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!