Route 66 – The Adventure Continues

Oklahoma City was the halfway point on our Route 66 adventure through Oklahoma, although we didn’t stop there. We have spent a lot of time in Oklahoma City over the years and decided to skip it for the sake of saving time. Though for anyone who has not visited Oklahoma’s capital, we highly recommend spending a few days checking out everything this wonderful destination has to offer.

The Gold Dome Building, Route 66, Oklahoma City. Built as a bank in 1958, and designed by renowned architect, Buckminster Fuller, the building is one of the city’s most iconic sights.

Trivia: The world’s first parking meter was installed in downtown Oklahoma City in 1935. Additionally, shopping carts, bread twist ties, and aerosol cans were all invented in Oklahoma.

Parking meters in downtown Oklahoma City.

Now, back to the route…

Arcadia, Oklahoma

Inside the city limits of Edmond, Oklahoma lies the one square mile town of Arcadia. The tiny town is home to two favorite Route 66 stops: Arcadia Round Barn and Pops.

Round Barn, Route 66, Arcadia, Oklahoma

Arcadia Round Barn

The unique round barn was built in 1898 by William Odor. The reason he went to the trouble to build a round barn: he thought if it was hit by a tornado, the tornado would go around it instead of through it. By the 1970s the structure had almost collapsed, but volunteers in and around Arcadia came together to restore the old barn. Restoration efforts were completed in 1992 and the round barn has been a beloved Route 66 landmark ever since. Admission to the barn, which also features a gift shop, is free.

Pops

Pops is a convenience store, restaurant, and gas station located just around a curve from the round barn. Its claims to fame are its thousands of bottles of soda pop in hundreds of varieties and its landmark pop bottle sign.

Pops iconic 66-foot-tall soda bottle, its height a nod to its Route 66 location.
Colorful sodas on glass shelves line the store’s windows.

Having only been open since 2007, Pops isn’t one of the vintage Route 66 stops, but it has become a very popular one. While there, we opted for a grape soda and a root beer. We don’t usually drink sugary sodas, but when in Rome… Would you try a spaghetti or blue cheese dressing soda?

Spaghetti? Not for us, thanks.
Um…no!

Moving on…

Will Rogers

One of the Route 66 nicknames is the Will Rogers Highway. Oklahomans are passionate about the label because Will Rogers was, and probably still is, their favorite native son. Will Rogers was born a citizen of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory (about half of Oklahoma before it became a state) in 1879 to parents of mixed heritages. In his lifetime, Rogers wore many hats: cowboy and rodeo star, humorist, world traveler, and actor. He even took a brief turn as Mayor of Hollywood, California. Rogers was best known for his acting career which found him first in vaudeville shows then in Hollywood where he appeared in seventy-one movies. He also wrote a humorous political column that was syndicated in over 4,000 newspapers. Rogers, along with fellow Oklahoman and aviator Wylie Post, died in 1935 when Post’s plane crashed in Alaska Territory.

One of the many Will Rogers Highway/Route 66 wayside monuments in Oklahoma.

As we made our way along Route 66 in Oklahoma, we found impressive granite “Will Rogers Highway” wayside markers at many of the landmarks. The one above outlines the history of Lucille’s Filling Station near Hydro, Oklahoma.

Lucille’s, Route 66, Hydro, Oklahoma

Clinton, Oklahoma

Our only stop in Clinton was at the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum which should not be confused with the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma.

We found this museum to be exceptional as it truly does tell the story of the route through Oklahoma. Carefully curated displays take visitors through the decades of the Route 66 era complete with vintage vehicles, multimedia presentations, and plenty of other sights and sounds. Click on any image below for full views.

Service stations were such an important part of the history of Route 66

We spent about an hour and a half here, though we could have stayed longer. The Oklahoma Historical Society has done an outstanding job with this museum, and we believe it is a stop that any traveler would enjoy.

Traveling on, we skipped Elk City and Sayer because we had visited those cities on a previous trip.

Erick, Oklahoma

Continuing on the route, we arrived in Erick just after noon on a Saturday. Erick is a neat little town surrounded by ranch land and farms. Sadly, its main street and downtown appeared to be completely deserted when we were there. Erick is the hometown of singer-songwriter, Roger Miller, of “King of the Road” fame. The town once had a museum dedicated to Miller, but it is now closed. We found the mural below featuring Miller on an empty building that may have once been the museum.

Roger Miller mural on Route 66 aka Roger Miller Blvd., Erick, Oklahoma

Erick’s other claim to fame is that it is also the hometown of singer and actor, Sheb Wooley. Wooley’s hit song “The Purple People Eater” hit number one on the Billboard pop charts in 1958. He also co-starred as Pete Nolan on the TV series “Rawhide”, among other acting roles. We didn’t find a mural of Wooley in Erick, however, we did find the Sandhills Curiosity Shop, another source of inspiration for Disney Pixar’s movie “Cars”.

Sandhills Curiosity Shop, just off Route 66, Erick, Oklahoma

Trivia: Sheb Wooley recorded the Wilhelm Scream sound effect that has been used in hundreds of movies and TV shows since 1951 and is still being used today. Check it out here: Wilhelm Scream.

Route 66 between Sayre and Erick was a divided highway and one of the nicest parts of the Mother Road that we experienced on our trip. The four-lane road continued to Texola, Oklahoma (a ghost town) and went back to two lanes just past the Texas border.

Goodbye, Oklahoma. It’s been fun!

Thanks so much for cruising Oklahoma’s Route 66 with us! One more post covering our Mother Road stops in the eastern half of Texas is coming soon.

If you love American road trips as much as we do, check out these other cool places:

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

Antietam National Battlefield

Abilene, Texas Road Trip: Things to Do

 

Safe travels, y’all. We’ll see you on the road!

Mike & Kellye

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As always, we strive to be as accurate with our information as possible. If we made a mistake, it was unintentional. (Hey, we’re only human!) We aren’t paid for our recommendations, and we only recommend our own tried and true vendors and venues. Our suggestions are for places that we’ve heard good things about but haven’t visited personally, and our opinions are our own.

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40 thoughts on “Route 66 – The Adventure Continues

  1. Pops’ 66-foot bottle really caught my eye, and I think for some odd reason I’d actually have to try both the spaghetti and blue cheese dressing sodas there. The info on the Wilhelm Scream was really interesting since I am an avid movie-goer, and really didn’t know it had been used in so many movies and shows. Enjoyed the great tour on this stretch of Route 66.

  2. What fun! I hadn’t thought about Bucky Fuller for years, but your post sent me hunting for more of his history. His sleeping habits were as fascinating as other aspects of his life.

  3. Route 66 clearly has much to offer for authentic Americana aficionados. I have vague memories of a family road trip over this road at age 5. Interesting that the same scream has been used in movies for decades.

  4. How fascinating to learn about all the inventions that started life in Oklahoma such as the parking meter, shopping trolleys etc. We just take them for granted and never give it a thought of where they came from so thanks for that. The Pop Soda centre with that huge bottle outside looked fun. I’m not a fizzy drink lover apart from an occasional ginger ale but would have been tempted to try the blue cheese dressing soda as it’s one of my favourite dressings! Hope you have a good weekend.

  5. I’m really enjoying following you along Rte 66. I can’t say that I fancy the Blue Cheese soda (I love blue cheese but …). however everything else looks great, just as I imagine it to be 😀

  6. An amazing post Kellye. It just goes to show you every place (and every person) has a story. We just have to stop long enough to listen. That museum looks well worth the stop and I am with you on the soda flavours. The phrase “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” comes to mind. Happy Saturday. Allan

  7. What an unusual building the Gold Dome is, like a large gold golf ball. Like others I was surprised and impressed to read of all the great ideas that were born in Oklahoma. The soda flavours are crazy. If I had to try one I’d go for the spaghetti, as even the smell of Blue Cheese makes me retch. I’m just a little proud that I already knew about Will Rogers and would’ve been able to make that connection in a pub quiz. But I certainly hadn’t heard of Clinton, the museum looks and sounds awesome. What a pity Roger Miller’s museum didn’t stand the test of time, he deserves better. I watched the Wilhelm Scream video, which gave me a few giggles. Wonderful piece Kellye.

  8. It’s so nice to see different sections of Route 66 which I haven’t seen before. It looks great – and that stat about the parking meter is one piece of useless information I’m strangely delighted to know 🙂 Thanks for sharing your roadtrip with us.

  9. Another FUN post and no thank you to spaghetti and blue cheese soda!!!!! My husband has decided to retire early so we will be figuring out where to go first. You are a fantastic reference Kellye and Mike!

  10. Great post! I have never been to Oklahoma so I really enjoyed seeing these classic spots along the iconic route 66. I love the look of that round barn and the road side stop with all the signs on it. Interesting to learn about Will Rogers! Great piece all around 🙂

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