Would You Like to Buy This Movie Theatre?

At this point, we've traveled over 1,500 miles. Woo!

We started out the day in Joplin, Missouri, and went straight to Galena, Kansas, where we were happy to meet Mater from the Pixar movie Cars. The section of Route 66 that goes through Kansas is fairly small, so we really didn't see much of that state.

On our way through the state, we stumbled across the The Famous Blue Whale. (Wikipedia article on this phenomenon here.) The creature in question is a large, somewhat stupid-looking cement and plaster whale living in a rather fetid-looking pool in the middle of Oklahoma. The park was apparently quite a bit nicer in it's heyday...these days it's quite broken down and shabby. We did have fun climbing around on and in it, though...there's a ladder in the middle which goes up to a wooden "upstairs" section with windows looking out the sides.

Further on our trek through Oklahoma, we encountered what was probably the coolest and most time-consuming location on our trip...an abandoned drive-in movie theatre in the middle of a huge field. We ignored the white fences meant only to keep vehicles out and wandered inside. Of course, the most obvious feature of the place was the huge screen on which the stars of the day delivered their lines and flaunted their perfectly-coiffed visages from. There was also a small ticket booth, boarded up on three sides but open in the back, a projection booth / concession stand, and a small utility shed. The projection room was the most interesting. We expected to find nothing but cobwebs and decay, but to our great delight we found some of the original projection equipment still sitting in the room as it had been left. There were two or three projectors lying around the room, some in various states of disassembly. Lamps and vacuum tubes littered the floor, and all sorts of very old audio gear sat in some racks. (Funny side note - we did some checking, and the company that used to make the audio distribution systems - still exists. Now they make all sorts of cinema-related stuff, projectors, film platters, lamps, etc.) As we were headed back to the car, a blue pickup truck pulled up next to our Saturn VUE.

Guy (Thick southern drawl): Hi, there.
Us: Hello.
Guy: Whach y'all doin'?
Us: Taking pictures.
Guy: Aaah.

At this point, our companion chose to impress us with that highly attractive and most dignified of all manly ceremonies: he spit his tobacco juice onto the ground.

Charming.

Guy: Well, I was jest wonderin' if maybe you'd like to buy it.
Us: Not today.
Guy: Aight. Ya'll have a good day.
Us: You to.

The natives, I tell ya.

Our last interesting stop appeared as we were heading into Arcadia, Oklahoma. A large....soda bottle...appeared on the horizon, complete with a straw sticking out the top. Further investigation revealed a huge structure, built mostly out of glass and steel, and literally chock-full of bottles of pop. Thousands of bottles of pop stacked on glass shelving. There were also gas pumps in front of the building. An LED sign near the entrance pointed us to POPS66.com, where we learned that this, er, attraction is to be opened in August of 2007. So, pop-lovers, head to Oklahoma this August to be treated to all the pop you can buy, courtesy of the taxpayers of Arcadia.

Pixel is now asleep, and I shall do the same. Good night.

Exit, stage left.
Sparks