Editor’s Note: This is the fourth column in a series featuring the author’s travels along Route 66.

Up to this point, we have traveled through three of the eight states that make up Historic Route 66 – Illinois, Missouri and 11 short miles through the southeastern corner of Kansas. We’ve seen beautifully restored gas stations and motels, a mile-long bridge with a 22-degree bend and an octagonal library. We’ve traveled over cement that was poured in 1926, over a brick stretch of country road over a mile long and on a section of 66 that was as much dirt as it was pavement.

Our first bit of interesting trivia in Oklahoma was discovered in Commerce, the hometown of Mickey Mantle, before passing through North Miami, Miami, Narcissa and Afton. Our first stop in The Sooner State was in Vinita where we had lunch at Clanton’s Cafe. It is always our goal to patronize as many family owned businesses as possible, but a top priority on The Mother Road in order to get the best nostalgic Route 66 experience. Clanton’s was definitely a Mom and Pop business.

Clanton’s Cafe has been operated since 1927 by the Clanton family. Current owner Melissa Clanton Patrick’s great-grandfather, “Sweet Tater” Clanton, opened the business at a different location “when his farming business wasn’t panning out.” It was opened at the current location by her grandparents in 1947. They are now the oldest family-owned restaurant on the Oklahoma stretch of Route 66. Mrs. Patrick and her husband Dennis have owned the cafe for 19 years and she says “maybe some day my sons will take over, but not in the near future.”

Food Network’s Guy Fieri of “Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives” drove into Vinita, well around the corner, that is, in 2007. (Yes, the Camaro Fieri drives is trailered to the location. He doesn’t drive into town as the show depicts.) He highly recommended Clanton’s chicken fried steak, an entree we were to come to realize was on nearly every Mom and Pop American-style menu from this point west.

Outside of Vinita a large McDonald’s Restaurant straddles I-44 between Exits 289 and 283. It is said to be the largest in the world, but that claim has been made by others according to the Internet. The food establishment displays a bronze statue of Will Rogers, who promoted Route 66 in the late 20s and early 30s and who the highway was dedicated to after his death in a plane crash in 1935. It will remain in my memory as the place I got my first pressed quarter to add to our pressed penny collection.

We found the World’s Largest (Hmmm! Everything’s bigger in Oklahoma.) Totem Pole on Highway 28A, northeast of Foyil, Oklahoma. It took the late Ed Galloway over 11 years to complete the 90-foot structure, which is surrounded by a colorful collection of smaller concrete totems. An 11-sided “Fiddle House” that once housed nearly 400 hand-carved violins, is situated on the edge of the totem park.

Mega totem poles and fiddle houses aren’t Foyil’s only claim to fame. A statue honoring a Cherokee Indian named Andy Payne has been erected on the boulevard named in his honor in Foyil. Unbelievably, a 20-year-old Payne ran 3,422.3 miles, beginning in Los Angeles, California, on March 4, 1928, and ended in New York City on May 26 of the same year, winning the Trans-Continental Footrace. Much of the race took place along the “new” Route 66. The young man entered the race to win the $25,000 first prize to save his family’s farm and to marry his girlfriend.

Since my husband is a lover of bridges, he was compelled to check out the former (almost) Twin Bridges in Catoosa, Oklahoma. Only one remains, although closed to traffic, in its original location. Its mate, replaced by a new bridge, remains close-by with a section in a park on the east of the creek and two sections on the opposite side comprising the entrance to a restaurant.

Not far from the Twin Bridges is the famous Blue Whale. The structure was erected at a former swimming hole in the early 1970s, which became a swimming park, closing in 1988. It is now a popular tourist stop and fishing hole for the locals.

The day ended with a stop on the edge of the state fair grounds in Tulsa to view the 76 ft tall Golden Driller. The 43,500 lb man and oil derrick were erected 50 years ago in the former “Oil Capitol of the World.” He is the fourth tallest statue in the United States with his 48 ft circumference belt, his size 393 DDD shoes and size 112 hard hat. The derrick was relocated from an oil field in Seminole, OK.

Even though our EZ Route 66 Guide was well-written, the navigator read the directions aloud and we both watched closely for turns, we found a few instances where we either missed our turn or had to pull off to digest the instructions.Considering we were traveling on a route that was decommissioned years ago and now was made up of bits of this route and that route, we did remarkably well. Thankfully, we never drove far before we realized we missed a turn.

To be continued …