I am currently on Part 2 of the Route 66 Tour and I am writing this from beautiful Amarillo, TX. The group flew into Tulsa, OK but we ran into a problem - there were no vans available in the Tulsa area! Since there’s no problem we can’t solve at GVG Tours, I drove a 15 passenger van down to meet the group at the airport in Tulsa.
This stretch of our Route 66 tour goes from Tulsa to Albuquerque, NM, and we make stops at numerous iconic sites associated with Route 66. From 1926 until the construction of the Interstate System in the 1980’s, Route 66 was the Mother Road to the West. Running from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA, Route 66 totals a whopping 2,448 miles! It was immortalized in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath in which the Joad family traveled west along the Route during the Dust Bowl. This trip is Americana at its best, and for many of us it evokes memories from the times of our youth. I would like to share some of the stops we made on this leg of the tour:
Commerce, OK - The home of Mickey Mantle: Mantle was the greatest baseball player of his era, and to see the humble home he grew up in highlights just how far he started from New York City.
Catoosa, OK - The Blue Whale: A man built the whale for his wife and the neighborhood kids. It has been welcoming many generations over the years.
Miami, OK - The Coleman Theater: A wealthy mine owner decided to build this theater in 1929 at a cost of $600,00 (over $10.5 million in today’s money!) to bring in Vaudeville acts and famous singers. There was a plan at one point to tear it down, but citizens came together to save the theater and it is magnificent.
Tulsa, OK - The Desert Hills Motel: This motel is a step back in time. Located in this spot since the 1930’s, its neon sign beckons you to stop in and experience the vintage-style rooms - complete with a rotary phone.
Arcadia, OK - The Arcadia Round Barn: The barn was built in 1898 and its construction included planks which were soaked in the nearby river and bent to fit the structure of the building. The round construction proved sturdy and helped the barn survive the winds and storms for which Oklahoma is famous. The upstairs of the barn also served as a community center and held dances.
Elk City, OK - The Moveable Diner: During the 1930’s one could purchase a complete diner for $5,000 (just over $100,000 today), or monthly rent of $40 (about $875 today). The diner would be transported to the site and once you hook up utilities you are in business! It even had a secure lock box outside for you to leave your $40 monthly rent.
Shamrock, TX - Conoco Gas Station: This gas station was built in 1936 using the popular Art Deco style at a cost of $23,000 (around $500,000 today). It was the vision of a man named John Nunn who supposedly sketched the design with a nail in the dirt. In its heyday the attached diner, the U-Drop Inn Café, was reportedly the only restaurant around for 100 miles. It was such a big hit that even Elvis ate there in 1960. This structure has been dubbed the '“Taj Mahal of Texas”, and I have to say that having just been to the real one in India I don’t know how accurate this moniker is. Do you think that the architects of this building would have believed that in present day there are Tesla charging stations behind the building?
Amarillo, TX - Cadillac Ranch: In the 1970’s, some hippies from San Francisco came out to Amarillo and decided to create a unique art installation in a farmer’s field with the help of some funding from an Amarillo-based billionaire. A line of partially-buried cars sit in the field, ready for a fresh coat of paint. Even today, people are bringing cans of spray paint out to give the cars a new look.
There is so much more I could share with you from this trip. Why don’t you join us for part 3 of our Route 66 Tour, which takes us from Albuquerque, NM to Santa Monica, CA? I guarantee that you will love it!
