Monday, July 8, 2013

Day Trippin' on the Prairie

Last night, hubby said, let's do a day trip tomorrow! I'm always up for a road trip, so with camera locked & loaded and Starbucks in hand, off we went this morning.


He had heard about a neat little place on Route 66. In all our years here, we've never really explored the famous road. It's a very pretty country ride. Our first stop: Pop's!


This is Pop's. Part gas station, part restaurant, and a lot of...well, you'll see.


A Rt 66 roadside attraction must have an iconic landmark.


Does this give you a clue what Pop's is all about?


 You ain't seen nothin' yet....



 The wall slants in.




Rows and rows of pretty bottles and strange flavors.







Look close at these labels. They really are soda pop flavors.






Pop's was a fun stop. It's clean, bright & colorful. They have a little restaurant with great burgers. They also have fun cardboard beverage containers that you can fill with any of a 100 different flavors of ...pop! In old fashioned bottles with metal caps. (I hope we have an old fashioned bottle opener at home..)


Right up the road is another roadside attraction: the Round Barn.


The inside is indeed round. The walls are covered with pictures and articles of it's history. I thought this must be an oddity, but round barns are not unheard of, at least according to the documents displayed inside. You can read about the Round Barn's history at this link.




This was not part of the day's plans, but serendipity is what road trips are about! We were so close to Guthrie, that we went up the road just a fair piece to check it out.

 
Guthrie, OK, was the first capital of the Territory before statehood. It boasts of a Victorian architecture, but it looks 1890s western to me. I thought this building was the original capital, but it was a major newspaper publisher. I would love to have toured it, but as with most museums, it's closed on Mondays. The picture below is of old typewriters I could see through the window.
 

This is where the Land Run of 1889 was launched from. In a matter of six hours, 10,000 people staked a claim for their new homes and a city was born.



Oklahoma City won the bid to become the capital after OK became a state. According to one article, OKC lost much of its original architecture due to growth & modernization, but Guthrie was able to retain her Victorian style and is listed as a National Historic Landmark.



This statue stands outside the Oklahoma Territorial Museum (closed on Monday). It's called "The Wedding" and symbolizes the uniting of  Mr. Oklahoma Territory and Miss Indian Territory into one state.


The last picture was taken in Bristow on our way home. Just a little proof that we did indeed get our kicks on Rt 66.


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