Great American Road Trip - Day 5

Today was another successful travel day as we continued to zig zag over Route 66 stopping at a few classic stops.

We travelled along the Historic Highway from Joplin, MO to Foyil, OK.  Once in Foyil we took a little jaunt to visit the classic road side stop: Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park.  We learned from Mrs. Patsy Anderson that Mr. Galloway was a teacher at a boys school, and when the boys went off to war, they sent him pieces of wood from all over the world, which he delicately carved, and proudly displayed in his gift shop.  He is also is responsible for creating the Worlds Largest Totem Pole.  This was a great stop!

From here, we headed back on to the HIstoric Route to find our way in Catoosa, OK.  Catoosa is home to the infamous Catoosa Blue Whale.  This was once a busy stop for tourists travelling across the country, and during it's hay day was an actual swimming  hole.  Swimming is now prohibited, which is a shame since the thermometer reached 107 degrees this afternoon!

After a quick snack we got back on the highway to travel to Pop's Soda Fountain in Arcadia, OK. The food was just okay here...but the beverages were amazing!  There were over 650 different kinds of Soda Pop to choose from.  We enjoyed dry vanilla, orange creamsicle, blue cream soda, and hazel nut.  The boys packed up some to go - cookies & cream and chocolate chip cookie dough are a sample of flavours purchased.  

Some of the more unusual flavours were:

From the Soda Fountain we made our way down the road to the historic Old Round Barn.  The barn is now home to a few kitschy nick nacks and memorabilia.  

We wound our way around the ribbon of highway that works itself through red dirt and farm fields to find ourselves in Oklahoma.  We took a little break from the car to pay our respects to those who lost their lives in the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995.  The memorial was really beautiful and quite poetic.  There were two arch ways at either end of a large reflecting pool.  At the top of the first arch marks the time 9:01, on the second one 9:03.  The first arch marks the innocence of the city before the bombing, the second marks the devastation afterwards.  There were 168 chairs to mark the lives lost, including 19 small chairs to represent the children.  

This was the last stop for the day - we have some time to hit up a grocery store, and need to find some spray paint for a little art project that we are doing tomorrow! ...we may even swim again....soooo hot out!!