Ultimate Road Trip - Day 3

We woke in Jefferson City Missouri to sunshine and a promise of warmer temperatures.

We had our free breakfast at the icky Motel 8 and hit the road. It was a little chilly but it soon warmed up.

We passed through the Land of the Ozarks an area that would be very busy in the summer as it has many lakes.

Missouri is very flat as we drive towards to Oklahoma state line. We saw signs stating the world's largest gift shop so we decided to stop. The gift shop wasn't opened until 10AM but the candy shop was open!

Since we had picked up some souvenirs in the candy store we decided not to wait until 10AM to visit the gift  store.

 We continued to head west to Oklahoma.

Finally we crossed into Oklahoma around 11AM. Oklahoma is the first state we've hit that has toll roads it cost us $8 to cross the state. However the speed limit is 75 miles per hour or 120 km.

We stopped in Claremore for lunch and then went for a stroll around town. This town is famous as the birthplace of Will Rogers the cowboy, actor, comedian, radio personality and speaker who never met a man he didn't like.

Statue of Will rogers reading the Claremore newspaper.




The historic Hotel Will Rogers was dedicated on February 7, 1930 and Louis Abraham, Walter Krumrei, and Morton Harrison financed the hotel. Their plan came together after Louis' father had come to Claremore to take mineral water baths and was cured of rheumatism. He fell in love with the place, but felt that Claremore had been held back as a health resort for the lack of suitable hotel facilities. The fireproof structure of concrete and steel unique for it's time and furnishings cost $321,000 to build.

During World War II, it was designated as a bomb shelter. It was Krumrie that chose the Spanish decor, partly because of its resemblance to Will Rogers' home in Santa Monica. The six story hotel contained 78 rooms and seven apartments.

Back in the car with Clinton or Elk City OK as our destination for the evening. Just on the outskirts of Oklahoma City was the Hard Rock Cafe Casino.

There are signs along the highway for the Cherokee shopping "experience" since we needed gas and water we stopped.

Found a Hampton Inn in Clinton that had a restaurant attached to it called Montana's Mike's which had ribs and steak for dinner.