Tulsa to Stroud, Oklahoma. On Route 66 in Oklahoma last month.
Third in a group of posts about my drive across Oklahoma on Route 66.
The first thing of note I saw in Tulsa as I drove to my hotel were these huge praying hands in lights. They are at the entrance to the Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.
Tulsa Man (my name) is actually called the “Golden Driller” — the tallest free-standing statue in the US. He guards the entrance to the Fairgrounds.
Those two guys came up to me when I was shooting the former public market building during my art deco shoot in Tulsa. I was a little wary when they walked up but they just wanted to talk. They said they live in some nearby facility of some sort (rehab? halfway house?) and suggested I be careful – there is crime around where I was shooting. Nice guys who seem to have attended the school of hard knocks. The edge of the deco district where I was shooting was a little gritty but not badly so. Tulsa seemed to be a tale of two cities. The more affluent south (where the oil barons build their palaces) and the sketchier center city in the north (especially along the former Route 66).
The building with the blue dome is the former White Star Gulf Oil Station (1924) at 2nd and Elgin and is situated along the older alignment of Route 66 in Tulsa near the downtown. The Blue Dome District around there is named after it and is a popular entertainment district. http://bluedomedistrict.com/
There is not a huge amount of old signage left in Tulsa but it is there if one seeks it out.
The Admiral Twin Drive-in was the inspiration for the drive-in scene of S.E. Hinton’s “Outsiders” novel, and the movie of the novel by Francis Ford Coppola (who filmed in the Tulsa area and the drive in scene at the Admiral Twin.) That’s a newer screen; the old screen burned down a few years back.
In the picture just before the old Cities Service gas station one can see the original 11th Street Bridge (1915) across the Arkansas River (a former Route 66 crossing). Now closed and fenced off (but saved) it sits there sandwiched between the interstate and a city street crossing the river on the other side.
Ahhh, the Box Car BBQ in Sapulpa. Fantastic lunch. Their BBQ sauce was something else. That’s a picture of the team followed by one of the cook. They asked me to write on the comments board. I was sorry to leave; all of us in there were talking up a storm (only about five tables).
Just down the road is an impressive collection of cars at the Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum. The woman in the picture at the car museum is named Jeannie. I asked her about her favorite care – that is it.
Lots of small towns to check out on the drive west – some in good shape and some not.
