1997
Return to the Road 2
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1997 |
Page 2
After checking into the hotel, five of us walked to a local drinking establishment to slake our thirst. This, too, became a daily pattern. Part of the program stated that drinking during the day was discouraged, so we saved our thirst for the evenings, and made up for lost time.
I returned to Chicago. As mentioned earlier, I returned to Chicago in my Z/28 on Thursday to run a meeting at a client site.
Prior to leaving Springfield, I asked Mike if he needed a driver anywhere else on the tour. He replied he could use me in Joplin. I replied I needed to make sure I could arrive in Joplin in time to catch the caravan.
I also argued with myself whether I should take the time and spend the airfare to continue. After all, I already participated more than most people.
As I write this in early October, 1997, I laugh that it took me so long to decide to fly to Joplin. It should have been an automatic decision! YES! Needless to say, I couldn't wait for Friday evening and my flight to Joplin. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve, for the second time in a week!
This was my first opportunity to work with TTM, the red shirts. They gave me the name of a person, Taylor, in their office who could arrange my flights. I called her and she had the flight arranged for me to arrive on Friday night in plenty of time to catch the caravan on Saturday morning.
I asked her to hold the reservations because Don was still deciding whether he should join or not. He decided not to join our merry party. I called Taylor to accept the reservation and then asked who I had to talk to regarding room reservations. She replied, "They are already made!" This is too easy!
I arrived in Joplin about 10:00 PM. after a delightful flight on a small, propeller power, 20-passenger plane. I had the bulkhead seat against the fuselage. At 6 feet tall, I was sucking my knees during the entire flight.
When I saw the pilots wearing ear-plugs, I wondered if they would issue them to us. NO! So, I had a noisy ride. I also met Mariana from the Spanish-language TV network, Telemundo. She flew to St. Louis from Houston, and was very disappointed that she couldn't get a(nother) beer and the plane did not have a bathroom.
After checking into the Ramada in Joplin, I sought out my drinking buddies. I correctly figured that these guys would NOT be staying in on a Friday night. I checked out the bar in the Ramada. No luck. I tried one bar across the street. I felt completely out of place, especially when I saw two police cars out in front. I was not going to go into the third bar, expecting similar luck. But decided to try my luck. Besides, it was too early to go to sleep. I entered this Country and Western Bar, walked the gauntlet past the bar and found my friends in the back partying. We closed the bar at 1:30 am Saturday.
Saturday
morning came with rain. After casting the appropriate aspersion on the "rookie
drivers" who arrived last night and, therefore, must have brought the rain, we
"mounted up" for our morning run to Vinita, OK, home of the Little Cabin Pecan
Company.
Pictured are Dave and Dave from the support team with Mr. Corndog and the video camera. All were popular throughout the trip.
I picked up my
first co-driver, Bernard, from the Spanish language magazine, "AutoMundo".
Bernard and I got along well for the time we spent together.
Some portions of Route 66 are just too great to pass over without snapping a picture. One such example is the Old Route 66 bridge.
As we drove
through a small town in Kansas, the townspeople came out to greet us. The strange thing
was they emptied out of the bars in town. At 10:30 am, on Saturday morning!
The rain let up. The tops came down. Rain came again. Tops went up. The rain finally stopped after we arrived at Vanita. And stayed stopped until we approached Flagstaff, AZ.
The Little Cabin
Pecan Company provided us with Barbecue from a National BBQ Cook-off Champion. The BBQ and
beans were excellent!
The photo is of Chuck, posing in his Mad Hatter Star Spangled Top Hat, with his wife Fredi.
After our usual 2 hour-plus stop, we left to continue on to Tulsa.
We arrived in Tulsa and stopped at the Vette City Grille, where we had a light meal. We met some people from the local Corvette Club, who arrived prior to us and had their cars parked in the lot near us.
The highlight of
Vette City, was "Miss Budweiser", a local model (we assumed) who was wearing a
Budweiser label dress that looked like it was painted on her. And she filled it out
nicely.
After checking into the Marriott, we had the Marriott van drive us to the local bar district.
Gayle, one of the staff, insisted we go to Concessions, a bar that was highly recommended to her. So we landed and made a bee-line for Concessions. A few of us went in to scope out the place and came out with a report. Gayle noticed that the bar was not crowded. Jerry noticed the important sign: "We cater to the gay and lesbian community." Considering none of us are of that persuasion, we decided to move on. Gayle received the appropriate questioning as: "Who are these friends of yours?", and the like.
Chuck and I settled on a bar with a "C&W Lite" live band and a row of motorcycles parked in front. It turned out the motorcyclists were like us. None of the stereotypical motorcycle types. Only the new stereotypes! (Is that YUMies: Young Urban Motorcyclists?)
After about an hour, Jerry and Arnold joined us, complaining the bar where the others went was too loud and too young!
Copyright 1997 Barbara Spear