Day 1
Mounds & More

Day 2
On to Tulsa

Day 3
Taking in the Festival

Day 4
Another Road Home

Day 5
More Mounds & More

Extra Views
from other travelers on the same road
Dona
Jennifer
Mark

June 14, 2004
Three states in a minute at Cairo and some more prehistoric mounds. Even though a large and growing percentage of this section of US 60 is divided four lane, I sensed that there is plenty of old US 60 still out there just waiting to be driven.

June 13, 2004
Breakfast with the Route 66 eGroup and visits to a couple of Tulsa Route 66 landmarks. Then I waved goodbye to the Mother Road and headed home on US-60 in perfect weather.

June 12, 2004
A busy day checking out displays, cars, artwork, entertainment, buildings, and people. I didn't drive an inch.

June 11, 2004
Through Kansas and some stops in Oklahoma before ending the day at a dinner in Tulsa.

June 10, 2004
I started the day with a couple of non-66 related sites then connected with the Mother Road just west of St Louis. At the end of the day, I connected with a real long distant roadie in Joplin.

Prelude
From the minute I left last year's festival in Springfield, I had thoughts of attending the next one in Tulsa. My hopes took a down turn when I started looking seriously and realized just how much time would be required. Over 750 miles, Street Atlas told me. Its, estimate, using quickest route, was 13 1/2 hours. Quickest? Route 66 journeys do not ever involve the quickest. This festival could not be attended on a three day weekend.

So I kind of gave it up until I saw an e-group message from Swa Frantzen that said he might attend. Swa has the oldest Route 66 web site and it remains one of the best. Swa lives in Belgium and doesn't get to the US every day. Admittedly, he wasn't coming all that way just for Tulsa, he will be covering all of 66 while he's here, but, if he could make it from Belgium, maybe I could make it from Ohio. Besides, I've used Swa's directions more than once and would certainly like to thank him in person.

Just a couple of weeks ago it started looking like I could get the time so I started working on plans. I booked a room at Adam's Mark on the last day that group rates were available but I wasn't entirely sure that I would not eventually have to cancel one or both nights. The last trick was working in my traveling companion's schedule. In the end, she simply could not make the time and my plans became simpler and lonelier. So I moved to reserve space in a couple of events I was interested in. I made the e-group breakfast list without breaking any rules but found that reservations for the Steinbeck Award Dinner had officially closed a day earlier. With some well timed encouragement, I tried anyway and just managed to get in before the food order was finalized. Tulsa, I'll be there.