Up to date in Kansas City!





9207 Beverly, Overland Park, Ks

Well, up to date in Shawnee-Mission anyway!  Shawnee-Mission refers to the southwestern suburbs of Kansas City on the Kansas side of the border.  Our trip segment today brought us back to this area.  This first photo is of my parents home at 9207 Beverly, in Overland Park during my high school days in the mid-1960's.


Shawnee Mission West HS

 This is Shawnee-Mission West High School in Overland Park.  I found it much as I remembered it.  It has been about 30 years since I last saw it.

9106 Summit, Lenexa, Ks

I moved back to the Shawnee-Mission about ten years after graduating high school when I left Procter and Gamble for John Deere. We lived in  this duplex at 9106 Summit Drive in Lenexa from early 1976 until early 1977, and our middle daughter Jenny was born during that year.

Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk!

Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk! (???)  What's that all about?  Well as we left Tulsa we also for the time being left US Route 66 and headed north on US 169 from Oklahoma and up through eastern Kansas.  Now anyone familiar with Kansas has heard of the Kansas Jayhawks, the  official mascot of the athletic teams of the University of Kansas. "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk!" is a chant by the crowds at KU games.   Our previous homes in Kansas were our destination today.

Now I can find no evidence that a Jayhawk is a known species of hawk in Kansas, or anywhere else for that matter!  But it is a fact that eastern Kansas sports a large population of a species called "red tailed hawk". 

This blog should be read from bottom to top!

Click on any blog photo for a larger image!

These hawks are highly territorial.  As we drove up US 169 we could see one about each mile, perched in a tree or on a fence post along the two-lane highway.  The highway provides a perfect feeding habitat as any small animal that crosses the road is highly visible to the hawk. 









We tried several times to get a close up photo of one, but each time we stopped and opened a car door the nearby hawk would take off and soar.  These are the best shots that we could manage.

Tulsa Time!



7735 S. 88th E. Ave., Tulsa

 This house at 7735 SE 88th E Ave in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also along US Route 66, was the third home we owned, and is still today a favorite.  It was built by A. L. Stevens, a retired oil company accounting executive turned home builder.  He was meticulous in detail and hired mostly retired craftsmen who were just as meticulous in detail and finishing.  Mr. Stevens limited himself to building no more than two homes a year.  This home featured a stunning arched glazed-brick country kitchen and lots of built-in hardwood cabintry, including a beautiful desk and hutch in the kitchen, and his and hers built in armoires in the master bedroom.  We found the home very well maintained, for which we had great appreciation.

Ohh! Oklahoma!



Entering Oklahoma! Click any photo for larger image!

 By mid-day Monday we cleared the Texas panhandle on I-40 and crossed into Oklahoma, where we lived for about six years, leading up to the time when I left John Deere and joined Honda.

501 Mulberry, Weatherford, Ok

This home at 501 Mulberry Street in Weatherford, in west-central Oklahoma, was the second home we owned in our lives, and still one of our favorites.  Weatherford is yet another stop in our lives on the famous US Route 66.  This home was built during the oil boom of the early 1980's and featured beautiful finished wood throughout.  When I was transferred we sold it to the brother of our real estate agent, Bruce McGill.  As we visited Weatherford today we dropped into his office and found Bruce still active in his Real Estate and Insurance business, some 25 years after we left.  The home now has its third owner, and we were very pleased to find it well maintained and boasting some nice improvements. like the circular drive and brick mailbox column.

Another stop in Weatherford was at the local Braum's Dairy store.  Braums is a dairy store chain founded in the early 1980's and still thriving today across Oklahoma, N. Texas, and parts of Arkansas.  Braum's is perhaps best known nationally for the first successful gig by the now-famous actor/comedian/country bumpkin Earnest, and his never seen on camera side-kick Vern!

The family-famous all-fruit dairy salad!

Braum's Dairy Store - Weatherford, Oklahoma!

Here you see Beth with a commemorative treat made famous in our family by my mother, Jean Vassey Patton.  The story goes that when she was visiting us in Weatherford, Beth took her and our two (young at the time) daughters Sarah and Jenny to Braum's for lunch.  The young girls ordered first, and when Granny Jean showed up at the table with the all-fruit bannana split our daughter's eyes nearly popped out in envy!  Granny Jean explained it away as her "all fruit dairy salad". 



Beth had planned this commemoration without telling me until after I had already ordered my sandwich basket.  I guess that made the commeration whole!  By the way, she forced me to admit here that today she was not able to completely finish it!

Amarillo by Morning!



3405 Nebraska, Amarillo

 Monday, December 13.  We woke up on US Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas, where my family moved to in 1960 from my native state of North Carolina.  It was here in Amarillo where I attended most of junior high school, fittingly at David Crockett Jr. High.  The other Jr. High Schools in the area were Travis, and Bowie, all named for heros of the Alamo!  The first home pictured is at 3405 Nebraska, and is a home my parents rented while they built their first new home. 



3606 Torre Dr., Amarillo



The second home pictured is that new home they built about four blocks away at 3606 Torre Drive.  It was while we lived at this home that my youngest sister Carol was born.

The current homeowner came out of the home while I was taking photos and we engaged him in conversation.  He has owned the home for the past 12 years and has put an 1,800 square foot addition on the back of the home.  I was disappointed that the home is poorly landscaped.  It looked pretty stark from the front, especially since the native bermuda grass is dormant for the winter.

We also dropped by and photographed an Amarillo home my younger brother owned (not pictured here) in the mid-1980s, at the time our niece Lauren was born.  Then we headed for more points east!

Enchanting Drive!



Entering New Mexico!



Today, day three, started in Flagstaff, Arizona, and saw us drive across New Mexico and into the Texas panhandle to Amarillo, Texas.



My co-pilot takes the wheel!



I got some welcome assistance from Beth, my co-driver and wife of nearly 39 years.  New Mexico featured a wide variety of scenery and we should have chronicled that with more photos, but we also started listening to a long audio book to help us pass the time as we put down the miles. 

Click on photo for larger image!

Here is one example from the day.  Though the Painted Desert is in Arizona, New Mexico features it's own colorful scenery like this...

And New Mexico is where we crossed the Continental Divide.  Had we been in a wagon train this would have marked a significant milestone.

Entering Texas!

After hours of driving we crossed the border into Texas late in the day.  Texas is the first state since we left California where either of us had previously lived.



Beth took this one from moving car! Click photo for a larger image!



As we neared Amarillo, our destination for this evening, Beth caught this beautiful sunset with the camera.

We get our Kicks on Route 66!

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 Day Two was more relaxing as we ventured into wide open spaces. Had to pull out the Owners Manual for my Honda CRV and re-learn how to use the cruise control. Traffic was light and we were able to enjoy the California spendor as we headed east.

Entering Arizona!

By late morning we crossed into Arizona near Lake Havasu.

Click photo for larger image!

And enjoyed the many colorful and spectucular mesas that populate the scenery in that state!


Historic Route 66 in Williams, Arizona!

 The famous US Route 66 has long been a part of our history as well, and beginning at Barstow, most of the next 2,200 miles of our trip will be along historical Route 66, and places Beth and I have lived when young with our families, or later during our married lives. Such places include Amarillo, TX, where I lived when in junior high; Weatherford, OK; Tulsa, OK; Fort Leonard Wood, MO; Chanute AFB, IL; and the Chicago area.

Even Route 66 gas!

We made a deliberate side trip into the town of Williams, Arizona, where the town has taken special effort to define their Route 66 heritage!

Departure -> Pointes East

6 Earhart, Irvine.  Click photo for larger image!

Our future points East, and so we are on the way. We've had a second home in Maryland for a while now and have decided that’s where we should spend our time, close to our kids and grandkids. So we have completed the sale of our Irvine California home, packed up, and have started our journey East. We have lived many places between here and there and have planned this out so that we can visit them on the way, weather permitting. If completed as planned it will be a 3,500 mile trip, and we hope to arrive in time for Christmas. It is a trip we have dreamed about for several years. Now the time has come.

Our planned route.  Click map for larger image!

Our trip takes us from coast-to coast through 14 States, including California, Arizona, New Mexico, the Texas panhandle, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and then likely Ohio, a sliver of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and then Maryland.

It started much as can be expected for late on a Friday afternoon after seeing the loading of the moving van. It took us over two-and-a-half hours to travel from our sold home in Irvine to our dinner stop near the I-15/I-10 interchange at Ontario, California. We later drove as far as Barstow, California, and crashed, exhausted from two weeks of packing and the stress from dealing with a very peculiar home buyer. We hope tomorrow holds the promise of a more relaxing pace.