Day 10 - Oklahoma Storm Troopers
It poured most of the night and soon after midnight the thunder and lightening struck. By daylight after a 'hearty' American breakfast the extent of the big wet was revealed on the TV News with flooding cutting the i40 through Oklahoma.
It was a slow start picking our way along the mother road in and out of the huge pools of water along an undulating pavement.
Elk City is home to the R66 National Museum,
a great explanatory film about the history and
some well laid out exhibits.
Twenty minutes further on in Clinton the ultimate Museum on Route 66 leaves a clearer understanding on the background to it becoming one of the most famous and perhaps infamous routes on the globe, thanks to the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Mike Thompson did sneak a quick 'ride' in his favourite Corvette.
A 38 arch Pony Bridge at Bridgepoint looks fine from above but below it needs attention and there are ongoing discussions with authorities about just how best this can be achieved, otherwise it might well become a walking bridge.
John Hargrove's 'mini me' of everything Route 66 still looked ok in the dark. Storms had cut his electricity and it was all seen under minimum lights thanks to a low output generator.
Arcadia Soda Pops was lunch...
The rain still hadn't let up so we headed to Chandler via the Old Round Barn where Jerry McClanahan was waiting.... yes in the rain!
Our accommodation was to be at Bell Cow Ranch but they lost power too and then the road in had nearly 6" of water over it so we decided to head on to Stroud and find safer digs there... We've chased the rain, or rather it's chased us across Oklahoma and we're hoping it will cut us some slack tomorrow!
