Route 66 Festival '07

Day 1
Good Time in Tulsa

Day 2
Miss Belvedere

Day 3
Heading West

Day 4
Past Clinton

Day 5
Into Texas

Day 6
Bugs & more

Day 7
Tonight Tucumcari

Day 8
Express to Clinton

Day 9
Gatherings

Day 10
Festival Plus

Day 11
E.O.F.

June 23, 2007
I spent some more time at the festival and checked out the cars in the car show. Then drove to Weatherford for lunch at Lucille's Roadhouse and a visit to the Stafford Museum. On the way back, I took a look at another "opening soon" restaurant.

June 22, 2007
The e-group breakfast started the day (at 7 AM!) and the Will Rogers Award Banquet ended it. In between I checked out the museum and the Artist & Authors area.

June 21, 2007
Today's driving was almost completely on the expressway with a couple of returns to the old road to pick up things I had missed. I got to go to the VIP reception at the museum, not because I'm a VIP but because a VIP took pity on me and listed me as a guest.

June 20, 2007
Aussies & Limeys & Glenrio traffic,
Signs from dear Stanley & old wooden bridges,
Ugly crust pie & a new TV star,
These are a few of my favorite things.

June 19, 2007
I almost ran out of gas in a construction zone but survived to see both Bug Ranch and Combine City.

June 18, 2007
I was successful in a visit to the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City but not in a visit to the Black Kettle Museum in Cheyenne. I had a hoot with the words-can't-describe-them Harley & Annabelle in Erick before crossing the border into Texas.

June 17, 2007
I had semi-planned to end the day in Weatherford and have dinner at the new Lucille's Roadhouse. But the Roadhouse is closed on Sundays so I continued on to Elk City. I made no stops and took no pictures in Clinton since I'll be spending a few days there at the end of the week.

June 16, 2007
I didn't rush out of Tulsa but I did make it eventually and I made it to my preplanned stop in Arcadia.

June 15, 2007
This was Plymouth Day. At noon they pulled the car above ground and in the evening they took the covers off. The car didn't fare too well but these were still extremely cool events. In between, I got to look at some cars that probably looked much better than when they were new.

June 14, 2007
After a long morning confined to expressways and airplanes, I did get to drive just a bit of Sixty-Six. I got as far east as Claremore then west to Tulsa where I met up with some friends for dinner and a Tulsan insider tour. The day's news on the Plymouth was not encouraging.

Prelude 2 - April 9, 2007
Several weeks back I purchased a ticket to the unveiling of the Belvedere in Tulsa and yesterday, to protect my $8.50 investment, I booked a flight to get me there in time to attend. The time boundaries of my trip are now firmly set and the geographic boundaries will just have to conform. I'll be flying into Oklahoma City on the 14th - out on the 24th. I'll initially head east to Tulsa (gotta see that Plymouth) and hopefully a bit farther. Then it's west toward Tucumcari. In anticipation of an overflowing Tulsa, I booked Thursday and Friday nights at Desert Hills. Then I booked a room for the next Thursday, along with Friday and Saturday, to guarantee a place to sleep during the festival in Clinton.

That was already a higher than normal percentage of preplanned lodging and today I pushed it over the edge. Tucumcari is in my plans for one reason: the Blue Swallow. I've been in the town four times and twice spent the night there; Neither at the Swallow. Missing out on it this time would be more devastating than sleeping on the streets of a fully booked Clinton. I did some figurin' and, despite the temptation to stretch this outing to Albuquerque or beyond, decided that Tucumcari will be my western boundary. I next calculated that Tucumcari to Clinton would be a very reasonable one day expressway leg which translated to Wednesday night in the Blue Swallow. I just now called and Bill has me down for room #4.

It's a ten night trip and I already have six nights booked. This is shaping up like the '05 festival where most nights were planned in advance and I spent a record setting four nights in one motel - the Rialto Wigwams. I have a leisurely five days to reach Tucumcari from Tulsa. That's about a hundred miles a day and DeLorme tells me that Hillbillee's in Arcadia is 99.5 miles from the Desert Hills. A few more chilly days and I'll probably have this whole thing scheduled and booked.

Prelude 1 - January 5, 2007
After attending three consecutive National Route 66 Festivals, missing last year's event in Albuquerque was a disappointment. True, those first two were really by chance but I had committed to the third one months in advance and had left it fully intending to be at the next. But that was not to be. A major trade show was scheduled for almost the same time and business naturally won out over pleasure. In three years I had gone from a last minute almost accidental attendee to thinking of myself as a regular only to have the streak broken. 2007 in Clinton, OK, is a chance to start a new streak.

Oklahoma celebrates its centennial in 2007. That fact influenced the decision to bring the Route 66 Festival to Clinton and means there's a lot of other stuff going on in the Sooner State. In Tulsa, something that caught my attention is going on the weekend before the festival. On June 15, a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere, buried when it was brand new, will be resurrected. That's such a cool sounding event and it's happening so close to the fun in Clinton that I'm going to try to work it into the schedule. I hope to reach Tulsa just in time for the Belvedere's unearthing then cruise Sixty-Six at least as far as the Blue Swallow in Tucumcari before settling down for the festival.

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