66 History plus going out of this world

August 19^th, 2026

Elk City, Oklahoma

Woke early, but still very tired, so sat in chair hoping I would nod off, but not go into deep sleep or when alarm goes off in 45 minutes.

That seems to have worked.  I dozed off, but when alarm did go off, I felt a bit more awake and body did not hurt as much.

Showered and geared up, then packed and started to load the bike.

Once loaded, rode over to the office to drop off the key, which was really easy as one of the employees was just about to go in and asked if I was checking out and took key from me so I did not have to walk inside.

Rode next door to fuel up the bike, and then decided to go buy a breakfast item from the deli, settled on the breakfast burrito as they looked better than the sandwiches.

Stood by the bike and ate, thankfully early enough that the building blocked some of the sun.

Got on the road and headed out of town.

We soon were riding the frontage road along the interstate.  This will be a common thing for the next few states as I-40 pretty much took over and, in many cases, there is no original road left, so will be doing more interstate riding as well.

Not too far out of town we took a more northernly route and found ourselves at the Bridgeport Bridge.

This 3,944 foot bridge, completed in 1933 and part of Route 66 since 1934 (bridge was built for this re-alignment), it is made with 38 steel pony trusses which remain on the bridge today, even though it was given a new, wider road surface in 2023.

Took a few photos from the end, and then rode across it.

Not long after, we stopped at the restored Lucille’s Highway Gas Station.  In a building originally built in 1929 to serve as a fuel stop with living space above, it was eventually acquired by Lucille and her husband in 1941 and run as a gas station, restaurant, store and even motel till her death in 2000.

A local businessman bought and restored the place so travelers can still stop and see it, and the Lucille’s name and tradition was moved to a hotel and restaurant in nearby Weatherford (I did not stop at those).

But while in Weatherford, I spent a few hours at the Stafford Air & Space Museum.

Named for Thomas P. Stafford, who was born and raised in town, later graduated from the US Naval Academy and became and Air Force test pilot.  This lead to him becoming part of NASA in the early days where it later flew on Gemini 4, Gemini 9, Apollo 10, and the Apollo-Soyuz docking mission in 1975.

Rising to the rank of General, he was instrumental in the creation of the Stealth aircraft programs within the US forces (though that information was not publicly known for 20+ years after the fact)

The museum has a large building next to a small runway for the civilian airport.

Inside are sections on early aircraft with many recreations of early planes like the Wright Brothers Flyer and Spirit of St. Louis. 

Then you move into the space related stuff which is a large collection, having several rocket engines and components from various systems throughout the history of the US space program.

They even have the actual Gemini 6 capsule that flew in space.

A large room holding the body and an inert version of a Titian Nuclear missile, components from Saturn V rockets, including some of the recently recovered launch stage components from the early Apollo missions (the piece on display was an engine turbine from Apollo 11!)

A really cool full size mock up of the Apollo moon lander setup.  A training model for the Space shuttle as well as a full set of Space Shuttle tires (after use).

You then get a small hall with a few fighter jets in there, one being a replica and the others actual planes, including a F117A Stealth Fighter that saw lots of deployments before its retirement.

Outside the building, there are additional fighter aircraft displayed where you can walk up and under the aircraft and really get a feel for the size.

The grounds also contain a really cool playground for the kids with rocket shaped equipment to climb on.  If I was only much younger.  A UFO in the sandbox, and several models of rockets and shuttles next to a small tower.

There were other spaces for outdoor events, picnic ramadas, a water fountain and a reflection garden with mirrors, rocks, bells to allow one to focus or reflect on themselves.

Once I had seen it all, I returned to the bike, uncovered it and got back on the road.

I though about stopping at another local museum that had some cars and a helicopter, but was mostly just a local history of life on the prairie museum.

As I had spent much longer at the Air & Space Museum, I decided to skip the other one and continue toward my destination.

I had thought about stopping for food, but the one place I saw that I might want to stop at was packed, and everything else was Mexican food, which I have eaten too often last several days, so wanted something different.

I stopped on edge of town to see the large painted mural on a wind turbine blade and see the smaller version of the Vietnam Memorial created here locally, but serving the same function as the bigger one in Washington DC.

From here it was mostly smaller towns and not much to see or stop for food wise.

I finally had to stop and use the restroom, so picked a local convenience store chain that I know serves deli type foods.

Bought a slice of pizza and chicken sandwich and a few cold drinks.

Sat in the AC and had lunch, then back on the bike for the final half hour into my destination town of Elk City.

As I had not taken the long lunch I had hoped, I was running a bit early to check in to the motel, so decided to go ahead and do the National Route 66 Museum tonight instead of in the morning, which will let me get out of town faster as well tomorrow.

I passed by my motel a short distance to reach the museum, pulled in and parked.

The place is a large complex of several museums that are all connected and your access to one gets you access to all of them, not bad for $5.

I stared with the Transport museum I had parked by and entered.

They had a few bikes on display, an airplane, some car related stuff and a little bit of Route 66 stuff, including an art project a guy did back in 2019 travelling the route and taking photos of people with a Kodak Instant camera, then having them sign the photos after it printed out.

They also had an old firetruck and a large display in memory of the emergency personal that responded to the Oklahoma City Federal building bombing in 1995.

Next was the Route 66 specific museum.  It has several old cars, some other related items, and several large displays along with audio stories about life on 66.  Also had a huge map on a curved wall showing the route.

After this they have a small town mocked up with buildings built to appear like they would have in the earlier days of the state, guessing late 1880s to 1920s.  A few of the buildings were actual buildings moved to the site that had been used back in the early days of the state.

They had a large house holding more stuff about the city, but I skipped that one.

Visited the old stable building with lots of buggies and the railroad setup with an old caboose.

I stopped inside the mockup pharmacy which was also a soda fountain mockup, but they did sell candy, ice cream and bottled soda, so bought a bottle to drink and one for later in the room.

I spent some time talking with the lady running that area, and then decided I was ready to go check in, it was nearing 4:00 now.  I skipped the farm building and blacksmith shop, seen enough of that stuff over my life.

Rode back down the road to the motel, and the owner was actually just putting some stuff inside when I arrived, so was able to quickly get checked in, though was a bit of a challenge as the guy spoke very bad English.  Seems like he knows the words, just cannot pronounce them in a way that makes sense.

Got into the room and turned on the AC to start cooling and unpacked the bike.

Once done, I closed the door, but noticed the room was still quite warm, but thought it was just me.

I used the sink to splash cold water on my head and face, and arms, and stupid watch clasp fell apart when I tried to take it off.  Parts falling in the sink with the running water.

I managed to find them all I think, so will try to put it back together later.

I pulled off several layers, and moved the desk chair in front of the AC unit in the wall and sat there for about an hour, think I might have dozed off even.

 I noticed though that the AC unit would run for a minute or two, then stop and just blow humid air for a few minutes, then repeat the cycle.

I turned it down to the lowest setting and then took a cold shower and got dressed.

Still hot in the room.

I decided to first go buy some cold drinks, so got on the bike and rode about ½ mile down the road to the Love’s station in town and bought some cold stuff, then came back to the room.

As I walked in, it was definitely still very hot.  The unit has a mode to show the room temp and it was saying 87 degrees, even though the AC had been running at 61 degrees for at least 30 minutes, and 67 degrees for over an hour before that.

I decided to go complain at the office, but first went to put my drinks in the fridge, and it was warm.  Starting to get annoyed now.

Looked around and the surge strip it and the microwave were plugged into was shut off.

Turned it back on, and could hear it start up, so put stuff in the fridge and shut it, should stay cold enough till it cools down.

I stopped in the office to see what they could do about the AC, thinking either a fix they might have, or moved to a different room, but only option they gave me was a fan to blow the cool air farther into the room.

I figured that might work some, and easier than moving rooms, if there is anything open as this is one of the older Route 66 motels that many people will stay at.

Put the fan on a table I moved in front of the unit and started it, and then decided I would let it run while I went to have dinner.

While I had thought about going to the steak house recommended by the lady at the local museum, I did not want to ride the 4 miles there, so opted to just eat at the Braum’s which was 2 buildings over.

A burger and some chicken strips were enough food and much cheaper too.

Came back to the room, and did notice a small difference.  The overall temperature was bit less, and I could feel the cooler air now in the back of the room, but still too warm, but hopefully as the night cools off the internal air will as well.

I sat down to try fixing the watch.  I realized I was missing a piece, and found it in the trash can in the bathroom where it had bounced off the counter and landed.

Spent about 30 minutes trying to get the damn think to go back together, but it just kept shooting one end of the pin out and onto the floor, after the 3^rd time, I said fuck it and tossed all the parts in the trash. 

Put the watch in a bag and will just worry about it when back in AZ.  I liked having it to count my steps and it also takes my blood pressure (though I do not use it as much), but can live without it for now.

I then sat down to upload the footage to the laptop, and then plotted the route for tomorrow.

A large part of the route tomorrow is on the interstate, there is no original road, even a frontage road, to drive, and even when the frontage road is the original road, in many cases there is no access without back tracking for a mile or more, so skipped those parts.

Will be about 1/3 freeway tomorrow, but will make a bit better time and distance, so decided to push through Texas completely and end the day in New Mexico, where I will stay for 2 nights again to rest from the long day and also get some work done again.

Other than the midpoint of the route, not much to stop at tomorrow, a few old gas stations and buildings I might do a quick photo of. 

I will have a small 1 mile section of gravel tomorrow, I thought about skipping it, but the frontage road there is the old route, and only way to get on it without a large back track was that section of gravel which is also mostly original route as well (just never paved, was moved before that happened).

Hopefully it will cool off a little tomorrow as we head into higher elevations in New Mexico, but probably not enough to make a difference.

Now I think I will get a few small things done and go to bed, try to get an earlier start tomorrow to still arrive early enough to avoid being in the late afternoon heat as long.

Catch ya down the road.

Todays Route: