day 5 2009

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Amarillo, Texas
Leave at 8am arrive approximately 6pm

Today turned out to be a really great day considering everything.  Brian Revals was still in Joplin, MO with his motorcycle broke down.  On Monday morning Brian started having trouble in the rear end of his bike and ended up having it towed to Joplin.  He was very disappointed and upset and no one blamed him, any of us would have been up set.  When we left Joplin we had to leave Brian behind.  Bobby "Road Kill" Taylor stayed with him until he knew what was going to happen.  Long story short, parts were flown in, bike was repaired and this picture taken in Amarillo, Texas at 8:59pm today tells the story.  Brian is back and ready to ride. 

Now for the rest of us.  This morning one group of rider with Eric & Brenda Jones as leaders went down town Oklahoma City to the Murrah Federal Building Memorial and group 1 & group 2 headed west.  Our first stop was Clinton, OK at the Will Rogers Museum
         

Our next stop was in Shamrock, Texas for lunch.  We got to take some pictures at the Restored 1935 Tower Conoco Gas Station .

The Tower Conoco, a sort of Taj Mahal of Texas gas stations, was built in 1935 when times were hard. Situated at an important intersection of former Route 66 and Highway 83, it would’ve been the first ‘foreign’ station encountered by Oklahomans heading west on their famous exodus from the Dust Bowl.

The station has recently been restored and is now one of the more famous artifacts on old 66 (currently
 Interstate 40).
I barrowed these two pictures from Terry Jeanson.
Now back to my pictures at the tower in Shamrock with some of my riders.

After Shamrock we made our way to Groom, Texas and the leaning water tower of Texas.   Located in Groom, near the Big Cross, is the Leaning Water Tower which is the last surviving element of the Britten U.S.A. Truck Stop. It was brought to Groom by Ralph Britten to serve as a tourist attraction and a reason for people to stop at his truck stop and ask questions. For travelers today the truck stop is gone -- but the questions remain.

         
From the tower we went just a mile or so to the cross.    

I got to get to bed but here are pictures from the rest of the evening.  I will try later to tell you about them.