Amblin' in OK Country

Today, the 21st of the July, after waking, eating pancakes, packing up, and leaving, I left. I was once again on the road. Not just any road, though. The Road. America’s Main Street. The Old Road. And that other name that people call it, which for whatever reason, I don’t particularly care for: The Mother Road. It’s a road that goes both ways. Until it goes nowhere, that is. I’m not saying that’s the case, necessarily, but I am saying that it is extremely difficult to keep track of for... oh, say, the better part of Oklahoma. I had a tough day. It was not, however, without reward. But first, the badness. I was driving through a town, I don’t recall which one, but it was a suburb of Oklahoma City, I believe. I was following a road that was marked as Route 66 (historically speaking), and there came a sign that said to make a left at the next intersection. I did so, and wound up at a dead end. It must have mean the intersection after next (it could have been much clearer). I found my way to that road, but was only able to go north on account of the overly-large median in the middle of the road. I needed to go south. I finally got all that straightened out, when I realized that I needed ice. Actually, I’d realized that a while earlier, but felt the situation was considerably more pressing now. I began searching for a grocery store in earnest. I found one, but it proved no easy task to actually gain its location. Again with the medians. I had to go about an extra mile before I could turn around, and turn around I did, after about an extra mile. I got back to the Albertson’s I’d seen earlier, and didn’t notice the signs on my way in. Upon entering the store, I noticed the fairly Spartan conditions (as far as grocery stores are concerned). About half the store was empty. By empty, I mean various states on the continuum of empty shelving to no shelving whatsoever. There were empty aisles that were caution taped off, even. I thought to myself that this was a pretty massive remodel to be happening all at once like this, usually they do this sort of thing in phases. Then I saw the signs. And yes, they opened up my eyes, I saw the signs. The store wasn’t remodeling at all, but closing. There were signs hanging down that proclaimed everything in the store (except Rand McNally products and books-?) was between 25 and 90 percent off. I wandered my way around, trying to see if they had anything I wanted for 25 to 90 percent off, and concluded that, nope, I just needed ice. I did get the ice for forty percent off, however. That’s right, two ten pound bags for under 3 dollars. And I didn’t even need the card. After that, I walked outside and saw the signs I’d missed on my way in. The strangest thing to me, was that it was an Albertson’s, and it was closing. Albertson’s doesn’t seem like the sort of store that closes a location. I mean, I know that stores close, but it seemed like a pretty good area for an Albertson’s. I wonder what happened... I got out of the store parking lot, and went the way I shouldn’t have. I did this because I couldn’t go left on the road I needed to, and my other option was to turn left onto the road I could turn left onto the road that I needed to be on from (have fun sorting that one out), but the driveway I was in was about a block from the intersection in question, and cars were backed up past my location. So, I made a right turn. And eventually made my way back to the divided road in question. I made my through Oklahoma City, and found myself in El Reno. That was an event. Driving around was neat, I saw a little street fair thing in town, but passed it by, thinking I was on the right road and that there was no need to stop. I followed the road around, and ended up heading north (according to my literature, it still appeared as though I was on the right road). Then I saw a road sign that said something about going north, and that didn’t sit right with me. I consulted my atlas, and found that the road I was on didn’t have any intersections for some time, and was in fact headed due north. I needed to be heading West by Southwest. North is not West by Southwest. I turned around. I went back to El Reno, and this time I saw something that I knew I needed to stop for. As part of the street fair (apparently it was being put on by local channel 5) there was a car show. I drove around the town and found myself a parking spot. I then doubled pack for the cars. When I found the first entrance to the street fair, I saw a bunch of local police, and I was tempted to take their picture, but didn’t. I continued on, looking for a place to get in and see the cars. I did, eventually, and they had some pretty interesting things there. They had a Hudson Hornet (which I thought quite interesting, to find one of those on Route 66, and all), a couple of ‘55 Chevys, a ’67 Mustang, a ‘The Judge,’ and an apparent ’67 Camaro RS SS. There really weren’t too many cars there, only about 15, I’d say. It didn’t take me long to walk through and inspect them all. Then I walked back through the fair, saw the ‘grizzled frontiersmen’ exposition (a couple of guys with beards and dirty clothes and a couple of tables with guns on them). I don’t actually know what that section was called to be fair, that’s just the name I’ve given it. It seems somehow appropriate. I headed back to my own vehicle. While I was at the car show, I’d seen a road sign that I must have missed earlier. I recognized it, and there was no cause to recognize it other than having read of it in my book. So, when I got back to my truck, I had a direction to go. It’s weird how things on Route 66 have a habit of working out for me. It’s also weird how, when I got back to my truck, I happened to look up and see a bank clock. It read, “2:42.” For verification purposes, here it is: Only a few seconds later, the number changed to a little less than half that: And the weird thing is that the two little dots between the first two and the four were changed into a little circle-dealy after the nine... I’m not sure what all of it means, but it may be worth checking into. I found the road and drove it, until I realized I was in a town I was only supposed to be in if I’d wanted to take an older, more leisurely alignment. I hadn’t, I had wanted to see some fantastic bridge, or other. Then I had to get gas. I stopped at the town’s gas station, made my usual inquiry, and was told that (after several minutes of deliberation), “No, we do not accept traveler’s checks.” I used basically the last of my cash supply, and asked where I might cash one of my checks. I was told that one of the town’s two banks had drive throughs open ‘til five. I drove back and found one of the banks, but everything seemed pretty desolate, so I kept on driving. I drove back to where I’d started up that road from. The book had said that I was to bear north at the Y in the highway, and I had done so. After that, it said to bear southwest at the next Y. There was no next Y. I had driven all the way to the next town, and there had been no next Y. So, when I went back, and turned around, I looked for anything resembling a next Y. I found a very definite T. Feeling rather frustrated, I turned on it. A little ways down that road, I came to another T. As it turned out, I had found the Y (it was the T), yet the book made no mention of this T. Hmmm. I turned north, until I realized that would put me back in Geary, where I didn’t want to be, so I turned back south, and within minutes found the thirty-eight span steel bridge. Here’s the picture I took after I’d crossed it: I read that the bridge is over three quarters of a mile long. I realize that this picture doesn’t exactly do it justice, but it helps. I drove down that road for quite some time until it reparalleled the freeway, and I happened to find a campground, or rather, a Kampground. It was somewhere between the cities of Clinton and Elk City. It was nice. I settled in and fell asleep. And that was the end of day 16 since leaving home.