We were into the second week of a 3-week, self-planned road trip around the Midwest states of the the USA and after adventures in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, we were departing the state of Kansas to spend a few days in Oklahoma.
Our route from the town of Liberal, Kansas to today’s destination of Oklahoma City, took us through a corner of Texas so we pulled over to grab photos with the state border sign and had lunch at a Texan Dairy Queen so that we could say we had set foot in the state of Texas this trip!
After popping to Texas for lunch, we continued to Oklahoma state where we picked up the famous Route 66.
Our first Oklahoma stop was in Elk City at the National Route 66 Museum. The museum mainly showed information on travelling Route 66, in its heyday and the present.
It covered all the states which the road passes through from Illinois to California and you could read and hear first hand stories of what it was like to travel along it. Its displays depicted mock ups of typical Route 66-style diners, drive-ins and gas stations with old cars parked around the exhibition. It was a fun and really nostalgic place to look around.
Ahead of schedule for once, we continued along the road – making sure we each had a turn at driving a stretch of it – to the town of Clinton and a second museum, the Route 66 Museum which contained further memorabilia from the iconic road’s past.
Driving on Route 66 
Set up in decades, each showing a snapshot of the road in time, this museum concentrated more on the history of Route 66 covering it’s rise, fall and resurrection to its current cult status. It was a shame this had been the second museum we had come to as I think it warranted more time spent here reading the information in the displays compared to its Elk City counterpart. If we had known that in advance, we’d have spent less time at the first museum to give us more time here. For the small entry fee though, both museums were worth visiting, even if short on time, as they both offered different but interesting takes on the road.
From here, we left Route 66 behind for a while to take the Interstate through to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma! from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical blaring out on repeat. Despite being ahead of schedule earlier, our stop at the second museum followed by hitting rush hour traffic meant it was late evening by the time we arrived at our hotel so after checking in and walking to the nearby Denny’s for dinner, we decided to leave the exploring til tomorrow and instead have a night in doing laundry and having an early night.
Desperate to do white water rafting on our trip after all really enjoying the experience on the Wyoming-leg of our Trek America trip before, we had gone back on forth on where we could fit it in on our trip. Deciding we couldn’t really divert from our route to fit it in at any of the places we had found offering it in Wisconsin and Minnesota, we had given up on the idea when we noticed a river sports facility in Oklahoma River offering white water rafting on a man-made course.
We knew it wouldn’t quite be the same as rafting on a real river but thought it would still be fun so we’d booked passes to raft the next morning.
After checking in at the centre, we changed into clothes we didn’t mind getting wet and picked up our safety vests and helmets then went for an orientation and safety talk before boarding our rafts. We went around the course a few times and if anything, the rapids were a lot bigger than any we’d experienced river rafting before. It was still great fun though and, while not as authentic without the scenery of travelling down a natural river, a great alternative.
Our passes gave us access to some of the other activities available at the centre and we had a few goes on the giant inflatable water slides after but, exhausted from our rafting experience and with time that could be spent exploring Oklahoma City ticking on, we changed back into our dry clothes and decided to move on.
Finding somewhere to park in Oklahoma City’s Brick Town area, we spent the next few hours exploring the city.
After looking around Brick Town, an area which we guessed came more alive at night with its bars and restaurants, we wandered up towards the city’s National Memorial and Museum. The memorial commemorates the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in which 168 people lost their lives.
While we didn’t have time to visit the museum itself, wandering around the memorial and reading the information available on the significance of its design features, especially its 168 empty chairs, was a moving experience.
After paying our respects at the memorial, we walked to Myriad Botanic Gardens and strolled through its grounds, passing its Crystal Bridge Conservatory before returning to Brick Town and our car.
If we had had more time, it would have been nice to have visited the museum at the National Memorial or take a guided tour on a water taxi along the Brick Town canal to find out more about the city but as it was now early evening, we were hungry so instead deciding it was time to get some dinner. Having not see anywhere we fancied eating at in the city, we drove out to a Cracker Barrel on the city outskirts before returning to our hotel for the evening.
The next morning, we were leaving Oklahoma state and travelling on to Arkansas. We had tentative plans to pay a quick visit to the city of Tulsa first but after previous experiences of trying to find places to park in a city, and with a 6 hour drive day ahead of us, we decided against it.
There was however, one more Route 66 roadside attraction just outside of Tulsa city we just had to see – the Blue Whale of Catoosa. Back in the 70s, the glory days of Route 66, this was a popular stop along the road where travellers could picnic and swim in the pool surrounding the giant whale but as new, faster roads were built and Route 66 fell out of use, the park and its huge whale closed and fell into disrepair.
With Route 66 later being revived and now a popular tourist route, the whale has now been restored as a popular Route 66 attraction. While it is no longer used as a water slide – and swimming in the surrounding pond is no longer recommended! – it is possible to walk into the whale and clamber on top of it for some fun photos!
Our visit to the Blue Whale of Catoosa was a great way to end our visit to Oklahoma state and we left for Arkansas state with huge smiles on our faces.
Miss Travels 
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