We left the hotel in Tulsa and headed north to check out the few Route 66 signs we had wanted to see lit the night before, but had been too tired to go out after dark to photograph. We also went to see the Golden Driller, which is a really big yellow dude who obviously works on oil wells or something. Anyhow, Riah liked him.
We followed 66 out of town for awhile, and then jumped 44 to get to Stroud faster. In Stroud, we went to the Rock Café. The Rock is where you can find the inspiration for the character “Sally” from Cars. Sally is actually Dawn, and the Cozy Cone is actually the Rock Café. We had breakfast at the hotel, and since it wasn’t quite lunch time, we had some peach cobbler, and Riah had some bacon. We looked around, took photos of the drawings the Pixar guys left for Dawn, some of which were in the bathroom on the wall! Riah got to chat with her awhile, and had her sign a Sally car for him. He had bought a special one in Pennsylvania with this purpose in mind. I told him I bet he’s the only kid in school to have THAT CARS car (autographed by the real “Sally”) She was super great to Riah. I am sure she has people come through more and more these days because of the movie, but she took time to talk to him and pose for photos. Her son who looked to be a tad younger than Riah was there, wearing a Lightning McQueen shirt. She was a very sweet lady, and Riah is telling everyone this was his favorite stop of the whole trip.
It's come to our attention a couple of times lately that many of you following along have not yet seen the movie CARS! It is high time to folks! We don't care that you don't have small kids, it's a really great movie. And, our website, trip and general babbling will make a lot more sense if you rent it! Honest ;) It has a really good message and awesome music too. PLEASE see it! it would make Riah's day knowing you did!
We drove due north from Stroud to Pawnee, to Pawnee Bill’s Ranch. Here we explored the museum (no photos allowed) the grounds, the barn and also got to see some bison and long horn cattle. I like bison. I like to see them. I like to eat them. They are ugly but tasty.
We poked along in Oklahoma, seeing much flooding along the Arkansas River in places, and then made our way into Kansas. In Kansas we went to Laura Ingalls Wilders cabin, well, a rebuilt version of it, and explored the grounds. I love the Little House books, and have visited some of the other places she lived, so this was fun for me. The guys seemed to like it as well.
A huge butterfly committed suicide on our windshield, and without thinking, Wayne hit the wipers. It was not pretty. I did not actually thrown up, I am not a puker, but it was as close as one can come without doing it I imagine. We HAD to stop and clean it off, but we were in the middle of a corn field basically, no gas station for miles around.
That leads me to this, I would like to say, Oklahoma was beautiful! The top part of the Osage Indian Reservation was isolated, looked to be ranch land, and you could see for miles and miles. I love this. I love going for a long time without passing another car. I love that when we are out west. I needed a road just like that. We felt like Oklahoma was a very pleasant surprise, lots of hills and more wooded than we expected in that area. It was a nice view through that part of the state. Then of course… we hit Kansas. FLAT. It is in fact pretty dang flat. But still pretty in its own sort of way I suppose. I read once that anyone can see beauty in the mountains, but it takes one with a soul to see it in the prairie. I have a soul. So I as I sat surrounded by corn, hoping Wayne could clean off the butterfly guts with some water and napkins, I tried to see beauty, though not in the dead butterfly itself! hahaha
Anyhow….!!!! The next stop was for them, “FAULKNER, KANSAS! Actually, we didn’t go to Faulkner, as it is a very small town and we had no need to actually shoot down the old worn road so late in the day, but we figured there would be a sign pointing to the turn off road, and we were not disappointed. The guys struck a pose and off we went.
We knew we wouldn’t get to Fort Scott in time today, and had planned to go back first thing tomorrow, but considering the distance we have to cover, we are not backtracking. We looked briefly at the fort on our way through, wish we could have gotten our National Park Passport stamp, but we didn’t. I can almost guarantee I will probably not be in this area again ever. So much for a Fort Scott stamp!
Our hotel in Nevada, Mo. is nice. Riah and I swam for awhile then Wayne and I swapped places with him, and I watched them from the pool side shower letting HOT water run over my back. Riah was a lot of fun. When we got back to the room he told me, “Mom, you are really pretty when you swim.” I am not sure what he meant, but it was sweet. I like when he says nice things to me. It feels so good as a mom, no matter what he really means. I think he just was glad to have me in the pool and wanted me to know he appreciated it. I had a lot of fun with him.
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