Looping Route 66: May 10 OK - We made it to Oklahoma!

May 10 Well over 45 miles

It's 45 miles from Carthage to Miami but somehow we spent from 8:30 until 5:30 in and out of the car until finally checking into the hotel. Lots of side trips and stops. Traveled in three states today - Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. So lets get to it!

Left Carthage in a cold 47 degree rain heading for the Route 66 Drive-In Theatre. Opened in 1949 and closed in 1984, it was renovated and reopened in 1998. At one time there were numerous drive-ins along Route 66 but only a few remain with this one said to be among the best.

We had several primary stops planned for today. The Mining Museum in Galena, KS, the Marsh Arch Bridge and the Coleman Theatre in Miami, OK. We're still fighting some date and time issues with places not being open when we arrive due to Covid. Things are certainly reopening, but just not fully yet. The Mining Museum wasn't open when we passed by at 10:30 so we wound up doubling back to it in the afternoon. The Coleman Theatre doesn't open for tours until tomorrow so just a stop for pictures today. But we had other stops to fill in. The Nelson store in Riverton - an original General store dating back to 1926 that continues selling a bit of everything including a nice sandwich counter in the rear.

The "giant" Coke bottle at Woody's Pizza in Joplin,

The Don Karnes Field of Dreams Baseball Complex in Baxster Springs. This high school baseball coach succeeded in his dream of getting a new 2 field complex built outside of town using all volunteer labor and community donations. Completed in 2015 without any taxpayer dollars.

Galena is also where several of the vehicles featured as characters in CARS were discovered as the team from Pixar cruised this route working on their movie. Of course, they're all fixed up now for show and photo ops.

The "original" - verified truck that sat in front of a service station used for inspiration of Tow-Mater

The Marsh Arch Rainbow Bridge between Riverton and Baxster Springs. James Marsh was an engineer who patented the design for these bridges using reinforced concrete. At one time there were several of these bridges along Route 66 including 3 in Kansas. This one was built in 1923 and is the only one remaining on all of Route 66. A very elegant design that was relatively easy to fabricate.

Back into Galena after lunch we got to explore the miners museum and learn of the towns history. This was a huge mining area from late 1800's up through the 50's. Mining was for lead and zinc. During the operating years these mines produced 10% of the US's lead and 50% of the US's zinc. Huge environmental cleanup efforts still continue.

The "giant" miner - an original sculpture definitely not related to the other giants we've seen.

Galena Miners Museum housed in the depot that was relocated from the railyard down by the mines

We stopped at the 66 Soda Shop in town which no longer serves anyone and is actually used as some sort of community leadership school. They did let us in for a quick photo and then sent us across the street to The Ritz Theatre.

At The Ritz we met Ronnie and Judy who were cleaning up after showing a free movie with popcorn and bottled water to schoolchildren as part of their end of year outing. They have restored and operate this theatre as a labor of love. They started in 2003 and just finished a few years ago - doing all the work themselves. According to Judy, it's all Ronnie's fault - he just needs to stay busy and have a project to work on. The original theatre areas had been converted to shops over the years so most of the original features had been covered up and needed uncovering and either repaired or replaced. You need to understand, they are not a young couple so this was quite the undertaking. They show movies Fri night and twice on Sat and Sun. They even invested the $99,000 required to be able to show current digitized movies. All this in a town of 13,000 people!! They told interesting story after story and we thought we might never get away. One of the most interesting involved uncovering names carved into the wall up in the balcony. Come to find out they were from three young African American brothers who were required to sit in the balcony during the segregation years. One was still alive in a local nursing home until a few years ago.

That's Ronnie changing out the marque.

Not very elaborate but very functional. Big balcony.

Finally made it to Miami. We are into the Native American territory. This is the capital of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, The Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma, The Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma, the Peoria Tribe of Indiana and the Shawnee Tribe. It is also home to the Historic Coleman Theatre, a 1600 seat theatre and ballroom complex that opened in 1929. Built by George Coleman at a cost of $600,000 it is an amazingly ornate building we hope to tour in the morning. The interior is supposedly unbelievable. More to come on it if we're able to get in. For now, all we've got are pictures of the outside.