Breakfast:
The day started with breakfast at the Holiday Inn. Unlike other hotels, Holiday Inn let us select what we wanted and served us. This seemed like the best of both worlds… buffet, but less risk of Covid:
Route 66 museum:
After breakfast, we packed up and headed to the National Route 66 Museum. We were not expecting much at this museum and had only planned a quick tour. We were hoping to show the girls a little about the history of cross country road trips.
Did we get lost getting to the museum? No, because the sign was GIANT!
The first part of the museum was all about the history of route 66 and travel in general. It had old cars, some movies, fire engines and a fire pole (I am not quite sure why), and a collection of Popeye collectables. Maybe someone else out there can help me understand how Popeye is related to Route 66? Did he eat his spinach and then push every car? Maybe his muscles are a symbol for muscle cars? The fire pole was a hit despite it’s seeming non-relevance. Super Cop easily became a firewoman expert and repeatably slid down the pole at breakneck speeds. Tween the Stuck was having a bit of trouble and mostly climbed down the pole.
To our surprise, after the first museum was done, there was an entire outside town to explore. It was mysteriously called “Cowtown”, but there were no cows!:
Too many bugs for a smile 
Notice the end date for the school (1999) 
Super cop became Super Preacher 
Tween getting pictures for her blog!
While exploring the town, we found an old diner that the girls could participate in. The tour guide was happy to see people and chatted with us… a lot.
The only time someone served her sister 
She enjoyed it! 
This was a real juke box with discs 
The fake ice cream was low calorie 
This was the story of how McDonald’s Started. A salesman was selling milk shake machines and bought the original joint when they refused to expand. 
Mom the Wild had tried to run away with the ice cream and got in trouble with the law. She had to visit the town Attorney:
Were we done yet? Nope, just like Route 66 goes on and on and on, the museum just kept going:
We had finally finished the museum, now much later than we planned. We raced to our next stop to see what the windmill blades looked like up close. Luckily they were not moving as Super Cop was concerned that getting too close would be dangerous. Luckily she did not get too nervous. Probably, because she noticed that she was not tall enough for the blades to hit her when they are on the windmill:
For some reason, the blades did attract a LARGE amount of bugs and we all got eaten alive. We snapped our pictures and fled to the safe environment of the Magnificent Mini Van.
Cowboys!
It was lunch time after the wind blades, but like most places there was nothing good in town. We had gotten so used to a sugar rush at lunch, and we were going into shock. This led us to eat at the healthiest restaurant we could find that still had cold sugary drinks. As it so happened, this was Sonic. We got some cool slushies and milkshakes, some fried food with unidentifiable dipping sauces, and we journeyed onward.
Our next destination was the fabled National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. This museum on the outside looked giant compared to the Route 66 museum. I grabbed my camera backpack and we headed inside. Unfortunately, after we bought our tickets I was told that only backpacks of a certain size were allowed in. During my protest about freedom I was shot two or three times. Ok, that didn’t happen, but aren’t cowboys and the Midwest all about freedom? I guess if my backpack contained a large bundle of guns it would have been no problem, but I was only taking shots with cameras! After placing some of the cameras on my neck and smooshing the bag to fit in the airplane style bag size check device the ticket man let me go in.
The museum was a mix of history, art, and sculptures. One cool thing they did was have secret messages hidden around the museum that the girls needed special glasses to decode. This really kept everyone entertained.
Also, like all good cowboy museums we got to see famous cowboys like Ronald Reagan (yes, there was actually a statue of him here).
Midway through our visit, Mom the Rule Enforcer threw us all in jail because we were not following directions (just so she doesn’t complain – we entered the cell freely and no children harmed in the shooting of this picture since we used a camera and not a gun). Luckily she let us out:
You can see how crowded the museum was as we explored the old western town:
In the town, we found a school, you know those things kids went to before Covid:
We finished the museum by riding of into the distance on logs, a lesser known cowboy means of transportation:
After the museum we fueled up the car. Anyone notice anything wrong with the selection at this pump?
The Evening Hotel:
As we drove down the highway we had managed to really use up our time at the museums. We were supposed to stay in Little Rock, Arkansas. Instead, we decided to find a place 1 hour closer so we wouldn’t be arriving at 10:30+. We decided to find a place with a suite since we had enjoyed it so much. We went with a La Quinta Inn. The room was ok, the rest of the place was subpar. There was no real breakfast, the parking lot was small, there was a single elevator, etc… Lesson learned for next time. Also, we were in the height of Covid country so we took extra precautions. We were a little scared we would get shot with our masks. However, I only saw one person snickering at us, but better safe than sorry:
It was another successful day. We didn’t get shot by any cowboys, learned about route 66, and filled our tummies with as unhealthy food as we could find. We had also almost made it to the east coast. Just a few more days to go.