Oklahoma and Route 66

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Departing from Fort Smith Arkansas, Interstate 40 travels about 330 miles across the heart of Oklahoma. We have two stops planned - both at Elks Lodges. The first will be in the town of Edmond just north of Oklahoma City. This will be a bit longer drive than we typically like coming in at 221 miles. Since this is our first time in this part of the state there are six counties to travel through. We study the route and where geocaches are and we actually come up with a strategy to stop with our size rig in all six counties with what should be relatively easy parking and access to the cache. It’s a combination of rest areas, truck stops, a casino and a couple parking areas from now closed businesses that we hope will work. The stops every 30 to 40 miles helps to break up the travel day and we manage to find 5 of the 6 we had hoped for. A large snake near one of the hides was more than Chris was willing to deal with!

We pull into the Edmond Elk’s Lodge which has 8 full hookup RV sites on the side of their parking lot. We are happy to see that there are a few spots available. There is a bit of a side to side slope in the parking area but we were able to get leveled and hooked up. Our plan is to spend 3 nights here so we will have 2 days to explore some of the sites in the area. That first night, the OK City Thunder played a playoff game at home and won. I’d like to think we brought them good luck.

We had plans to see some sites in downtown Oklahoma City that next day. Unfortunately the weather was less accommodating of our plans with a chance of showers throughout the day. But we still head into town since our time was limited if we wanted to maintain our schedule. We don’t have a reserved campsite for 10 nights so we do have some flexibility but we also have plans at each of the other stops along the way so we kind of need to make do with what Mother Nature sends our way.

The first place we want to see is Myriad Botanical Gardens pretty much in the heart of downtown OKC. Chris found a nearby parking garage and we drive in to town fairly early with the hopes of fitting in all of our sightseeing plans. As we walked the few blocks from the parking area to the gardens, it started to sprinkle. The gardens consist of an outside portion that is free and open every day as well as an inside portion called the Crystal Bridge which is $9 per person (senior rate). We decide to check out the inside portion first and hope that the rain lets up.

Water Feature Near Botanical Gardens

Myriad Botanical Gardens Entrance

The Crystal Bridge is an appropriate name for this place. It kind of looks like a huge cylinder lying on its side. It’s about 225 feet long and 75 feet in diameter.

View inside Crystal Bridge

The place is full of beautiful plants and most of them seem to be in bloom. Every direction you look is something colorful to see.

There is a catwalk across the length of the building that does provide for a nice bird’s eye view.

Catwalk in Crystal Bridge

Waterfall View from Catwalk

Coming back down from the catwalk on the opposite side of the building are lots more plants. We slowly wander around trying to take it all in.

Einstein Quote

It was hard to tell whether the rain had stopped since all the glass seems to be frosted so we don’t have a good view outside but it doesn’t sound like a storm since it would likely be quite noticeable in a long glass tube like this.

Small Pond with Lily Pads

We still had more to see inside so we just continue along the various paths looking at all the plants.

We spent a full hour exploring inside and when we found a window to look out, the weather looked promising so we finish up inside and then head to the outer gardens.

Leaves on Outside of Spiral Stem

There is quite a bit to see outside as well. We had an Adventure Lab to tour us around some of the grounds.

Hubcap Art

It was overcast but dry so we enjoyed the walk around. There plants outside  are less exotic but some are quite nice.

View of Crystal Bridge from Outside

The gardens take up about 15 acres so there is a lot of walking around to see it all. There is some sort of theater seating area around an island stage of sorts. It looks like a cool place to take in some sort of show. We were a bit surprised to see the a Great Blue Heron wandering around since we’re not in Florida anymore.

Turtle Just Out of Water

Stage and Seating Area

Wasn't Expecting a Great Blue Heron

There is a large children’s area as well as some sort of splash park and a merry go round.

Splashpad

Merry Go Round

Sea Dragon

It took us over another hour to explore the gardens outside but we needed to move on if we hoped to get to the other places in town. We walk back to the parking garage and see where the OKC Thunder basketball team plays its home games just across the way.

OK City Thunder's Arena

Out next stop is at the State Capitol. It is located about two miles away but with the iffy weather situation and the fact that there is free parking, we decide it makes more sense to just drive there and eat the lunch we brought before heading in for a guided tour which is offered at 11 AM and 1 PM.

Oklahoma State Capitol

We had time before the afternoon tour to walk around some of the grounds but we didn’t make it far until it started to rain. It looked like this wasn’t just going to be a few sprinkles so we head inside to find a geocache hidden inside the building and wait for the tour. Initially we planned to look for the container but when it wasn’t obvious and we were concerned about looking suspicious inside a state government building, we went to the visitor center and asked the women working the desk. Sure enough it was stashed under the main counter so there really wouldn’t have been any hope of finding it without assistance. They told us to go check out the museum area just across the hall since we had time to kill before the tour starts. There are lots of displays that talk about Oklahoma becoming a state, the construction of this building and other state government information.

Abstract Art

Miniature Version of Dome's Statue

Museum

At the prescribed time, we head over to where the tour was to start. We had a small group - us, two other visitors and the tour guide. We are given a history lesson about the state from the “Trail of Tears” back in the mid 1800’s when tens of thousands Native Americans were forced to relocate from their home in the east to Indian Territory which would become the state of Oklahoma in 1907.

Dome View from Below

Detailed Paint Design

OK Supreme Court

The first capital was in the town of Guthrie but eventually moved to its current location in Oklahoma City in 1914 with this building being completed in 1917. The most fascinating thing about the building is the dome. So many state capitol buildings have domes, it’s almost expected that they will have a dome. Turns out that when the building was under construction, World War I shortages prevent the planned dome from being built. It wasn’t until 2002 that the dome was added. Our tour guide has lived his whole life in the area so more than half of his life was spent seeing the building without the dome. He said it took him some time to get used to seeing the dome.

The State Seal

Another Dome View

Ceremonial Stairs Into Capitol

Neither chamber was in session, so it was rather quiet in the building. The Supreme Court, governor’s office and senate chambers were pointed out but we weren’t shown inside. We did get the opportunity to head into the House of Representatives chambers to see.

House of Representative

Stained Glass Ceiling Panels

After the tour finished, we wandered around a bit more before heading out. Our next planned stop was to be the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum where the 1995 bombing took place. But as we were walking the quarter mile back to the car, it started to pour again. A quick look at the radar didn’t look very promising so we decided to just head back to the Elks Lodge since it was about a 30 minute drive. We pulled back in and a couple of traveling Elk had left and some others had arrived.

Edmond OK Elks Lodge Camping Almost Full

The next day was better weather and while we could have driven back into downtown to finish up what we missed yesterday, we decide to switch gears and see some other places closer to where we are camped. We had learned that the town of Guthrie had been the capital of Oklahoma first. It’s just a bit north of us an in a county we haven’t geocached in yet so that was reason enough to head a bit north.

Welcome to Guthrie

It turns out that Guthrie is a cute little town with lots of old buildings and seems to be doing okay from a business perspective. We spend some time walking around to explore.

Original Capital

Beautiful Architecture

One of the oddball things we discovered as we toured the town is the smallest National Park Landmark - or so it claims. In 1907 town officials intended to set aside a parcel 100 feet by 100 feet to commemorate the Land Run of 1889. But the town clerk mistakenly recorded 100 square feet. The small parcel sits on the backside of the post office and has an elm tree growing on it.

Smallest National Park Landmark

Next we will head to some of the local sites along Route 66. This famous road from Chicago to Los Angeles is having its 100th anniversary this year. We’ve seen plenty of human interest stories on the news over the past few months of how people are flocking to drive the full route or at least parts of it to celebrate. Oklahoma City is the first place we will intersect Route 66. By following I-40 through Texas and into New Mexico, we will be more or less on it for over 350 miles. It would probably be more impressive to claim that we had carefully planned our travels this year to help celebrate the “Mother Road” as it’s called, but the truth is there was no real forethought. We simply happened to be here at the right time.

The closest popular spots on Route 66 to Edmond OK is a place called Pops. It is a combination gas station, restaurant and soda pop store. It sounded kind of interesting from what we read although it isn’t really historic, having been built in 2007. As we pulled up to the place it was packed with several hundred people. There was one large tour bus and a group of around 50 people on motorcycles as well as plenty of people like us just in their car. There are two main things to see here. First, and most obvious is the 66 foot tall soda bottle with a straw out front. Believe it or not, there is a geocache hidden on this piece of art. With so many people coming and going, it was going to be tough to be unnoticed. Fortunately the hint for the cache was very specific so we were able to make the find while pretending to get a closer view.

66 Foot Tall Soda Bottle

The second thing here is the soda store/restaurant itself. They sell burgers, hotdogs, fries and rings which is pretty typical of a place like this. But the more fascinating thing they sell is soda - over 700 varieties of soda!

Heavy Duty Roof Over Gas Pumps

Pop Bottles on Display

We head inside with no special type of soda in mind but they have some highly unusual sounding sodas for sale. Some simply sounded gross: teriyaki beef jerky soda, kittie piddle soda, and dill pickle soda. It would seem that if you are in need of a unique soda even if it’s just for a gag gift, you’ll find it here. Fortunately none of the ones we saw piqued our interest.

More Bottle Along Back Wall

Food Prep

Just down Route 66 from Pops about a half mile is the Arcadia Round Barn. This place is authentic having been built in 1898. It’s 60 feet in diameter and 43 feet tall - so it is definitely on the large size. Lots of other visitors were here as well. I found it interesting how the one family just had to get a picture of the kids laying on the ground at the Route 66 logo painted on the road. I’d consider it a risky proposition since the speed limit is 45 and it’s kind of located on the top of a small hill so visibility might be an issue.

Arcadia Round Barn

Risk It All for Perfect Route 66 Picture

We had a geocache to find here but after signing the log book, we head inside the barn to check out the many displays. There is also and upper floor that can be rented out for events. Fortunately nothing was taking place while we were there so we could wander around and marvel at the elaborate woodwork needed to construct such a barn and have it still be standing after well over a century.

Display Inside Round Barn

Round Barn History

Incredible Roof Structure

I know there was so much more to see and do in the OK City area, but we need to move on to keep our travel plans on track. Our next, and last, stop in Oklahoma is 164 miles further west along I-40 in the town of Elk City. Our goal is head to the Elks Lodge in Elk City and spend the night in their back parking lot simply dry camping for one night. We are able to make two stops along the way to get a couple of geocaches in new counties. The first one was at the Cherokee Trading Post in Calumet Oklahoma. There are a series of shops and restaurants with plenty of parking even for our size rig.

A Cherokee Watches Over Geocache

Cherokee Trading Post

After I found the cache near the large Indian statue, I just had to check out some of the other sights they have here. The live bison wasn’t at all concerned with my being there.

Painted Bison

Actual Bison

One other stop was at a Loves Travel Center. I wasn’t in need of fuel but they have a large parking lot for trucks out back and mid morning when we came through, there was plenty of parking for us.

We pulled in the Elks Lodge in Elk City and it was a very busy place. This lodge doesn’t have any services but we understood traveling Elk should park in the back lot. At least this lot was empty and we found a spot out of the way that was fairly level. The one side of the building appears to be a restaurant that isn’t associated with the lodge. We find the small room with a bar that looks like many other lodges. We head up to talk with the bartender to see if we can park the rig out back. She informs us that she is part of the restaurant staff that simply helps out with the bar at the lodge. She makes it sound like this lodge is barely ever open for lodge business but she checks with her boss and tells us we are fine out back where we parked. There was another couple at the bar that looked to be Elk members so we started to talk with them. Turns out they are member at a lodge in California. They are also RVers but heading east to Florida and are camping in a local campground. We get a beer and they had ordered dinner and drinks so we take the time to talk with them and explain some of the other lodges that they might want to check out as they head east.

It was still fairly early so while Chris started to prepare dinner, I headed out to see if I could find a geocache in this county and the three nearby counties. I estimated the drive to be an hour or so. I didn’t have too much trouble except for one cache in a cemetery. My experience with cemetery caches it that they are typically pretty straightforward. If possible drive into the cemetery and head to the rear corner where they invariably are hidden. Usually there aren’t people around so they tend to be a good option when you want a quick find. Well the Pixlee Cemetery in the middle of nowhere which is fine since there will be even less chance of others wandering around. It’s a small cemetery - maybe 200 by 200 - so there isn’t a road through the place but I was able to park along the side of the dirt road out front of the gate. And the cache was on the backside of the cemetery but the “grass” hasn’t been mowed in quite some time. I’m not talking knee or waist high grass but grass well over my head. It took a fair amount of effort to get to the cache without stumbling on a well hidden gravestone. In fact I kind of doubt there are many people laid to rest here based on my unscientific finding. I found the cache and safely made it back to the car but did have a severe sneezing problem from all the pollen that was near my head level.

For the final county, I head back into Elk City to check out some of the Route 66 displays in downtown and find the cache hidden on one of them. They have a museum there, but we had watched a YouTube video in advance thinking we would go there, but the video made it look like a pretty sad museum so I only walked some of the grounds.

Route 66 Museum in Elk City OK

"Myrtle" the Kachina Doll

Back at the rig, Chris had dinner ready when I returned and after the restaurant closed for the night, it was a quiet place to spend the night. There were cattle in the field behind us but they were rather chill neighbors. Next stop will be Amarillo Texas where we will find lots of things to see and do.