Day 8: May 3, 2015
The Rest of the OK JH

Comment via blog

Previous Day
Prev
Next Day
Next
Site Home
Trip Home

Even though I had seem some of them on Friday's bus tour and knew they were there, it was still nice to see Jefferson Highway signs as I left Muskogee. And, as I predicted, I had that gate all to myself today.

I knew, from Friday's tour, that the muffler man was here but I didn't know that he was watching over a '60 Chevy with a Falcon Ranchero and pair of Mustangs behind him. In addition, there's a Conquest or Starion in there and some oldie I can't identify.

On Friday's tour, this section of gravel road near Oktaha was pointed out as part of the Jefferson Highway. I heard a rumble as I drove but it took me a few seconds to identify it and I missed the locomotive but was able to watch the line of cars pass by just yards away. At Oktaha's northern edge, the road started to fade on the other side of Cemetery Drive. I crossed over but quickly turned back when the road turned into a grassy two-track. Maps do show it continuing.

On Friday, we had passed through Rentiesville on the way to Honey Springs Battlefield and, although it was not on my plotted route, I made sure I got there today. It is reached by turning east off of US-69 onto E1030 Road. Even though, at three and a half miles, it's too far north to be a good marker for the turn and it's on the west side of the road, you still might want to look for this anatomically enhanced piece of art on the way.

Rentiesville is ground zero for Oklahoma blues. It's D.C. Minner's birthplace and the home of his blues club, the blues festival he founded, and the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame.


There is a very nice Phillips station in McAlester and an equally nice Conoco right across the street. Check out one of the 66 medallions in the Phillips station. The Texaco station is on the south side of town.

At a little less than a mile and a half south of Tushka, I left the current US-69 to drive more than twenty miles of old US-69. I may not have spelled it out before but I was a little disappointed in the Jefferson Highway between the Kansas line and Muskogee. It was not a bad drive in any way but there was a large percentage of divided (and rather uninteresting) four-lane. This morning's drive had already made up for that less than thrilling drive but this longish bit of paved, unpaved, and de-paved road made me totally forget divided four-lane and all my troubles, too.

I could have spent a lot more time and taken a lot more pictures than I did. Even so, I took enough to make selecting this half-dozen pretty tough. I don't have a lot of things to add but will mention that I did collect component size evaluation data near the spot of the first photo and give a little background on the second. First off it's looking back to the north from whence I came. I had stopped at the other side and taken several photos but the third digit of the date on that side was damaged and unreadable. I intended to walk to the other side but forgot and drove on. I quickly realized my mistake and turned around to get a picture of the intact 1927. I was about to move on when I again heard a rumble. This time I knew immediately what it was and snapped several shots of the passing locomotive.


I found nothing on this truly interesting looking cafe in Durant, Texas Oklahoma. The task is complicated by the fact that a search for "Durant Texas" returns several pages of references to some basketball player. This was my second visit to the peanut whose reign as world's largest was all too brief (Nov 74 to Feb 75). I'd taken my picture and was back in my car preparing to leave when a couple pulled up, grabbed a selfie with the peanut as background, and drove off. Even the World's Second Largest Peanut has its admirers.

ADDENDUM 5-May-2018: This Durant is in Oklahoma. I finally realized my mistake when I looked at this page during another visit. Comments about that basketball player still stand as that is indeed what I searched for.


[Prev] [Site Home] [Trip Home] [Contact] [Next]
democrat