Day 6 Jun 5 Tulsa, OK to Weatherford, OK

 jump to: Day 7    Day 5

Our first stop of the day, leaving the hotel at about 8.45 was at the Route 66 Harley-Davidson dealership in Tulsa. Tim's dresser had developed a problem with its fly-by-wire throttle so we needed them to take a look at it, and while we were they I bought a pair of passenger footboards to replace the stock round footpegs as Mrs. K was finding it increasingly un-confortable. We quickly found the right part (50500109) and the service department kindly fitted them for me while I waited. Very good service. When we return the bike in L.A. I'll swap the standard pegs back on and I've already got a buyer to take the passenger footboards off me at the end of the tour. Mrs. K find the new footboards a vast improvement. Happy Wife = Happy Life.

Also while at the bike shop I did notice how cheap, relative to prices in the UK, the new Harleys were. That got me thinking, you know, what if .....

After leaving Tulsa we rode on down the old 66 through Oklahoma, through Kellyville, Bristow, Depew and Stroud to Chandler where we stopped at the Route 66 Interprative Center, which has AV exhibits telling different stories about route 66.
Left: Interprative Centre exhibits

Right: Jerry McLanahan

While there we met with a guy called Jerry McClanahan who wrote the EZ Route 66 travel guide. Jerry talked to us about his interest in Route 66 history, and answered questions from our group. This special audience was arranged by Gary our tour guide.

 Just up the road bit we made our next stop at SeaBa Station which is now a small motorcycle museum. It's here that they have a late 70's Triumph Bonneville, the unusual thing being that's it's still in it's packing crate as delivered from the Meriden factory in Coventry, never having been unpacked. Weird.

Below: Selected photos from the Museum - click on to enlarge

Moving on now, we passed by but didn't stop at the famous Round Barn at Arcadia (time was against us as ever) , getting onto the Interstate to by-pass Oklahoma City - there's not much of Route 66 to be seen as it's pretty much been obliterated by building over it.
For lunch Gary takes us to a lunch stop he knows, off Route 66, I can't remeber the places name soo I'll just call it the "Chicken Fried Chicken" place. I learn that the "Chicken Fried" refers to the style of cooking - you'd probably know it more like 'breaded cutlets'. As such you can order 'Checken Fried Chicken' but also 'Checken Fried Steak' (which aint got no actual chicken in it at all!)
After lunch. still in the dining hall, Gary introduces us to his mate Ken Turmell, who has produced some unique Route 66 artwork. (click on the Map for more info.)  Ken has only three of these limited edition signed prints with him and sells all three at $150 a pop. Oh, hang on, Ken's just remembered that he's got some more in the car, anybody else? (Somebody did mention Dell Boy at this point).

Outside the diner, I noticed this strange motorised rig, and thought it worthy of a snap...

Left: What is it? (click on to enlarge)

Back on R66, and coming up to our next fuel stop we experienced some very extreme cross winds, accompanied by a cloud of red dust blown up from the roadside fields. Visibility was quite bad for a little while, but we slowed and got through it. We stopped at El Reno for Gas (most days we're doing two gas fills and have to fill completely to the brim so its just running over. We really have to max out the gas fills. Fortunately most (but not all) filling stations are 'UK Credit Card friendly'. They don't use the CC chip over here, everything's done just using the card's magnetic strip, and that's it - no PIN to enter, just fill da tank.
I always use the highest grade octane available, generally 91grade.

Now, this had to be a quick stop because Gary was anxious for us to press on quickly in order to avoid the impending storm. As it happened it was a good job he did because only 10 minutes after we left that Filling station was hit by a massive thunderstorm. Well done Gary.

After the gas fill, we rode on over the 'mile long' Pony Bridge that dates from 1933 and spans the Canadian River.

Then comes, what Gary termed 'Chiropractor Road' , the reason for that name becomes apparent when we strat to ride it. The roads around Hampshire pail into igsignificance when compared to the poor state of this road, where the pillion is launced periodcially heavenward as a result of us connecting with anoth pot whole or ridge. Gary reckons that the faster you take them the less you feel it - I beg to differ, and so take it easy, for Mrs. K's sake.



We stooped for a rest break at Cherokee Trading Post, Calumet OK........

Left: Note the moody cyclonic sky over the Cherokee Trading Post.

........ and then rode on to our hotel for the night was the Best Western Motor Mark Hotel in Weatherord Oklahoma, which is motel I like this type of hotel because we get to park Demo right outside the door to our room. Easy.

 jump to: Day 7    Day 5

Riding in a group

How we ride is...

Tour guide Gary leads on his Electra Glide, positioned to the left of the carriageway and Mark in the
California Sunriders support truck brings up the rear of the snake.


 Above; Thanks to Sheila for taking the pictures

In front of Mark is the trike(s), and between the trike(s) and Gary are the 12 other bikes in staggered formation, that i,s alternatively positioned to the right side and to the left side of the carriageway.

We maintain a gap between each bike of 1 to 2 seconds (or at least we're supposed to), but through towns and at stop lights we close up th e pack, the idea being not to leave big gaps that other vehicles could move into. In this way we're not following directly the bike in from ('cos we're staggered) and we maintain good visibility of the road and riders ahead.
 
Any hazards (debris in the road, pot holes, loose surface and so on) are pointed out (generally with a leg) to the rider behind, who repeats. By doing this we all  hopefully avoid these things.

Day 5 Mon Jun 4th - Rolla to Tulsa

 jump to: Day 6    Day 4

Today was a long ride - 320 miles from Rolla to Tulsa, a day that we see us in three different US states - Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Total odo reading - 920

We were up at 5.30, had the complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel, loaded at 8 and wagons roll at 8.30. The first thing to do was to fuel up. Fortunately the gas station was very close and we made it to the pump, albeit with the bike coughing and spluttering. I took the opportunity to get some cash out of the ATM there as I was down to my last few dollars cash. This was the first time using an ATM here, but the Zero card worked perfectly, and the ATM dispensed to me 10 x $20 bills.


While we were waiting these three lovely old cars came in to fill up. (see above). 
below: view down the road from Rolla, you can see one of the few roundabouths that we encountered on the trip here.

Riding on...

This morning I was trying out my mini DV cam for the first time on the trip and I had it taped to the side of my helmet. This came out good, and I ended up a 56 min avi file, just need to decide what to do with it - edit and put on youtube maybe and then embed the clips in the blog -but  that'll have to wait a bit.

Continuing on the old Mother Road this morning we passed through a number of towns and past countless derelct  and abandoned gas stations, motels and cafes. We rolled through Devils Elbow, Lebanon and Marshfield before our lunch stop at Buckinghams in Springfield, MO. This is what they call a BBQ Restaurant. As usual most things on the menu come as huge portions, so we ordered baked 'Taters' with 'pulled pork'  filling. After about half an hour the manager cam out to appoligise - the kitchen staff had messed up and put the jacket potatoes in the deep fat fryer!. Anyway if worked out because he offered us to make another choice off the menu, all on the house.

After lunch we were back, getting more kicks, riding through Halltown, Paris Springs, Spencer and on to to Carthage, MO, where we stopped for gas at the Crapduster filling station.

 

above: The Crapduster at the Crapduster fuel stop, Carthage, MO. Click to enlarge.



 Moving on we took a detour though the town of Joplin, which was hide by a tornado more or less one year ago (see wiki). We round through the streets where the major devastation occurred, completely wiping parts off the town out. Now rebuilding is well under way but there's still lots where all that's been done is clear the sites. We didn't stop, just rode slowly through and on out of Missouri and into Kansas.

Route 66 only passes through Kansas for 13 miles before it enters Oklahoma so today was a 'three state' day.

Whilst in Kansas we stopped at the Marsh Rainbow Arch Bridge (Riverton, KA) where we met what I'll call a 'Route 66 Celebrity' by way of Dean "Crazy Legs" Walker He is President of the Kansas Historic Route 66 Association and is credited as being the personality behind Mater the tow truck in the Disney/Pixar animation film 'Cars'. Dean's party trick what he did for us was to turn his feet to face backwards! er, yes, he's 'crazy' all right.
*


The last town in Kansas we went through was Baxter Springs. Then we into Oklahoma, through Miami, Afron, Vinita, Chelsea, Claremore to our final stop of the day which was at Cartoosa, at the Blue Whale.


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After leaving the Blue Whale we are soon at our hotel for the night - The Best Western plus Tulsa Inn & Suites, arriving at 7.45.

The hotel had laid on a special welcome reception for us in the lobby, and a welcome pack was there for each of us in our rooms - a very nice touch and much appreciated.

above: Graham with the Best Western welcome pack.

For our tea tonight, as it was getting late, and we weren't over hungry I just popped across the parking lot and picked up some take-a-way from McD.

So endeth our 5th day, the longest day of the trip with some 316 miles covered. Odo 920 miles., milage since lunch today - 252
 jump to: Day 6    Day 4

Day 4 Sun Jun 3rd - Springfield - Rolla

 jump to: Day 5    Day 3

Starting at the Holiday Inn Express in Springfield Illinois...

Got up at 5.30, got ready for the day including copying yesterdays photos off the camera but no time to do anything on blog.

We had our complimentary breakfast buffet in the lobby at 7.00 - I tried what looked like, and what I thought was porrige but actually,m well I don't know what it was, imagine something that looks like porige but tastes like mushroom soup! - I left most of that. The peanut butter was really good though.

As was to become the norm, we loaded our luggage onto the van at 8.00 and spend the next half hour cleaning the windshield of bugs, the riders meeting, and making sure we had what we need with us for the day. We load our big holdalls (what was our checked in bags on the flight), and our main backpacks (what was our cabin baggage on the flight) onto the van each day, and then we're not supposed to touch them again until the unload at the end of the day. We also have a 'day bag' each which we carry in the bikes saddle bags, with what we need for the day - things like suntan cream, cameras, cap, water bottles, tester/insulin and so on - and of course, the wet weather gear (not that we've really needed it yet).

Our first stop on the sunny Sunday morning was at the 'City' of Carlinville (I suppose that in the UK it would only be a town, but cities in the US seem to have a different status compared to the UK). This place was on Route 66 between 1926-1930, before R66 was diverted away from the toen (city?).

We parked up in the town square and just hung out for a while, chatting with other passing by, and taking in the beauty of this historic town. It was a very peaceful and relaxed place that morning. I wandered around the corner to have a look at the famouus 'Million Dollar' court house building, but nobody else bothered. There must have been some sort of gathering of custom/hot rod cars nearby because we saw loads of really great cars cruising past.

 
On the edge of the square was this wonderfully painted planter (see above)

above; More photos of Carlingville - Historic Buildings, The Court House, side street (notice the 4 - way stop)

We make a gas stop before leaving Carlinville, and while we're tehre, see a procession of Custom/Classic American cars cruise by (which I thought was brilliant, especially with them all wavin')
Heading south towards St. Louis down the old road we came to the old  Chain of Rocks bridge. This is a famous landmark on the route, and is noted for it's bend part way across the Mississippi river. It was part of the old 'Mother Road' but is now closed to all motor vehicles, which have to use the new chain of rocks bridge a little bit upstream. I was expecting to park up to go have a look at this iconic part of the route, but no, Gary led us right up onto the bridge and we all parked up on the bridge half way across! He explained that our tour had special permission to actually ride over the bridge. We stopped there a while and took photos and chatted to people and then moved on, only to find that, although the gates to the bridge had been unlocked to allow us through, somebody had locked the gate at the other side that covers the exit back onto the road - so we had to wait while Gary summoned somebody with the key to let us through - we could have squeezed the bikes through a gap - but not the truck and the two trikes.


Sunday lunch was at a restaurant called 'Cracker Barrel', part of a chain . I had Apple Pie and Ice Cream (both no added sugar) while Mrs. K has an Apple based desert as well (I can't remember now what it was called now)

After lunch we rode on to our next stop at the Route 66 State Park where there's a small R66 museum and gift shop (one of many gift shops we'll stop at, I suspect)



Our afternoon stop was at the Miramec Caves. This is a bit of a tourist attraction on the route and has been since the early days. We didn't take the guided tour of the caves, satisfied just with an ice cream (the 'small' ones were large and the 'large' were massive), and a viist it to the (inevitable) gift shop.



That was our last stop of the day before reaching the hotel, although I could have done with another fuel stop as the low fuel light came on  a while before the hotel, and then the engine started misfiring - but we made it, arriving at about 7.10 (and tired again!)

We noticed on the key card to the room, and ad for Dominos Pizza delivery, so decided to have some chill out time rather that got to the '$10 all you can eat' buffet restaurant up the road (which was very good by all accounts). Dominos was good too though, we ordered on line and the pizza man was there within 15-20 minutes. I couldn't pay on-line though because my credit card isn't linked to a US address with a zip code.

 jump to: Day 5    Day 3

Day 3 Sat Jun 2nd Milwaukee - Springfield , IL

 jump to: Day 4    Day 2b

Starting at the Iron Horse Hotel...

We woke c. 4am, and got up 1/2 hr later. Jet lag is having it;s effect on us.

Had breakfast at the hotel - "Wisconsin Classic" - they were very slow to serve but we were ready to load our bags onto the truck at 8 am.

We had a rider's briefing in the car park, to say what the plan was for the day, and rode out from the hotel at 8.30 (Graham the Biker Bear travelling in the cab of the truck this morning)

Left: Ridersearly morning briefing.

  Right: Demo gets a drink

The ride down to Chicago was mainly Interstate, and we had stop for Gas. Thankfully 'Pay-at-the-pump' worked fine. Gary told us to try and squeeze as much gas in the tank as possible, as we want to go as long as possible between fuel stops and don't want the hassle of anyone running out (although there is a jerry can of gas on the truck, just in case).

We by-pass down town Chicago and picked up the old Route 66 a little before Joliet, which we passslowlt through and then continue down the old road.

Our first stop for a 'photo opportunity' was at the Green Giant. He wasn't as big as I'd immagined he would be. Moving on...

After our lunch stop, we rode a while and then stopped at the town of O'Dell, at an old restored gas station, which was quite interesting. (see right)
Inside the garage it's full of, er, old garage stuff (also interesting)


Another fuel stop is next up, at Towanda, and a pause to wait for a rain storm up ahead to pass by.
This was the site of the Pure Oil truck stop (1952-1972) and there's a 'pedestrian' section of the old road that we look at while we're waiting. (see left)
Meanwhile we 'rain-geared up', and moved out. The roads were now wet but with dry lines appearing so we didn't get wet at all.

We had a stop in a little town called Atlanta, where there's some route 66 icons, and visited an unusual shop (Gunmar's Trading Post), where I pick up a 1969 car Texas license plate , registration 'TS' - that opportunity wouldn't come again.

above left: Atlanta, IL,  above centre: Gunmar's Trading Post,                 
***

Onwards, on the old road, and it was VERY bumpy, but we got through that and ended the journey into Springfield, IL on the interstate, arriving at the Hoilday Inn Express at 7.02 PM. Gary the guide had all the room keys for us, so no need for us to check in - just unload our bags from the van and head for our rooms.

 
We settle in, freshen up and then met up at 8.15 to walk to a local BBQ restaurant for dinner. I have a "Pulled Pork Sammy", and Mrs. K has "Loaded Fries". We're finding that a lot of the stuff on the menus over here we don't know what it is, just another part of the adventure, eh?

After dinner and back at the Hotel, Gary and Mark (the backup vehicle driver) were going off to Wallmart (Big Supermarket) to pick up supplies. We followed the truck accross town as there was a couple of things that we needed to get.  

On return we ended a long and tiring day.

 jump to: Day 4    Day 2b

ZZzzzzzzzzzz

Day 2b Fri Jun 1 - Chicago to Milwaukee

 jump to: Day 3    Day 2a

About 25 miles north of Chicago we made our first 'rest stop'. At this stage we didn't need to get gas, I think this was just a stop to check everybody was ok with the bike that they'd just picked up and that there weren't any problems.

we stopped for about 15 minutes or so and then we moved on - next stop Milwaukee and the Harley-Davidson museum.


above: On the far left of this photo you can see one of the two  Honda Goldwing trikes that were with us.

Back on the bikes on to today's destination - Milwaukee, Wisconsin. First we went to the Harley-Davidson Museum and had lunch there in their cafe.

After lunch we split into two groups for our special  guided tour of the museum, the best bit of which was access to the 'behind the scenes' bit that the general public doesn't get to see.

When we'd all had enough of the museum, Gary the guide led us just a few hundred yards back down the road to our hotel for the night the Iron Horse Hotel, which has purpose build under cover motorcycle parking.

Left: A few our the bikes on our tour parked up outside the HD museum. Ours is the white one left of centre. The orange one is nothing to do with us.

This hotel certainly has a bit of a wow factor, as soon as you walk in you realise that it's not your regular 4* chain hotel, and the room... well it's h-u-g-e.

Left: Muraliized bedrom wall at the I.H.H. , large wall mounted TV and AV connection box on the desk - hi-tech hotel or what?

 
The whole place has got a bit of an industrial feel to it, thanks to the buildings former use, but the adaptation is really very well done. Very high quality in my opinion.
We're on the 3rd floor, with a view across to the H-D museum where we were yesterday.


We dined, as a group, just across the road at 'Conejito's Place', a Mexican restaurant. This was something a 'bit different', paper plates, quite a short menu, but cheap. I went for a plate of steak tacos, which was only about $5. I quite likes the Mexican beer (Corona Light) too.
 jump to: Day 3    Day 2a

Day 2a Fri Jun 1 - Our Bike ... "DEMO"

jump to: Day 2B Day 1

Breakfast was very good, tasty and excellent selections.
The van was soon loaded, and we waited for our transport to take us to the H-D shop, which was a, er, well I don't know what you'd call it - a party bus maybe ? - it was like a small coach on the outside but a limo on the inside with lasers dancing about all over the place. It was comfortable enough though.
We had a couple of couples who had opted to use trikes rather than bikes, and these guys already had taken delivery of their trikes at the hotel, so while we went off by the, er, party bus, Gary the the tour guide, the trikers, and the support vehicle followed along behind.

The journey to Chicago H-|D tok about 30 minutes and when we arrived there the staff quickly and efficiently sorted out the final details for our bike rentals. The paperwork that we completed at the hotel yesterday certainly sped up the process considerably.

above: The rental bikes lined up outside the bike shop

I was first in line to get the bike paperwork sorted, and after going through the, lets call an induction, into what does what on the bike, I has the keys and I was good to go - I just had to wait for everybody else, so had plenty of time to have a good look around the motorcycle shop.
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So, our bike for the next two weeks, is , as requested, a Harley-Davidson Hertiage Softail Classic, in "White Hot Pearl", with,er, 1 mile on the clock from new, and the registration no on what they call 'the license plate' is  DEMO. I'm not sure how that works, but that's definitely what it is.
You can just see the support vehicle in the background

jump to: Day 2B Day 1