Day 6: Tulsa to Oklahoma City

Outside wall of a diner in
Davenport, OK

The drive between Tulsa and Oklahoma City is not the longest but it was also nice not to hug alongside the interstate this time. A couple of times today, we crossed it, only to see it disappear rapidly in the rear view mirror.

We started our day from downtown Tulsa, a nice city, that has really taken care of preserving the direction of Route 66 with markers and signs everywhere you could look. We already encountered signs of old establishments yesterday as we entered Tulsa - something we didn't see as we exited.

Downtown Depew, OK

Sidewalk in Depew, OK

Oklahoma's Route 66 is essentially following OK-66. There are few towns in between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, some which are very small. One of those is Depew which has a very small downtown and some of the buildings they still had where abandoned. What was nice to see though is that they had many murals to give the town some color and relate it to Route 66.

The Lincoln Motel in Chandler, OK

We found one or two motels or gas stations in other towns along the way, such as Skyliner Motel in Stroud, the Lincoln Motel in Chandler, and a gas station converted into a diner in Davenport.

Sidewalk downtown Stroud, OK

What was also nice today is that we saw many stretches of the old road next to the one we were driving. A lot is still there even though it is cut off in many places because of missing bridges or the terrain has become to rough. There were a couple of times where we were able to take a "detour" and follow the road on the original pavement.

The Skyliner Motel in Stroud, OK

One of those times was along the Ozark Trail outside of Sapulpa, OK. The trail started us off with a 1925 bridge and shortly thereafter we passed an abandoned drive-in theater.

1925 bridge between Sapulpa and Kellyville, OK

No more movies to be seen here

As we drove further, we passed by some old oil field tanks and oil drilling equipment. As we stopped to take some pictures, we noticed there was still some oil on the ground even though most of the tanks were old and rusty. As we got closer, we could hear oil running through the old pipes and as we looked up, we saw the top of a drill still operating on the hill next to it. We were both shocked to still find this working.

It was a great feeling to drive this piece of road, even though it was definitely rough in some spots but it did truly feel like an 1926 era road in the middle of the forest next to the railroad. The winding road ended abruptly as we got to a bridge that was not safe to cross anymore.

So a shorter day today but one with great memories as we were able to "truly" travel the old road and find evidence of many pieces of road that were left behind and preserved.

Miles driven today: 115
Time driven today: 3hrs 50min

Total miles driven: 906
Total time driven: 30hrs 35min