Our trip from Branson to Oklahoma City was unfortunately the worst food day on the trip. I am not saying that there is not good food in Oklahoma, just that where we got an opportunity to eat was not the greatest. Bear with me and enjoy the scenery instead.
We drove out of Missouri and momentarily were in Kansas:
We were lucky with the weather, as tornadoes had swept through our path just days before.
In Kansas, we stopped off at the Old Riverton Store, featured at the top of this post. The store has been there since 1925, and has not changed much since it opened. It pre-dated Route 66, and still sells flowers, groceries, fruit and vegetables and deli items. The store has a very cool old style soft drink cooler in working order:
from which Tim bought a Route 66 Root Beer:
We then crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, built in 1923 and the last surviving bridge of its type on the old Route 66:
before crossing the border into Oklahoma, where we lunched at the Golden Corral in Claremore, a buffet restaurant. The food was cheap and plentiful (around $10 for all you can eat including a drink), but not otherwise notable:
Unfortunately, the desserts looked promising, but did not deliver. I could not eat this blueberry pie, which tasted like shortening filled with glue:
The lady who served our tour group was lovely, and she was the highlight of this rest stop.
We then travelled a short distance to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum, which is also in Claremore. Will Rogers was a famous cowboy movie star of the 1920s and 1930s, who was of Native American descent, and was famous for his political quotes. My favourite is:
"With Congress — every time they make a joke it's a law. And every time they make a law it's a joke."
Here's a statue of the man himself in the foyer of the Museum:
Note his shiny shoes, where everyone has rubbed them?
He was apparently very affable and well liked. Will had been a strong advocate for the pioneering aviation industry of the time. Unfortunately, he met an untimely death in 1935 in an aeroplane crash in Alaska.
At the Will Rogers Museum, we watched this cowboy twirl rope just like Will Rogers did early in his career:
He kept talking the whole time he twirled. Pretty neat, huh?
After the Museum, we drove on for a brief photo stop at the Blue Whale swimming platform, a Route 66 icon:
That night, we stayed on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, where the big drive-through highway eateries were the only dinner options. Tim and I opted for Denny's, as I had told him what a drawcard it was for the tour group on my Golden West Tour, to the extent that they chanted "Denny's!" every time we passed one. This time, I definitely tried to stay on the healthy side of things, ordering from the "Fit Fare" menu. I am not sure that the grilled chicken burger with carrots and celery was my idea of a nice meal:
I was very surprised to receive the carrots and celery in the form that they arrived - that is, cold, in a small bowl, with no dressing. The burger was also a little lacking in flavour. Next time, I will just order from the ordinary menu and hang the calories.
I am sure that there are great places to eat in Oklahoma City - we just didn't get a chance to visit them. However, we greatly enjoyed the non-eating aspects of our day.
7109 SE Oriole Lane
Riverton, KS 66770
United States
Ph: +1 620 848 3330
Ph: +1 620 848 3330
1405 W Will Rogers Blvd
Claremore, OK 74017
United States
Ph: +1 918 342 5510
1720 W Will Rogers Blvd
Claremore, OK 74017
United States
Ph: +1 918 341 0719
Ph: +1 918 341 0719
2680 Oklahoma 66
Catoosa, OK 74015
United States
Ph: +1 918 694 7390
315 S. Meridian Avenue
Oklahoma City, OK 73108
Ph: +1 405 947 8548
7 comments:
What an awful food day! Thank goodness this is the worst of your trip because I can feel confident that you didn't have to suffer anything else as bad :)
Oh what a shame about the food. And I agree, it's very possible to have not great food in some areas! How could they have gotten the pie so wrong?
It looked so promising - so it was doubly disappointing when it did not taste nice.
thank goodness travel isn't always about food - love the will rodgers quote and the whale swimming platform - I think it is easy to have bad food in travel when you don't know a place and sadly some of the food I have had on tours has been pretty ordinary - perhaps because it is hard to find seats for a tour group in s a cute little cafe
We spent a night in OK City early in April when we drove cross country... we also had a very hard time finding a place for dinner, but ended up at a sports bar in a shopping center that was very nice and had over-the-top chocolate desserts. I would call it very typical American meals. Really sad that you were unable to get away from the chain restaurants that are so undistinguished.
It is fun to see what you saw. The food did look a little underwhelming...probably how they keep the prices of the tours more reasonable so more people can afford to do them, but still...I hope there were splurges along the way, especially as you and Tim are such foodies.
Wow, the celery and carrots are rather strangely served. I often find desserts promise more than they deliver, I don't often eat them. I remember seeing a film about Will Rogers, they certainly must like his shoes.
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