Melting Down. Almost.

Today neither Ruth nor her dad are in a mood to write a long blog post. That's why this is going to be a photo story.

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel sitting outside between the old gas pumps.

Then we took off and rode many beautiful backroads.

 We saw a lot of old typical Route 66 locations and some more recent artifacts.

We had started out in Missouri, and then we crossed into Kansas where we had lunch at the "Cars on Route" diner in Galena, KS. Those of you who saw the movie "Cars" might recognize that location and the cars for that very diner, the adjacent buildings, and the old cars gave the inspiration to the movie.

After only 13 mi in Kansas we entered Oklahoma. Here a relatively new highway follows the old Route 66 alignement and we made good speed. This was a good thing because by then the temperature was in the high 90s and we were melting as soon as we stopped. We drank a plenty of water but that was still not enough. So we looked for, and found a great diner in Chelsea, OK where we had cold water, icecream and pie (in that order!).

We chatted with the locals and the young waitress was awed when we told her that our high school has about 2000 students (her graduation class was only 50 kids). Another local told us that he had spent some time in Pittsburgh, PA when the Pirates won the World Series in 1960. And the pitcher who made the deciding play came from, YES! Drum Roll!: Chelsea, OK.

Looking at the photo of Downtown Chelsea one would not expect that...

When we left the diner a woman approached us and she turned out to be the local newspaper reporter. Hearing that we are riding the entire Route 66 she quickly got her camera, took a photo and interviewed us. We'll be The Stars in the next  issue of the weekly newspaper!

After that exciting interruption we hit the road again, saw famous Route 66 stuff like the Biggest Totem Pole near Foyil, OK and the Blue Whale in Catoosa, OK.

Look for Ruth and Marianne near the entrance!

Finally we arrived at the Desert Hills Motel in Tulsa, OK (another original Route 66 motel, the movie Christmas Child was shot here), did some motorcycle maintenance (cleaning, oil check, etc) and mounted our new Route 66 license plate frames.

I guess after 219 mi full of beautiful roads, interesting people, and famous Route 66 locations we deserve a good nights sleep.