Day 22 – Sept 29 – We woke up to rain again. Hurricane Polo caught up with us. We stayed at the Best Western in Pampa, TX. I have stayed in some nasty places, and this is right in the top 3. I will avoid “Worst Westerns” 😉 if at all possible. Even if it is a good one, on principle, that company doesn’t deserve my business again. Dane said they made Motel 6 look good. I will be happy to never visit the TX panhandle area again.
The day got better. Again, we got ahead of the storm. When we got to Oklahoma City, we decided to take Route 66 to Tulsa. The first thing we came to was a huge soda shop. It also had old-timey candy. We saw Pop Rocks and the little wax soda bottles that you bit the top off to get to the liquid. We also saw a famous round barn. We passed through many cute towns, saw nostalgic buildings and places. The highlight, though, was where we stopped for Lupper (Lunch/Dinner). We ate at the Rock Cafe, which is a legendary historic cafe. It has been there since 1939 and still has the original grill. The food was terrific. We cleaned our plates. The owner was the inspiration for the character “Sally Carrera” in the Disney/Pixar film Cars. Dane says he has seen Cars many, many times, second only to the number of times he has seen Mary Poppins. It is off the beaten path, but I recommend eating there if you happen to be in the area.
When we got to Tulsa, we unloaded our bikes and rode on their greenway. They have a very nice greenway system along both sides of the Arkansas River. I don’t know if all of it is this way, but their greenways are twice the width of any I have seen anywhere else. One side is for walkers and runners, and one is for cyclists, skateboarders, skaters, etc., and sometimes they are separated by a grass median. That is a lot of extra pavement and space, but it was nice not having to worry about pedestrians. And I am sure they enjoy not having bicycles whizzing past them. We can now check off OK as a place we’ve ridden. We did not ride in TX. I have ridden there previously. Maybe another time Dane can too. We went there last year and had our bikes but got busy doing other things.
We left OK and made it to Bentonville, AR. It was not on the original itinerary. We would have spent more time in Colorado, but Polo said no. Bentonville is one of our favorite places and the first place where we really got to know each other. So we are content and looking forward to being here once again.
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