Joe Sonderman and Jim Ross have collaborated on "Route 66 in Oklahoma", a volume in the
Images of America series published by Arcadia Press. As a collector of Route 66 postcards and other vintage images, I find these books fascinating and important. This one was just published a couple of weeks ago and, as with others, consists of captioned images of old Route 66 sites as the road crossed Oklahoma in the past. Most are postcards from the authors' collections, but a few others have contributed images as well. I'm proud to say that I am one of the contributors to this comprehensive compilation. [Patting myself on the back here], as are other folks in our little circle of Mother Road collectors. But the real credit should go to Joe and Jim for all the fine, time-consuming research that went into the book. A signed copy can be ordered at stlrt66@aol.com for $24 postage paid. Worth every penny!
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Feeling restless again, and needing to take advantage of another warm, springlike January day (before the bad stuff comes, if it ever does), I decided to once again take a ride and do some exploring this afternoon. So I collected Ron M. and off we went. We were nowhere near Route 66, but there is a connection to the Mother Road in that we found ourselves quite far east of Tulsa at a lock on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, the same waterway that goes to the Port of Catoosa, near the Blue Whale. One traveling Route 66 there crosses a bridge over the waterway, and tours of the Port, which is the most landlocked deepwater port in the country, are available at their museum. We were far downstream from that, but we found a great little group of campsites (with hookups) on the waterway at Bluff Landing. There's a launch ramp there, too. This is quite a gem of a find, if you ask me. It made me want to drag out the tent and sleeping bag!
We ended up in the small town of Coweta, where we had a great time lunching at the Green Parrot Cafe in the center of the small downtown area. We ate good sandwiches while listening to one of the most talkative and pleasant waitress either of us has ever encountered, and we thoroughly enjoyed the diner atmosphere.
Finally, you can't take a ride in the country without encountering some very sweet livestock. These little donkeys filled that bill.
4 comments:
I've eaten at the Green Parrot and am sure I met your delightful waitress. It was a quiet time mid afternoon and there were people at just two other tables. The waitress carried on conversations with everyone of us. I learned that the father and son in the booth next to mine had just come from the DMV where the boy had passed his driving test and gotten his license. I learned that the man who left his table without eating much had just come from a chemo therapy and the waitress insisted his wife take another full dinner home and wouldn't let her pay for it. Someone--apparently a regular customer--called to say he'd had luck fishing and was still cleaning the fish and so wouldn't make it into the cafe before closing. The waitress offered to deliver his dinner on her way home. At the cash register as I paid for my lunch the waitress visited with me for five minutes or so, telling me about how she enjoyed living in Coweta and loved the Green Parrot where she'd been working for years. What had started as a stop for a quick lunch on my way to the Stone Bluff Cellar winery in Haskell turned out to be more than I expected. The food at the Green Parrot was good. Watching the waitress was fascinating.
Susan, that has to be the same waitress! She told us she's actually the owner, although she sold it for a year or two, then when she got her divorce 6 years ago she decided to buy it back. We also know every detail of her divorce, her ex, her two daughters, and the basics of what's going on in Coweta these days. There was much more, too. We left saying that she made our Green Parrot experience just about perfect.
That's her! And that's how I felt, too, as I left the cafe.
And she now lives on Fort Gibson Lake, has a pontoon boat, her ex-husband recently had an accident at his job at American Airlines and she is looking to sell the cafe.
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