-
2015 Route 66 RV Trip Overview | September 12–20 Road Trip Adventure
By September 2015, we were starting to feel comfortable traveling Route 66 with our RV, but we were still learning something new on every trip. Traveling the Mother Road in an RV is a very different experience than traveling by car and staying in motels. The pace is different, the planning is different, and the experience of the towns and the road itself feels different when you’re bringing your home along with you. This trip would take us west on Route 66 through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, before turning around and heading back east toward home. We planned the trip around RV parks along or near Route 66, which…
-
Route 66 with Our Grandson – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Joplin, Missouri: September 18, 2015
On the morning of September 18, it was time to leave Twin Fountains RV Resort in Oklahoma City. I really can’t say enough good things about this place. The grounds were beautiful, the facilities were excellent, and the staff were wonderful. It’s definitely the kind of campground you remember and want to return to. We look forward to heading back there sooner rather than later. After packing up, we continued east along Route 66. Visiting Jerry McClanahan in Chandler Our first stop was in Chandler, Oklahoma at the gallery of Jerry McClanahan. Jerry is a well-known Route 66 author, artist, and historian who has spent years documenting the many alignments…
-
Route 66 with Our Grandson – Amarillo, Texas to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: September 17, 2015
We left the Oasis RV Park in Amarillo this morning to begin the return leg of our journey home. As we were packing up, Jameson wanted to spend a little more time enjoying the playground at the campground. While he played, the truck doors had been left open while we loaded gear. Unfortunately, that turned out to be an invitation for a swarm of Texas flies to move into the cab. When Jameson climbed back into the truck, he was immediately surrounded by buzzing intruders and quickly became very upset, loudly declaring: “I hate Texas flies!” We opened the windows and spent a few minutes shooing them out until the…
-
Route 66 with Our Grandson – Shasta Trailer Adventure: September 12–14, 2015
Our latest journey took us back to the Mother Road, but this time with a new twist. Instead of our usual road trip by car, we brought along our Shasta Travel Trailer. Another special part of this trip was traveling with our four-year-old grandson, Jameson, introducing him to the adventure of the Mother Road. Because we were traveling with the trailer, we planned the trip differently than usual. Instead of long driving days, we chose shorter travel distances with planned overnight stops, giving us more time to enjoy each location along the way. Saturday, September 12, 2015 Speedway, Indiana → Springfield, Missouri Originally we planned to leave Friday evening after…
-
July 3-5, 2014: Route 66 – Riverton, Kansas to Amarillo, Texas
Day 1: July 3, 2014 – to St. Louis, Missouri Today’s Map Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. The first day of our trip was largely uneventful – we took the Interstate to St. Louis after work so we could make some progress on getting to the California border. We stopped at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard and met with our camping friends Dane & Elaine, and then headed…
-
Tri-State Route 66 Festival — Day 2
Sorry for the lack of posts! Unfortunately my internet connection at the Joplin Holiday Inn was AWOL until yesterday morning before we left, so I’m just now able to get a new post up. Oklahoma is HOT this time of year! It was in the low-mid 90’s and it felt it. We stopped off in the morning at the World’s Largest Rocking Chair where we met a couple from Minneapolis who were cruising Route 66 from Chicago to L.A. We found a neat little diner in St. Robert where we had a late breakfast. After a visit with Ramona Lehman at the Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, we jumped back…
-
Tri-State Route 66 Festival — Day 1
After getting a somewhat late start out of Indy this morning, we made it to Springfield, IL in a record 3 hours for lunch at the Cozy Drive In. Afterward, we picked up Route 66 and headed south through Farmersville, Litchfield, and Mount Olive before arriving in Collinsville. I was on a mission. It’s been more than 6 weeks since we ordered our Serro Scotty trailer, and I needed a fix…bad. The first time I saw one in person was at an RV dealer there back in November. We arrived at Randy’s Trailer Town to a scorching 92 degrees, but that didn’t stop me. I was pleased to find not…
-
Tri-State Route 66 Festival — The Prelude
Here it is Wednesday morning and we’re getting ready to head off for five (hopefully) peaceful days on the road. Our day will start off with a drive out to Springfield, Illinois where we’ll have lunch at the Cozy Dog Drive In, well known as the restaurant where the corn dog was invented 50-some years ago. From there, we pick up that grand old two-lane highway, Route 66 and take it south into St. Louis, where chances are we’ll be diving into a concrete from Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, another Route 66 icon dating back to 1941. After that, we meander our way through the Ozarks of Missouri before picking…
-
Portland Concrete, Bridges, and Lucille’s…
If asked where my favorite section of Route 66 would be, I’d have to say all 2448 miles of it. But, if I was forced to pick a favorite section where I like to drive, I’d say it’s the section between El Reno and Hydro, Oklahoma. It’s got a nice ribbon of Portland concrete that dates back to the 1930’s, complete with curbing, like this mini section that’s housed at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. This cool section brings back memories of roadtrips when I was a kid, when two-lane highways were made of concrete and the tires hitting the seams of the road created a perfect rhythm. This section has the same…
-
Christmas on Route 66 — Greetings from Stroud, Oklahoma!
What a morning! Here in Stroud, Oklahoma, about 50 miles southwest of Tulsa, we’ve had a heck of a storm roll through here. It was 65 degrees this morning before the storm rolled through, and just 40 miles west of us it was 42. Tornado watches, thunder, lightning…we had it all! Right now it’s just raining here in Stroud at the the Skyliner Motel. Had a nice drive on Friday from Amarillo. The National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma should be a must-stop for anyone traveling out this way. Passed Oklahoma City, we stopped by Jim Ross’ Arcadia pad for a couple of hours. He suggested we stop…