Longest day so far, but we drove in three states and gained an hour time change – so not in awfully late. Dry day today – all the rain behind us in Oklahoma – and we had a glorious day to drive topless in the sun. Shelby performed great – even on a seven mile stretch of dirt road that was the 1926 route in one section of Texas – and got a chance to use sixth gear on a few stretches of I-40 where US66 coincided.

Route today took us from El Reno through OK (Bridgeport, Weatherford, Clinton, Elk City, Sayre, Texola), TX (Shamrock, McLean, Alanreed, Jericho, Groom, Conway, Amarillo, Wildorado, Vega, Adrian, Glenrio), and into NM (San Jon, Tucumcari).   A lot of pavement, some dirt, and a few other small towns in between.

Today’s pics – look for planes, trains and automobiles, more old service stations and motels, jails – oh Kristen, not more trouble! – giants and giant stuff, a brief nature interlude, and lots of neon!  Plus following another famous actor to bed…

Up and at ’em for day 3 – as mentioned yesterday, biblical-level torrential rain overnight, and then more in the morning as we got started. Great breakfast at a local diner, where we heard from the locals about their streets, property and lower parts of their houses getting flooded. We were quickly out of Missouri once we got going, but Oklahoma clearly got just hammered by the storms, and the flooding was incredible in some places. Three times we had to slowly roll through roads covered with water, and four times had to reroute off of Route 66 because of closed roads or bridges. We actually had to bypass an entire 45 mile stretch of the Mother Road due to closures, and use the Will Rogers Turnpike (I-44).

Route today took us through Joplin MO, Galena & Baxter Springs KS, Quapaw (oh-ga-paw), Commerce, Miami (NTM), Afton, Vinita, Chelsea, Catoosa, Tulsa, Sapulpa, Bristow, Stroud, Wellston, Arcadia, Edmond, Oklahoma City, Bethany and El Reno OK.

Besides a lot of water, we did manage to see some other cool stuff – a drive in theater (ask your parents, kids..), more old (some restored) service stations and motels, a reason not to get into trouble in Galena KS, classic bridges, Shoeless Joe?, Mickey Mantle’s hometown, a cuckoo chicken, neon signs, a blue whale, an old oil tank farm, and a giant thirst quencher.

another long day tomorrow – on to Texas and New Mexico!

Day started out a bit cool, in the 50s, but the sun was out and we soon had the top down and enjoying the drive. We again stuck to the oldest version of the route, which took us through Gillespie IL, Staunton, LIvingston, Edwardsville, Mitchell, across the Mississippi River into St. Louis MO, Kirkwood, Manchester, Gray Summit, St. Clair, Stanton, Bourbon, Cuba (not that Cuba!), Fanning, St. James, Waynsesville, Buckhorn, Lebanon (not that one either!), Strafford, Springfield, Halltown, Maxville and Carthage. Sights along the way included a giant, Kristen under some duress, some old sections of road, some old service stations (some in better shape than others) , an unfortunately named candy outlet, and an oddly juxtipositioned pair of roadside icons.

Rain held off until the very end of the day, when it biblically prevented us from finding dinner, since all the restaurants shut so people could get their cars home into their garages! But our end point in Carthage is the famous Boots Court Motel, opened in 1939, and now being restored back to 1949 vintage. The room we have is the one Clark Gable stayed in twice in the 40s.

another 80+ photos today – hard to cull any, so quite a few here…

Started the day in downtown Chicago at the Eastern end of the Mother Road. The weather looked rough, but the rain held off, and we eventually went topless and got some great pictures. Our route today (we stuck to the 1926-30 route) took us through Joliet, Elwood (look for the Bluesmobile below, found outside of town a bit), Wilmington, Gardner, Dwight, Odell, Pontiac (cool Route 66 museum), Lexington, Towanda, Bloomington, McClean, Atlanta (not that Atlanta!), Lincoln, Sherman, Springfield, Chatham, Auburn, Carlinville and Gillespie, before stopping in Litchfield for the night.

Enjoy the photos – there were 80+ today, these are the best ones. And for those i mentioned it to: **i told you there was Paul Bunyon holding a hot dog!**