Welcome to Paradise: Terry and Peggy Go For A Ride

Supper at Pop’s. Next time you find yourself in Arcardia, OK (and you know you will) visit Pop’s. 500 kinds of soda, what more can I say (for now).

We left Amarillo around 10 am, after taking Grandmother to the bank and doing a little in-town photography. Amarillo has some cool old architecture and they’re doing a fantastic job of restoration in the Olde Towne. Lovely stuff, really.

Route 66 pretty much parallels I-40 through west Texas and Oklahoma to OK City.

So, instead of going 70mph, having to slow down to 30 for road construction, then speeding up to 80 to make up for lost time, then slowing again for more construction, we just bumped along the original 1933 concrete roadbed of Route 66 at a happy 55 mph, top down, sunburn a-bakin’ and by the time we reached Pop’s and that unusual soda bottle we were road weary, hungry, and kind of trying not to bite each other’s heads off. Once Chase served us (Terry got a 3 cheese grilled cheese samich w/smoked bacon and tomato, I got a chicken melt w/grilled onions and a side of whole fried okra that OMG was GOOD)and we cooled off, we were able to peruse Pop’s Soda List (500, yes, 500) and pick some out for the boys: Toxic Sludge for #4, Brain Blast for #2, Rat Bastard for #3, and Kickapoo Joy Juice for #1) And no, it wasn’t all one cannery using cutesy names, each is an actual thing made by an actual company somewhere. I think the story is on the pops web site linked up there. Yeah, I liked the place.

The other cutesy Route 66 stuff was just that, kinda cutesy and schlocky. The ROute 66 museum in Elk City is a nice place to stop and stretch your legs and the bathrooms are clean. I was able to buy a little piggy bank, to add to the collection on the bookcase. We saw old cars and store mannequins dressed in vintage clothing, and several people wandering around looking tired.

Outside Amarillo there is The Biggest Cross in the Western Hemisphere, meant to be a moving monument that Completes Me A Christian, now that I’ve read The Shack and all. (or something).Terry says I won’t be Compleat until I agree to an adult baptism. So I’m 2/3 the way there. It is very cool, and very, very big. The gift shop is full of Christian Schlock from China, plastic rosaries and the like. The cross itself is very very big. Very big. 2/3 is more than half so if I get a tattoo of a cross on my left boob will I be 3/4 the way there.

Rest assured, when I get home and rested, I’ll put lots more pictures up, there’s all kind of cool stuff to see along The Mother Road. It’s just that by the time we get into a hotel in the evening, I’m tired and not terribly creative. Patience, it will get better eventually. I’m going to go slather myself with Noxema now, as I forgot to put suncreen on my arms and they are having to be held a tender distance away from anything that might touch them.