa NM who were going to spend a month in Ozark MO which is very close to Branson MO. They have family here. We made plans to meet there. Chuck and Connie had lived in Denver then moved to Tucson AZ. We have had a great time with them. They are here working on their daughter’s home during the day, then we meet for “Happy Hour” on our patio, when the weather is good. Branson is quite a place! Hundreds of live shows to go to. We picked two. We went to a “Broadway Dance Musical” then saw the “Sons of the Pioneers” perform. Both were great shows. We heard the saying several times that you never see a bad show in Branson. Great entertainment.
Our weather has been interesting. When we first got here we had nice warm days and evenings. Then we got lots of thunder, lightning and rain, like heavy rain. Last Thursday around 6:30 AM we hear a siren. We had been told that a siren will sound for a tornado warning! Chuck and Connie had said that if a siren goes off, grab Korkie and they will take us to their daughter’s home which has a basement. So we jumped up, got dressed and turned on the computer. It looked like the front had almost passed over so we declined their offer and stayed home. We have found out since we are in the area known as “Tornado Alley” and the peak season is May and June!!! Korkie spends a lot of his time under the chair. He is afraid of rain, thunder, wind shield wipers etc, etc, etc but not big dogs and cows!
In Ozark there is a restaurant called “Lamberts”. On week- ends there are lines of people waiting to get it. We went on a Tuesday night. When you first sit down, a server tosses a made from scratch freshly baked dinner roll to you. Remember this is down-home cooking country. After your meal comes, servers come by with pass-arounds like black eyes peas, mac and tomatoes, fried onion potatoes and sorghum for your roll. Country music plays and when you leave, you roll out. It was fun.
On Saturday the 15th, we left our good friends Chuck and Connie and headed north to see Lake Ozark. Grey overcast day but no heavy rain. We are parked facing a river at Lake Ozark. Then on to Jefferson City and Hannibal MO. Depending on the weather. We need to get to some warm sunny weather very soon!