Day
4 - Sunday 13th September 2015
Written by Kev
Tam starts to get up, so I turn on the light.
Kev:
‘What’s the time’
Tam: ‘7.05am’.
Kev: ‘How do you know’?
Tam: ‘I looked at the clock radio’.
Kev: ‘You do know that it’s not set to the right
time’?
Tam: ‘No’.
Kev looks at
watch. It’s 4.25am. Doh!
We try to go back to sleep and doze on and off until 6.30ish. We
re-pack and go downstairs to meet up with Deb, Matt and Susan.
After checking out we retrieve The Beast from valet parking. The
valet jumps out looking a little nervous, I think The Beast has
been growling at him.
On down the road we stop at the State Capitol Building and look around before heading towards Route 66, where we are going to take a leisurely few hours looking at the iconic sights.
The Capitol Building
The first stop
is Pops. This is a gas station with a restaurant and the largest
collection of different types of soda I’ve ever seen. There
are a myriad of flavours including some weird ones such as Bacon
Soda, Buffalo Wing Soda and Martian Poop Soda. Honest! Would I
lie to you?
We eat breakfast here, which is incredibly good value and I have
a fried egg sandwich, while Tam tries the Texas French Toast with
bacon and maple syrup. These cost less than $6 each. Matt has
biscuits and gravy and I wonder what the gravy is made from.
I’m informed it’s probably sausage gravy. When I ponder
how you get gravy from a sausage Deb and Matt fall about
laughing. Minds in the sewer the pair of them.
After we pay we
look around the shop for a while and then walk outside. I look up
at the sound of approaching motorbikes. A never-ending stream of
bikes is pulling into Pops car park. I’ve never seen
anything like it. Most of the machines are Harley Davidson’s
and the noise is amazing. The bikes stretch back down the road
for as far as I can see and they just keep coming.
Row after row of bikes of all sizes and shapes are now parked up.
Susan (who is an incredibly friendly lady who could start a
conversation with a fire hydrant) chats to a lady and finds out
that it’s a charity bike run organised by Channel 9, a local
news station. They won’t know how many bikes there are until
they count them at the end, but last year there were 800. I
don’t expect I’ll ever see anything like it again.
Matt suggests we need to leave before the bikes or we could be
stuck for some time. I never thought I’d hear myself say
this, but he can be quite wise at times.
We drive down the road and stop to take photos at some of the sights including the Arcadia Round Barn and the Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum.
That's your best car that is.
Next we stop at
the Rock Café for a drink. At least it started out as a drink,
but the server talks the ladies into trying the oatmeal pie and
peach cobbler.
The Rock Café is quite an unusual little place. While they were
researching for the movie Cars, this was one of the locations
that inspired them. The walls have Cars memorabilia on including
a shirt with a sketch of Sully from Monsters Inc. on signed by
John Lassiter. Unfortunately much of it is scorched and singed as
the Rock Café suffered a bad fire a few years ago and the owner
had to rebuild
Fine subject matter I'm sure you'll agree, but the main point of this photo is to show you the inside of the Rock Cafe.
Back in the car
we drive through Depew. This is a tiny place that has seen much
better days. It’s close to a ghost town and you can see how
it must have been one of the places to inspire the filmmakers to
create Radiator Springs.
At one point as we are driving along I think I must have gone
deaf as the non-stop chatting from the ladies in the back has
ceased for a few seconds. Normal service is resumed shortly.
We reach the outskirts of Tulsa and go to Susan’s home. If you’re a Disney fan her house is like an Aladdin’s cave (ho,ho). There is Disney memorabilia everywhere you look – artwork, models, books, kitchenware – it doesn’t stop. My favourite part is her entrance hall that has tapestries of the stretching room characters from the Haunted Mansion along with the ride poster. Tam’s favourite is a cel of Michael and John from Peter Pan. Susan really does have a remarkable and unique home.
A short while later we drive a couple of miles and check in at The Cedar Rock Inn, which will be our home for the next 4 nights. It will be a relief to finally be able to unpack the suitcase. The Inn is set back off the road in grounds with a large pond and fountain. It’s in a sort of hunting lodge style with a few bedrooms, all different from each other. Tam and I are staying in the Willow suite and it’s very pretty with a separate living area. I think we will enjoy our time here.
Hard at work in the bedroom.
This is the communal area between our rooms where we would meet up in the evening for drinks.
The communal area downstairs.
Matt and I jump
in the car and drive to the nearest store to pick up some beer,
then we all wander round in the grounds for a while before I take
some time to catch up on my trip report sat in a chair beside the
pond.
We decide to go out early to eat this evening, as we are all
feeling a bit tired. Deb suggests the Polo Grill in Tulsa. After
showering we leave at 5.30pm with Matt driving. He’s had the
duty all day and so gets the pleasure of being the nominated
driver tonight.
The Polo Grill
is in an old (by American standards, Susan thinks it was built in
the 60’s) shopping mall, but is still a fairly exclusive
area with many shops selling expensive clothing.
In the restaurant we have a drink at the bar before being seated
at our table. The other diners look very smart and I feel a
little underdressed. I’m reasonably presentable in shorts
and a shirt, but I don’t have a jacket and tie on like most
of the other men. Susan says this is where ‘the money’
comes to dine. Well, if they’re $50 bills, I must be a 50c
coin tonight.
We start with lobster bisque, which is excellent and then all
have various cuts of steak. Deb chooses the wine, a nice
Zinfandel. We are all too full for dessert, so head back to the
car. The Beast is lurking in the car park, staring menacingly at
the girly posh cars around him.
Back at the Cedar Rock Inn we sit in the communal area between our rooms and have a nightcap before Susan leaves us to drive home.
Bed at 11.00pm.