Following Route 66 while driving across the Texas panhandle was nothing to write home about. No offense meant to any Texans out there, but whoa… there’s just nothing out there and it’s just how we saw it. Until we found the infamous Cadillac Ranch.
Following Route 66 while driving across the Texas panhandle was nothing to write home about. No offense meant to any Texans out there, but whoa… there’s just nothing out there and it’s just how we saw it. Until we found the infamous Cadillac Ranch.
Leaving Oklahoma City we easily picked up Route 66 and followed it for quite awhile. We happened upon, of all places, the Fort at El Reno which is on the Chisholm Trail and then we found ourselves in Clinton, Oklahoma. Both unexpected stops, but both were well-appreciated.
When we drove Route 66 in 2008 we had a basic game plan, but some of the most memorable times on our trip were the unplanned side trips and stops at places we didn’t realize would even fall into our path – such as finding the national memorial in Oklahoma City, or Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield, Illinois.
While visiting Rocky Ridge Farm – home of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband, Almanzo – we met two moms and their young daughters who were on their own special road trip; following the travels of the Ingalls family. When we told them we were following Route 66 and would be passing through a corner of Kansas, they eagerly encouraged us to take a side trip to Independence, KS to visit the Ingalls homestead. And that’s just what we did.
On our way to Galena, Kansas we said good-bye to Missouri and crossed the state border into Kansas, I jotted a note in my little traveling spiral notebook that read, “Phew… Kansas!”
I’m not exactly sure when I became obsessed fascinated with the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, but I’ve had a relationship (in my head) with her for as long as I can remember.