Day 8 Aug 7

Joplin to Claremore

Mileage 118 

Started off hot and ended up baking hot over 98 at last check so it was a brutal day for heat.  We both drank Most of the water we carried and stop for a PowerAid. We had hard head winds all day long so it is lucky we just had to turn the throttle full open and even then would only do 30.  But we did complete the ride and are staying in an original Route 66 motel the Roy Rodgers Inn in Claremore OK.   

Today we left Missouri, cut a corner of Kanas and entered Oklahoma.  The roads were fair to good.  

Wish I could say I was perfect today but there was one minor problem we turned off to follow some of the historic Route 66 and it just ended with no sigh.  Dianne said turn right I said left we went left.  She was right and I was wrong why is that women are smarter than men.  Did go more than 1 mile and corrected the problem.  So although not perfect I feel I did a B+ in Navigating.  

The route was all historic Route 66 (Hwy 69,  Hwy 66) through the towns of:

Joplin

Galena

Baxter Springs

Quapaw

Commerce

Afton

Vinita

White Oak

Chelsea

Foyil

Claremore

Galena has improved a lot in the last 10 years the down town has more stores open.  The stars from Cars are there too.  But I found the history of the mine strike in 1938 that shut down the road.  The stickers wanted better working conditions and the strike lasted more than 4 months and 12 people were seriously injured.  There are more than 26 miles on mine tunnels under the ground there.  

Baxter springs is very interesting some really nice homes less than 1/2 mile from old trailer park.  I wonder what the people think of each other.  

Anyways the pictures below will tell most of the story of the ride today.  So I will explain how we finished up yesterday after arriving in the hotel.  

We did all the laundry even the clothes we were wearing to for the first time in week we are starting out with all clean clean clothes.  Then walked to Texas Road house and ate steak.  Then Dianne had broken her reading glasses so we hit a thrift store and bought a pair for $1.50.  The main reason for the purchase is the screw which is the same as the one that fell out.  Then some Olympics on TV and off to Bed by 8:30.  We are out of bed by 6:30 to start the next day.

State Line Gas Station

Mural in Jopin

Route  66 race track

Galena Giant miner

Galena Cars Star

Galena Tank

Galena train stations(note the mail drop Pole the train would not stop just snag the bag and through out incoming mail)

North Miami Store with Race Car on roof

Ice Cream stop (Dianne had 3 scoops of Salted Carmel and I had a root beer float)

Rainbow Bridge just leaving Kansas

Theater in Vinita (Note Bing Cosby sang White Christmas for the first time)

Sights seen today

• One pile of cow dung (it now has the imprint of my scooter through it)
• 12 bug hits 
• 1 monarch
• lots more trash in Oakaloma 2 wheel wells, one bumper, two whole tires, beer bottles and one complete set of blankets
• 19 motorcycles most waved 3 passed us
• a ford pickup truck pulling another pickup truck two a camper trailer
• 4 fields of horses
• 7 fields of cows
• 1 horse statue
• 1 zebra statue 
• 2 corvettes
• 12 churches 
• 6 cemetery 
• 4 schools (should be more schools than churches in my opinion)
• 2 buzzards
• 1 goat