Arcadia, Oklahoma.

After last week’s Travel Tuesday visit to a site honoring those lost in one of our nation’s tragedies, it’s time to take a ride on one of our nation’s good time highways. Route 66 winds from Chicago to L.A. (is there a song here somewhere?) Leaving the Oklahoma City Memorial, our hosts Jacques and Dorothy suggested a trip down a section of the Mother Road that still exists between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Next week we will visit a unique venue dedicated to that historic highway. On the way, we passed through a small town of some 269 residents. What attracted us to stop was a giant soda bottle sculpture, oh, and it was time for lunch.

The combination gas station, restaurant and soda pop emporium boasts a full day’s service of breakfast, lunch and dinner punctuated by your choice of over 700 flavors of soda and other cold drinks. My lunch consisted of typical roadside diner fare of a burger and french fries, but they do have other, less pedestrian sandwich and salad choices. Prices are quite reasonable and I can speak for the enjoyment of my own cheeseburger selection.

As you can see by the photo above, the building has a unique architecture fitting with it’s main attraction giant soda bottle featured in the opening shot. There aren’t a lot of seats in the diner and we got there around lunchtime, so we had a short wait. We were entertained by browsing the large selection of Route 66 memorabilia for sale as well as cartons of soda pop stacked high for our selection.

The photo above, yours truly in front of the giant soda bottle, is featured to give you a perspective of the height of the bottle My 5 ft. 6 in. frame wouldn’t rise up to five of the 38 rings that comprise the structure even if I were to stand up straight. Add to that the height of the soda straw. I was hoping to find the height of the sculpture on their website, but was disappointed that it isn’t listed there. All in all, Pops is an interesting stop on an interesting highway. Get there in time for a meal, savor the atmosphere, and don’t worry about all those bottles on the little glass shelves falling on you. They are all glued in place.

I don’t often leave YouTube video links in my posts, but with a focus on Route 66, I decided to feature one of my favorite clips. Crank up the audio and listen to Asleep at the Wheel’s version of the iconic ‘Get Your Kicks on Route 66’

John Steiner