Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
The grandkids were flying back to California while my son Jon and his wife Alyssa were packing up to drive to Oklahoma to visit Carlene and dear old dad. They drove out here so they could experience Route 66, among other places of interest. We were nervously watching the weather reports about the snow on Interstate 40 being measured in feet instead of inches. They detoured in Arizona and got to see Roswell New Mexico. They also visited his favorite Dixxon shirt store and made it back to 40 in time to catch Cadillac Ranch. They made it to Sapulpa late Sunday evening and got some rest for a tour of as many cool places around Oklahoma as we could squeeze in.
On Monday we made it over to the Gathering Place in Tulsa. Carlene and I have been wanting to go there since we first moved here but it took us this long to finally make it. We were going to visit it with the grandkids but I didn’t google it to find it. I thought I had a good idea of where it is but we didn’t see it on the way to the Center of the Universe in downtown Tulsa. I looked it up on Google Maps and discovered it was on the opposite side of Riverside Drive from the river. I was looking for it on the wrong side of the road. Anyway, we made it there and had some fun taking tons of pictures. I’m sure there is way more to see than what we saw, we’ll go back to explore now that I know how to get there.
On Tuesday we went looking for a small museum that Alyssa wanted to see. It is the Twister Movie Museum in Wakita. We took the long way so I could take them by the Cha’ Tullis Gallery in Hominy. I introduced them to my new best friend (see last week’s story). We did some shopping and then headed for Pawhuska so they could do more souvenir shopping at the Pioneer Woman Mercantile. Then we drove, and drove, and drove until we got to nowhere; and that’s where we found Wakita, right in the middle of it. There was no busy downtown traffic there. There were no cars parked on the street except ours. I saw maybe 3 or 4 cars drive by and that was it. We had to call the museum docent to let us in and give us the tour. It is an awesome museum and well worth the drive to see it. Speaking of the drive, we knew it was going to be a long day and I must have been whining about not liking to drive in the dark. Jon Jr. stepped up and we took his car so he could do all the driving. I’m so thankful for that as there was plenty of nighttime driving involved. Wakita was almost to Kansas. It was a long day, but well worth it; fun fun fun…
On Wednesday, they drove to Oklahoma City to meet with an old friend of Alyssa’s. That was good timing as Carlene and I got an opportunity to rest and replenish so we could show them daytime downtown Sapulpa pre-chute. Thursday was the day Jon got to see his sister Jillian. We drove out to Depew to see her ranch and visit the goats, chickens, and the other critters that roam the Hubbel acreage. Hubby Tim was there to show them the cool ranch stuff, like driving the tractor. He let Jon drive it and then let Alyssa have a turn. I’m pretty sure that was a highlight for them. The Hubbels followed us back to Sapulpa and we had a nice chicken and dumpling dinner before we set out to watch the Christmas Chute light up. We took in as much as we could, then headed back as Jillian had to tend to her animals and Jon and Alyssa wanted to get back to pack up and get some sleep before they ventured back along Route 66 to California.
We all got up early on Friday morning so we could send them off with something in their bellies for the trip home. They were on the road again by 5am. They got to see one of our awesome Oklahoma sunrises as they headed to Texas. I know that’s the wrong direction to take to get to California, but they wanted to experience a “Buc-ee’s” before they went home. Three full days of driving to get back and they made it home safely. They both had Monday off to rest and recoup before getting back to the grind of working for a living.
I take a lot of pictures with my phone, but Alyssa puts me to shame. I have so many pictures to go with this story but I’ll leave it up to Micah to pick the ones he wants to go with my narrative. And Alyssa plans to make a storybook to go with her images. Her camera is high resolution so I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Carlene and I haven’t seen them since we drove to California to marry them up in 2022. I wrote a 5-part story about that excursion that ran in the Sapulpa Times from May 29th to June 26th 2022. As we get older, there is nothing more special than spending time with loved ones. These last few weeks were the best. A big thanks to Erica and Robert, and Jon and Alyssa for traveling all the way from California to visit us. LOVE all y’all…
